This past weekend, Elizabeth and I competed in the Black Bear Triathlon in Beltzville, PA.\u00a0 We essentially spent the weekend at her folks’ place in Allentown, but the decision to do so was hedged around this race.\u00a0 In all, it was a spectacular weekend and so much happened.\u00a0 In the interest of brevity, I’ll bullet-point the highlights:<\/p>\n
– We got to drive a $140k Porsche to the race site on Saturday to do the whole registration thing.\u00a0 We then drove the bike course and though it was hilly, I had no idea how much harder it would be to do the course on the bike!\u00a0 It wound up being one of the hardest bike courses I’ve ever done for a sprint.<\/p>\n
– We got to visit Elizabeth’s horse, Bailey, and her new 4 week old colt, Fritz.\u00a0 Bailey had a colt last year whom they named Fuzz, so when I learned of the new colt, I thought Fritz would be a fun name, e.g. Fuzz and Fritz.\u00a0 My powers of persuasion apparently had some effect since the name stuck.\u00a0 It was too muddy for us to actually go into the fenced-in area and that was unfortunate since Bailey and Fritz were a few hundred yards away from us.\u00a0 Elizabeth decided to walk along the fence a bit to get away from the other horses, then leaned over the fence and broke a carrot in half.\u00a0 The sound of that immediately got Bailey’s attention to which and she turned towards her and galloped over.\u00a0 Fritz was incredibly cute and goofy as he galloped alongside.\u00a0 Elizabeth fed the carrot treats to Bailey and it seemed evident that there is a gentleness and loving quality to this mare.\u00a0 Fritz isn’t yet interested in carrots, so he just watched and fidgeted.\u00a0 The beauty of love was all around… of Mare to colt, of Mare to Elizabeth, of Elizabeth to Mare, etc.<\/p>\n
– Also at the stable was a 4 day old foal.\u00a0 She had spindly legs and was rather unsteady in managing her balance.\u00a0 She often nursed from her mother and was rarely more than 4 or 5 feet away.\u00a0 She and Elizabeth shared a special moment together as she sniffed and explored this new human being, and was easily frightened by the shutter of my camera and the cough of Elizabeth’s father, but the cuteness and brilliance of her existence were undeniable.<\/p>\n
– Race morning, Sunday, was interesting.\u00a0 I was relaxed as usual, but Elizabeth was not.\u00a0 An upset stomach, not enough sleep, and race morning nerves were all to blame.\u00a0 I felt bad for her and helpless too.\u00a0 She worked through it all though and had a pretty good day.\u00a0 We all go through this from time to time as there are simply days when the anxiety is inexplicably elevated.<\/p>\n
– The swim was in a beautiful clear lake with 68 degree temps.\u00a0 It felt and tasted great.\u00a0 The race started 15 minutes late to accommodate those folks stuck in traffic getting to the park.\u00a0 My wave was the second one.\u00a0 I felt great in my effort and held a decent pace along a well-managed line between buoys.\u00a0 I know I could have gone faster in retrospect given how good I felt exiting the water, so the trick will be to actually do so in the next race.<\/p>\n
– My first transition was super quick.\u00a0 I immediately had the wetsuit off my upper body, and once at my bike (which was on a rack that featured a Spongebob Squarepants balloon making it easy to find), got the lower part off fast.\u00a0 I got the helmet on, grabbed the bike off the rack, and sprinted for the transition exit.\u00a0 When I crossed the timing mat, the total time was 55 seconds.\u00a0 I later learned I was the fifth fastest out of everybody in T1!\u00a0 Nice!<\/p>\n
– Athletes had to run up a grassy hill to the road where the “mount” line was marked.\u00a0 I didn’t love this part, but thankfully, I ran in bare feet versus most other folks who had already put on their bike shoes which made running a little tougher.<\/p>\n
– As I mentioned, the bike course was very difficult.\u00a0 On the first climb, I derailed but it was my fault for not getting into the right gear sooner.\u00a0 I quickly regrouped, and set out to pass those folks who passed me while I made the fix.\u00a0 Overall, I did my best to temper the effort level so that I didn’t have to put out a maximum effort.\u00a0 The only exceptions were on downhills (I hit a max speed of 45.6 mph) and the steepest hills.\u00a0 Overall, I’m disappointed with my final bike time but admittedly, I didn’t feel properly prepared for course in terms of knowing when and where I’d encounter the next tough climb.<\/p>\n
– My second transition was absolutely perfect.\u00a0 I prepared for the “flying dismount” at the right time, and braked to the right speed so that I’d hit the ground running at a good pace.\u00a0 I heard the cheer from Elizabeth’s dad but could only manage a muted “hey” as I streaked by.\u00a0 I later learned that I was 9th fastest in T2.\u00a0 Hey, there’s a theme here:\u00a0 skip the swim, bike, and run, and I’m a damn fast triathlete!<\/p>\n
– I got into the run leg quickly but immediately felt like I had jelly legs.\u00a0 They simply would not perform the way I had predicted given the progress I’ve made this season.\u00a0 I wound up finishing at around an 8 minute per mile pace, but that’s far slower than what I had wished it to be.<\/p>\n
– Most of the run\u00a0was cross-country on rocks and dirt, but the final quarter mile was on pavement in a parking lot.\u00a0 As I made the turn into this final section, another guy passed me.\u00a0 From the markings on his calf, I couldn’t tell if he was 30 or if the zero was actually a 6.\u00a0 If the latter, he’d be in my age group so I would have to prevent this pass from being successful.\u00a0 Ultimately, the competitive juices kicked in and I decided that I’d pass him either way.\u00a0 I was offset to the left and behind him by about 5 feet and when I increased my pace, he seemed to do the same.\u00a0 We were about 100 feet from the finish line when I put on the patented Gregg Gordon sprint.\u00a0 It worked perfectly and I beat him by 2 seconds.\u00a0 Afterwards, in the spirit of camaraderie and good sportsmanship (Lebron could learn something), he patted me on the back and said good job.\u00a0 It made the experience feel great… that I could count on the sprint and still enjoy a healthy exchange with a fellow competitor.<\/p>\n
– In the end, I finished in the top 16% or so.\u00a0 Elizabeth finished in the top 25%.\u00a0 We were both generally pleased but both discussed what we’ll need to do to be better next time.\u00a0 Ultimately, that’s what were supposed to do:\u00a0 figure out what went well and keep it going, and figure out what didn’t go well and correct it.<\/p>\n
So, that’s triathlon number 62 in my “career” with number 63 on June 13th, the Health Net Triathlon.\u00a0 A couple of company officers are competing, in relay teams, so it’ll be nice to see them and schmooze outside of the office.\u00a0 Hopefully I’ll be able to put forth a good effort and finish high in the overall results; I figure it can only help my reputation in the company, but I wonder if it’ll enhance job security.\u00a0 Hmmm…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This past weekend, Elizabeth and I competed in the Black Bear Triathlon in Beltzville, PA.\u00a0 We essentially spent the weekend at her folks’ place in Allentown, but the decision to do so was hedged around this race.\u00a0 In all, it was a spectacular weekend and so much happened.\u00a0 In the interest of brevity, I’ll bullet-point […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions\/121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}