Ramon Scott

This was a fun event. I went into it with no tapering or recovery from training. The intention was it’d be a training event for the longer Ironman 70.3 I’m doing in September.

But I felt pretty good.

Starting off on the swim, the group I was with got a little off course and veered further left than we should have. After the first turn though I got back on track and drafted a guy in. This was the first time I swam with a singlet on, and I have to say it made me feel quicker. Not sure why.

T1 was fast with no glitches. Hit the bike and reeled in lots of folks over the course of the relatively flat 13 miles. Unfortunately only a couple were in my age group. Only a single person passed me. I stayed about four bike lengths back from him after his pass (at about 10 mile mark) and retook him at the last minute.

T2 was also super quick. I love the new Zoot shoes. Hit the run feeling very comfortable with my new shorter stride and faster turn over. A single person past me on the run course, and once again I overtook a lot of people – but only two in my age group.

I ended up 4th out of 36 in my age group.
Total: 1:08:57.
Swim: 9:58
T1: 55 seconds
Bike: 35:40 (22.9 mph avg.)
T2: 41seconds
Run 21:44 (7:01 avg)

First, Second and Third in my age group were all within 1 minute.
http://results.active.com/pages/displayNonGru.jsp?orgID=216352&rsID=82511

June 21, 2009
.25 SWIM| 9M BIKE | 2M  RUN

Results: Age Group Men’s 40-44 Third Place (out of 79 people).
Swim (30th place):   8:40
T1: 1:37
Bike:  (6th place)  22:02  averaged 24.5mph
T2:  1:28
Run: (3rd place) 14:16  7:08 average
Total:  48:01

Wow. I couldn’t believe the turnout for this year’s event. Organizers at packet pickup said they had about 1,200 registered. It’s good to see the event being embraced.

The weather has been hot this year with highs in the upper 90’s and lows in the mid 70’s. It didn’t take long after the 8 am start for things to start warming up. Fortunately, Callaway Gardens has an abundance of trees and shade on both the bike and a good portion of the run course.

The swim had 10 waves, I was in the second wave (silver caps) for men 35-44. The younger men went first. My father did the event this year also and was in the following wave (men 45 and up). I warmed up for 10 minutes prior to the swim and took and aggressive (for me) position as we lined up to start in chest deep water. When the gun went off, I started hard and my left foot immediately cramped up – weird. Couldn’t straighten the foot out which made for an awkward couple of minutes until the cramp eased. I guess I need more stretching. It was a mosh pit of swimmers for two-thirds of my swim. No ugly incidents, but it was rare I wasn’t pressing against someone’s side or maneuvering around feet.

I exited the swim amongst a large number of silver caps, crossed the beach and went up a short hill into the transition area at a pretty fast jog. The first transition went pretty smoothly. I went sockless figuring the distances were short and came through at 1:37 for T1 – that included the run from the beach and a good distance out to the bike start.

Out on the bike course things were congested with the tail end of the first wave. I was riding my Kestrel road bike (no aero bars) because the course features a lot of twists, turns and small climbs (fun). Lots of first time triathletes in attendance. I worked my way up to a guy on a Trek time trial bike who was cutting through traffic pretty well. I stayed about 5 bike lengths off his rear end for 2 miles or so until his pace dropped off. After that I was pushing hard and working my way through the crowds a bit more. After about 6 miles, things thinned some as I got past the slower folks from wave 1. Finished the bike with the 6th best time in my age group and a 24.5 mph average.

I came smoothly into the second transition by getting out of my shoes at the end of the bike and riding on top of them to the dismount. I discovered that this technique works well, but because my size 13 shoes are left clipped to the pedals, they bounce off the road unless I lift the front tire while running into the transition. I hit T2 pretty well with a 1:28 time. No socks again for the run. This resulted in my feet pushing the liner up toward the front of the shoe. I ignored it, but next time maybe I’ll try some talcum powder and loosening up the laces some.

I got out to the run with a quick stride.  The first part of the run circled Robin Lake where the swim was held. The legs felt good, and I ended up pushing the first mile faster than I probably should have. Don’t have an official time – but I’d guess around a 6:50 pace. The second mile was harder since I got a little anaerobic. Ended the run with a 7:08 per mile average, which was the 3rd best in my age group.

Full results are available at: http://results.active.com/pages/displayNonGru.jsp?pubID=3&rsID=80160

May 17, 2009
Distances: 5k run / 30k bike / 5k run

Hurray for my first age-group placing in a duathlon or triathlon! I got a second-place in the men’s 40-44. I missed first place by 28 seconds. My total time was 141:20. They had no chip timing, so the splits were kind of estimates based on my watch, but I had a fast (by my standards) first 5k of about 20:46 followed by a 20 mph+ bike ride and around a 23 minute second 5k.

I felt good on the first 5k although it was pretty muggy. The bike leg went well, but starting off the second 5k, my right hamstring felt pretty tight, and I felt that I couldn’t run full out without risking it totally locking up. I’m attributing that too limited early season bike training.

Been hitting the bike harder for the last month .

Official results are online at: http://results.active.com/pages/displayNonGru.jsp?pubID=3&rsID=78478

I’m tardy posting this, but didn’t want to lose track of it. Did the 2009 Midtown Classic 5k (Columbus, GA.) the weekend after the Celebrity Classic 10k. Felt relatively fresh and went out pretty much on pace for the first mile (6:50). Second mile went okay also. Third miles has a decent hill back up toward the finish. Took it pretty easy and had gas in the tank at the top. Ended up an age group 2nd place at 21:42.81.

http://www.columbusroadrunners.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=185&Itemid=35

Did my first event of the season yesterday – the Celebrity Classic  10k in Columbus, Ga. Things went pretty well but didn’t quite meet my expectations. Did 44:19, which is a 7:07 average.  Felt good for the first 3 miles but didn’t quite have the wind to sustain my pace. Good for an age group 3^rd place. Probably good have gone harder for last mile, but kept things reasonable with eye toward a 5k next weekend.

Also, didn’t do well last year recording event results so I want to take a couple of minutes to capture them here:

2009 Race Results

·         Auburn Half Marathon, Auburn, Al. 1:45:08. Horrible weather. Raining and 38 degrees. Brrrr.

·         Seaside Half Marathon, Seaside, Fl. 1:39:29. Average of 7:35. Great conditions on this.

·         RiverRoad Elementary 5k, Columbus, Ga. 21:09. Overall Masters winner. This was a way hilly run being held for the first time. Pretty low attendance.

·         Celebrity Classic 10k, Columbus, Ga. 44:00. Age group 2^nd place. Felt pretty good.

·         Midtown Classic 5k, Columbus, Ga. 22:06. Age group 2^nd place. This was the weekend after the Celebrity Classic , and I didn’t do too good a job of recovering.

·         Marine Corps Marathon, Washington, DC. 3:47:42. This was my second marathon. Knocked about 17 minutes off last years time. That was an 8:41 pace. Was below 8:30 pace for the first 20+ miles.

·         Callaway Gardens Triathlon, Pine Mountain, Ga. 2:00:38. Did this with no bike or swim training – just treated as fun event with marathon coming up.
Swim:  17:37
Transition 1: 1:59
Bike: 1:00:08
Bike Average: 18.6
Transition 2: 1:37
Run: 39:19
Run Average 7:52