Press Release 06.27.2006

Mountaineer Tri-Athalon

June 25., 2006, Morgantown, WV

by Billy Hart
(of Cycling team Mazza Winery / Inferno Racing)

I got up Sunday at 5:00 am to start getting ready and eat some breakfast.  I believe my body was in shock from getting up so early. Had a quick cup of coffee ate some cheerios and checked out of the hotel.

Arrived at the staging area to get things organized about an hour and a half before the 7:30 start. I didn’t really know what I was doing or where to place things, so I just tried to watch what everyone else was doing. I would like to mention that I decided to do this race three weeks ago. I had NO swimming base, probably been in the water 7-8 times in that period and the longest I swam without stopping was 150 meters. Thank god for the wetsuit. I felt that my bike and run base was solid enough to get me through it.

About 7:20 I head over to the staging area where the swim starts (my transition area was chaotic getting organized). On my way over I can see the buoys in the water, that’s when it started sinking in that I was about to swim 1.2 miles. I got nervous and worried, little did I know it was about to get worse. The starting race temp was about 71 degrees with cloud cover and a light mist in the air and I think the water temp was 72 degrees. So I walk down to the water and begin to zip up, I grab the zipper and begin pulling it up my back and that’s when it happened. The zipper came right off as I zipped it up. I’m standing there with this OH MY GOD this didn’t just happen look on my face and holding the long cord with the damn zipper attached to it. I FREAKED OUT! Some guys saw it happen and were in shock to, they tried to help but couldn’t get it back on. I didn’t know what to do, should I even try this swim now??

Time was running out, I decided to go for it. This left the back of my wetsuit wide open and only added to my worries about the swim. My age group is called out to the water and I slowly swim out to the buoy. The siren sounds and we’re off, well everyone else is moving except me, I swim 50 meters and stop, then again, and again. I was freaking out in the water, couldn’t catch my breath and my HR was up. So I decided to swim on my back(LOL that had to be funny to watch). Long story short I swam on my back 75% of the race and made it out of the water in 1:06, yes that’s right, 1:06! I was dead last in the ½ IM out of the water (LOL). I wasn’t surprised, nor did I care.

T1, all the bikes are gone when I get to the parking garage. I take my time grab some figs and get my shoes on and I’m off, 5 minutes later. I knew I would make up major time on the bike, and I did. Two miles into the bike it started raining, first a light rain, then it became a steady drenching rain after about 20 miles. The course had some hills and one HUGE climb. I love hills so I was passing peeps like they were standing still. I probably went to hard on the bike but I couldn’t help it, that’s what I do…ride hard. I did the bike in 2:53 averaged 19.4 with 2,400 ft of climbing. The wet roads definitely slowed people down. I saw a few bikes on the ground but none were hurt, at least that’s what they said. I also saw a lot of people pushing their bikes on some hills, that’s how hilly the course was.

One thing I began to notice on the bike was a side stitch coming a brewing. I could attribute that to two things. One, I was drinking lots on the bike (cause I thought I needed to) and two, I swallowed TONS of water on the swim. I tried to stop drinking with about 10-15 miles to go on the bike but knew it was to late. I new I was going to fell that on the run.

T2, again I take my time, put on my running shoes, eat a few figs and I’m out in 4 minutes this time. I had high expectations for the run going into the race, didn’t really know what to expect as far as pace but I thinking 8-8:30 miles would be reasonable since my normal pace is about 7:00-7:30. Within the first ¼ mile the side stitch got me and I had to stop, not a good sign. I tried to shake it but it just would go away. After about 6 miles it seemed to have gone away. But others parts started hurting, so maybe it just shifted the focus. The run turned out to be the worst, I struggled, and I mean struggled. I trotted along and would stop and walk, then repeat it again and again. I don’t think I ran a single mile without stopping at least once. Every muscle in my body was now hurting it seemed. I was so tired when I got to the finish line I wasn’t even excited to be there, I just wanted some warm clothes, food and out of the rain. I finished the run leg in 2:22, a 10:54 pace!

So here’s the skinny. I learned a lot yesterday about triathlons and have a new found respect for you full Ironman peeps and for anyone that doesn’t use a wetsuit, hats off to you all. I will do another ½ in a few months and plan to knock some serious time off my overall time of 6:33. I was last out of the water by about 10 minutes (most people were out of the water in 40 minutes) and still managed to finish 168 out of 210. Not bad considering this was my first tri EVER. It definitely wont be my last. Thanks for reading.

I should also mention that there were some pros there, Chris Leigh won the overall. His times are just unreal. Swim 29:47, bike 2:17 avg 24.4, WOW, run 1:22 pace 6:16, overall time 4:11:08!