I’m driving down from Michigan for this one. Anyone else in? What can I expect for temps and difficulty? I picked this race for the hills as a prep race for IM USA. Any advice is appreciated.
Hilly course, slow biking, low key race…and I mean low…the field is traditionally not very strong. Very nice people.
This is the race report I sent to my tri team earlier today: Well…I got what I asked for. I went south (I drove from Michigan) looking for hills and found mountains. The prettiest race site I’ve ever seen for sure. Tucked into No-wheres-ville western North Carolina (685 miles from home!), Lake Chatuge is an unspoiled post card scene. A dam lake surrounded by the Smokie Mountains. I knew this was serious when it took me almost 2 hours of swerving mountain driving (in a 21’ camper no less) to get to the race site (Clay county Park). When I got there fri about noon, a couple of guys were putting up the flags around the finish area. I quizzed them about the race and they said there are about 89 participants TOTAL! Less than half the size of Laporte! But what later found out is that real small races are very friendly. You get to know nearly everyone it was very fun. I struck up a friendship with a 40 year old mechanical engineer from Carrolton Ga. We hung out that night and went to dinner in Hayesville, NC. Could be Mayberry if I didn’t now any better. I didn’t have a chance to preview the bike course first as I didn’t feel like winding my way thru the mountain passes in the camper again. I did quiz a few guys about their past experiences and I knew I was in for some challenging climbs. I did ride the run course however but more on that later. The race: Since I was camping 30 feet from the start/finish, the music at 5:30 am woke me up. Feeling good but nervous I got my things together. Set up my transition area and awaited the start. The lake is a beautiful body of water. Clean and clear. Really amazing. It was 76 degrees which is just under the limit. I did have overheating fears that later proved groundless. Anyway, the swim went out, past an island and to the actual dam that holds the lake up. Swim under a cat walk from the dam itself and around a cement structure holding up the walk. Back around the island and toward the beach. I had hope for a 32-33 min swim but found with so few competitors that drafting was impossible. I swam the whole thing on my own. On the beach in 34:02. Uneventful T1 and got on my bike. BIke:I really didn’t know what to expect which, as I found out later, is a real disadvantage. As I’m getting my bearings in the first mile I shift into the big ring. The front derailleur coughs up my chain. Crap…this never happened before. A minute goes by as I’m getting greasy and 4-5 guys whizz by. Damn…I get back on and continue. I’m tentative the first 10 miles. It’s not too difficult…about what you’d find here in terms of climbs and descents. The sh#t hits the fan at mile 10. We’re routed off the main road on to a chip-sealed side road that goes up-up-up. For 1.5 miles its slow going but not impossible. We round a turn and I’m looking at the road going straight up. The steepest thing I’ve ever seen on a bike. I’m out of the saddle pumping for dear life. Desperate just to keep forward progress (just to keep from falling over) I glance down and see 4 mph on my computer. I kept expecting Phil Liggit to pop out and comment on the “suffering on this beyond classification climb!” Finally I get to the top but I am dizzy as heck and legs are rubber. Darn near fell over as I’m trying to recover. I get going once again and await the next climb at mile 25. Nothing too awful until then but it’s all up and down. Impossible to get into a rythym. Funny thing was that I’m absolutely certain my bike time is toast. I couldnt imagine a avg speed more than 16 under the circumstances. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually 18.8. There was hope. But I still had to get thru the mile 25 climb. And it turned out to be no big deal. Just long. Over 2 miles. But the backside of the climb was fun. It dropped so quickly that I was hanging on for dear life at over 42 mph! Wow! Finally we popped out on a main road (i.e. mostly flat) and I decided to drop the hammer. Much to my surprise I had a lot of gas left and I had pretty much dropped everyone I had been riding with at that point so I wanted to see who I could catch. Other than a few inclines I was never less than 23 mph the final 25 miles home. It felt very very good, and even though it was partly sunny and 80 degrees, I was very happy with the effort. I picked off guys right and left but strangly, no one in my age group (more on that later). I got into T2 just fine and headed out for the run. Final bike time 2:43:45. Avg speed 20.1 I honestly felt fine for about 4 miles. Averaging about 7:50/mile. It was a double out and back which is not what the map said. I had ridden the wrong course the day before! Mostly slight ups and downs except for the damn dam. We actually ran across the actual dam, take a sharp turn an run down the back side of this thing at about mile 3 (and again at mile 9), run a couple of miles, turn around and run back up this thing. And it’s stupid steep. I baby stepped it up the first loop but it hurt me. I finished the first loop ok but I knew I was getting in trouble. The wheels started falling off at mile 8 or so. I was hot and worn out. I was forced to walk the aid stations just to get water to keep cool. 8 minute/miles turned into 9. I was really out of gas at mile 12. The last mile is probably the most miserable running mile I have ever had. Worse than any marathon. Very depressing because I had been repassed by a few people and given back most of everything I’d gained on the bike. I had 685 miles home to work on my excuses…so here they are: 1) My achilles kept me from running the last month 2) it’s May and I don’t have my running endurance up yet 3) I wasn’t used to the heat and humidity coming from the north 4) the hilly bike took more out of me than expected Anyway, the run time was a very disappointng and embarrassing 1:57 (8:52/mile avg). It was tough but I’m not that bad. I guess I’ve got serious work to do before IMUSA. Final time 5:18:20. 19th/89 overall Now here is the irony of the whole day. This is so embarrassing that I can hardly type the words: the reason why I never caught anyone in my age group on the bike ( and I knew I was near the front so it was really mystifying) is because THERE WAS NO ONE! I l was second in my AG out of the water (20th best overall split of the day), led the AG off the bike (11th best) and apparently, due to some fluke, held them off on the run too (22nd best split) . Technically I won my AG! Now I know this is not real life. For some reason the male 35-39 AG stayed home this weekend. Last year there were 20+ ( I would have finished 7th). This year only 10 or so. So I think a combination of no real competition and others suffering in the heat made it possible. However. there were over 25 Male 40-44, so this race draws the older crowd apparently. I really felt that a sub 5:10 was doable but it was not be on sat. I did learn some things. The best thing is that my bike is really coming along. It was competative with the top guys there. Last year this would have been, at best, a 2 hour 50 min ride. So I’ve made some tangible gains. The run needs work and I knew that going in. But now I know what I have to do. So in the meantime, I’ll take my tainted Ag award and hang it on the wall. No one (besides you) will ever know!