Callaway Gardens Race Report

Let me start off by saying that this entire weekend was crazy! Headed to Auburn Friday afternoon to mark off the tailgate spot and hit up the bookstores to get Lucas and me some new gameday garb. Then we headed over to Columbus where we all stayed with Keith & Mo for the weekend. Saturday morning I got to AU around 745 and got everything setup at the tailgate. Then tried to take it easy throughout the day. We watched the first half of the ball game (WDE!) and then headed back to Columbus so I could try and get a good night’s sleep before the race. Ending up not really happening. I didn’t get in bed until about 11:30 that night and head my alarm set for 4:30. I finished up the race and then headed to Atlanta Motor Speedway to watch the race Sunday night from the pit box (thanks Farley!). It was a very busy and tiring weekend. Everything was awesome…now onto the race report.

Pre-Race
Woke up around 430 and had a two waffles with PB & honey. After a quick shower, I got dressed and hit the road. Callaway Gardens was only about 30-45 mins up the road from Keith and Mo’s house. I went to where the info card said packet pick-up was. Turns out it was wrong. So after driving around for 10-15 minutes, I finally got to the registration tent. I stepped out of the car and whew! It was freakin cold out. The temp in the car said mid 50’s. I forgot what this was like. Need to be sure and have a long sleeve shirt for mornings like this. I headed over to transition which was a bit of a cluster. It is done by first come first served for spots. I got a spot on a rack as close to the bike out as I could so that I wouldn’t have to run far in my bike shoes. I got all set up and went back to the car to sit and warm up a little. Around 715 I headed down to the water to get a little warm-up swim in. Just got in a short 10 minute swim and headed over to the mandatory meeting on the beach. It was a little chilly out of the water. It was going to be even colder on the bike. The race was going to start in 5 waves 3 mins apart. The clydes were in the last wave with orange caps. We all hung in the water as other waves started. As the 4th group went we all made our way to the start buoy and waited. The director counted us down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…go

The Swim-1500m (Pretty sure that this swim course wasn’t 1500m seeing as though my swim time at the same distance at Chatty was 27:15. Probably closer to 1000m)
I started out a little fast. It took me the first 3-5 minutes to get my breathing under control and find a rhythm. Once I had my breathing down, I was able to focus on sighting and picking people off. This was probably the straightest that I have ever swam in open water. With each breath, I could see the orange swim caps falling back. Then I see some blue ones fall back followed by some grey ones. I felt really good in the water. After the last turn, I started to dig harder. I had to pull up a couple of times to find a way around people doing the back stroke and treading water. I got about 10yds from the shore and stood up and run my way to transition…(Swim Rank 12/23; Swim Time 16:17)

T1
Quick run to transition. I got to wave at MH and Jackson my nephew on the way up. Transition area was fairly large and unorganized. I got to my rack and got on my bike gear; took a swig of water; and headed out on the bike course… (I was pleased with my T1 time of 2:01)

The Bike-30k
I jumped on my bike and started hammering away. My bike cpu wasn’t working today so it was going to be different having to go on “feel” the entire ride. It was pretty cold with the wind hitting you. I figured the quickest way to warm up would be to start pushing hard. I passed a bunch of people before we got into the woods. The course was a double loop through Callaway Gardens. There weren’t any marshalls out on the course so it was up to each triathlete to police themselves. Seemed a bunch of folks didn’t know to stay right and pass on the left. You ended up just having to weave your way through the groups. The bike course was fun. The only bad part was that it wasn’t closed to traffic so cars would be creeping along and you’d have to pass them too. One guy got hit by a car closer to transition. I’m assuming he is OK. We never heard one way or the other. I finished up the first loop at just over 30mins. My goal was to negative slit this ride. I kicked it another gear and started the second loop. About 5 mins in I ate half of a clif bar and washed it down with some water. I kept on pedaling along and played leap frog with one dude for just about the entire second loop. About a quarter mile out, I slid my feet out of my shoes and spun to the dismount “area” and ran on into transition…(Bike Rank 8/23, Bike Time 59:20)

T2
The bike in area was at the opposite end from where my rack was. There were a couple of rock medians I had to cross so rather than roll my bike I just lifted it up and carried it as I ran to my spot. Once I found a spot for my bike, I dropped my helmet and reached for my socks and shoes. I got 1 sock and shoe on and reached for my other sock to find that it wasn’t there. I looked for a couple of secs and said screw it and slid on my shoe, grabbed my hat and headed out of transition to the run…(Happy with this time too T2 time 2:02 but it could have been better if I hadn’t looked for that sock)

The run-8k
Legs didn’t feel to bad off the bike. I started out slow. I walked for a little just to try and get my HR under control. Around mile 1 I was still feeling good. I hit the first water stop and took some Gatorade that was mixed waaaaaayyy too strong. All I wanted to do was make it to the next water stop to rinse my mouth out. The run was mostly flat. The first 2 miles went uphill, but it was down the rest of the way. A few folds passed me at first. Then on the way back down the hill, I told myself that I was going to run it all the way back in. I didn’t even stop at the water stops. I’d grab a cup of water and take in a little, splash my face with some and then toss the cup. I was determined to have a decent run. The last couple of miles seemed to take forever. I paced myself with another guy in front of me until we hit the final half mile. I started kicking a little harder. We break out of the woods and down a hill to the finish line. I push a little harder and cross the finish line. I check my watch and see my run time of 47:32 (Rank 14/23 Pace 9:31). I was pretty pumped about my run and the race overall.

Overall Results: Total Time 2:07:13 10/23 in Division and 200/440 overall.

Post Race: I hit up the post race food and went to meet up with the fam. It was a gorgeous day. Overall the race was pretty good. It wasn’t a Team Magic caliber race, but it was good. Now just one more race, a Half Iron AquaBike in Myrtle Beach, until IMFL (60days!!)

Eric’s Clip of the Week: This is video of one of Carl Edwards pit stops Sunday night. I was in the pits up in the pit box watching the race with the crew chief and Carl’s mom among other people. It’s totally the way to watch a race.