In my last post, I had discussed the probability of dropping from the international distance to the sprint distance at the Luray Triathlon this past weekend.  Of course, a few good friends of ours let us know they were having their housewarming on Saturday afternoon, which left us trying to decide if doing the sprint on Sunday would allow us to have any fun on Saturday night.  In the end, we chose to stick with it and ended up doing the international distance, though it kicked both of our rear ends!

The Luray International Triathlon was held at Lake Arrowhead State Park in Luray, Virginia.  Lake Arrowhead is a quaint lake with a sandy beach area for visitors, and is probably one of the hardest, hilliest triathlons in Virginia.  The swim distance was 1500 meters, the bike was 25 miles, and the run was 6.2 miles.  When Nathan and I arrived on Saturday morning, we picked up our packets, unpacked our transition areas, and headed to the body marking station.  On the way, we ended up running in to his parents, who had come to watch and surprise us!  I felt a lot more relaxed before the swim, but I knew it was going to be a long day from there on out.

The swim was pretty nice, though the lake floor was disgustingly squishy mud.  I felt like I was “noodling” with my toes while waiting for the start!  Nathan’s wave was first, and mine followed.  I held back from the group to avoid the craziness of the pro swimmers, and kept a fairly steady pace, though I was passed a lot during the 40 minutes I was in the water.  One of the swimmers from a wave behind me passed, and as he did his swim stroke grabbed my head and dunked me under the water for a second.  I came up sputtering and coughing, and he didn’t even miss a stroke.  I guess I got some good recovery practice!  My swim time ended up being 43:46, which seemed like an OK time for me, but actually put me in 581st out of 599, which was surprising.  So unfortunately it was not good.  More practice before the next one!  Nathan’s time was 30:22, which put him in 177th place out of 599.  He’s amazing!

Out of the water and on to the transition to bike.  I felt like my head was spinning from the swim, but managed my way up the steps to the transition area.  The group was really large, so finding my bike was a little challenging with my head spinning, but I managed to stumble to the right place and snap on my helmet, shoes, and sunglasses in 2:52 (fast!).  Nathan and I had discussed a very specific race eating plan, so I ate a honey stinger on my way out and jumped on my GT for the 25 mile course.  We had also discussed the length of the course, which was 10 miles longer than my last sprint course.  Since it is so long, the point is not to use up all your energy stores as you would in a sprint race.  Everyone was moving slower to start the bike, which helped my mind get in the game.  Unfortunately I was passed quite a bit by the nicer bikes, but I think I held my own.  The course was HARD.  It was two loops of a hugely hilly course, with several hills taking 10-15 minutes to climb.  I was very unprepared physically, but also VERY glad Nathan and I had ridden half the course the week before, so I knew what to expect.  I ended up having a bike time of 1:37:55, which put me in 469th out of 599.  Better!  Nathan’s bike time was 1:32:36, so he beat me by 5 minutes this time.  Colonial Beach, our last race, I beat him by a few minutes, so the bike has become our competitive sport.  Oh well, I’ll get him next time!

Off the bike and on to the run after a 1:30 transition (207th out of 599), and ended up running in to Nathan on his second run loop.  He ran with me for about a minute, told me to take it easy, gave me a high five, and finished his run course in 51:06.  I on the other hand, thought I was physically ending, and literally had very minimal left to give to the run.  My first loop was painful, but the second loop made me want to remove my meat sacks of legs.  I started having knee pain in the end, but eventually hobbled my way over the finish!  My run time was 1:10:19.  Yuck.  Run place was 548th out of 599.

So, my total time ended up 3 hours, 36 minutes, and 21 seconds.  Painful. I ended 528th out of 599.

Nathan’s time was 2 hours, 57 minutes, and 21 seconds, ending him in 253rd place.  He beat me by 39 minutes.

Overall, I’m really glad we stuck with the international distance.  I was a little disappointed in my results, but considering the major set back I had a few weeks prior (my bike accident) and the fact I have not been training enough, I think I did fairly decent for a first international.  I’m going to take a few days off, buckle down, and get back in the game for another international in September.  Acorn, here I come!