1st Annual Lincolnton Biathlon Recap 5.21.2011
The 1st Annual Lincolnton Biathlon started at 8 AM and I was hoping that I was ready after a long hard week of work and training.
To level set the situation, the event was described as a 5k race with a 20 mile bike ride over rolling hills with scenic views. My translation was hilly roads with lots of climbs. After driving the bike course before the race, maybe I need to work on my translations.
Clearly there were some hills, but nothing really bad. This was the perfect course for my TT if only I had brought it. But let's not jump too far ahead of myself just yet.
I got there early enough that I got to meet Cameron. He's the race director and appears to be an all around nice guy. We were able to chat for a few minutes before he had to head off to attend to his duties and myself to setup my bike in the transition area.
Smaller races typically don't assign transition spots so I had my choice of places. I selected a spot closest to the exit point for the bike transition.
With my bike in place, trainers on my feet, a warm up run was next in my prerace routine.
The 5k course was decent. If I had to compare it to another course that I have run, it would be the one from Rock Hill. There was some curb hoping and a loop around the middle school track, followed by a loop on the local roads with a section on a dirt road. Really there was only one hill on the course which started just before 2 miles and ended just before 3 miles.
Cameron pulled everyone together just before the start to explain the rules and the same guy that started the Denver 5k race was starting us. How you might ask did I know; well, because he used a special phrase that I remember well. It was something along the lines of "taking off faster than a 4 year old at Wal-mart". As you might image this is one of those memorable phrases that I have heard used to start a race.
So we were off and the first thing that I noticed there is another guy in a TrySports Jersey. Up this point, I cannot ever remember seeing another TrySports Jersey in a multi sport event – at least a local one. I guess I am just racing in all of the wrong places.
There was a big group headed out in front of me. Slowly, I started to work my way through the runners over the 1st half mile.
Just before the mile, I had it down to two guys.
I didn't realize until after the race that they were 14 and 17. The last guy hung tough. We were trading the lead back and forth several times before I got away heading up the hill – not by much.
Roughly 17:20 was my time for the 5k. 51 seconds were spent somewhere in the transition area.
Then I was out for my bike ride.
Going into the race I set two goals for myself. Run a time under 18 minutes for the 5k and bike under an hour for the 20 miles. With the first goal accomplish, I started working hard on the second one.
I was riding hard but I wasn't any match for the guys with TT bikes. They just cruised through the course.
I was first into the transition area but would lose 5 spots over the bike course.
I would finish in 1:14:21 and 6 overall. By the way, I used two Garmin during race. One I had my wrist and the other was clipped to my bike. One Garmin had me riding 19.9 mph for the 20 miles while the other had me at 20.0 mph. Time wise, I was under my goal of hour for the ride so even thou, I got passed a lot, I still felt mission accomplished.
My overall assessment was that Cameron did a really good job with the race. The courses were well marked and volunteers helped at the corners.
If someone is looking for a multi sport event, you should give the guys in Lincolnton a chance.
In case you are interested, I recorded some in-race video. The 5k video was pretty good, but I cut off video from the bike portion. Watching me looking from my Garmin to the empty road ahead and back to my Garmin didn't really add anything. Also after you have watched the video a couple of times, the vertigo issue does seem to go away or maybe my eyes are just adjusting to it.
Thoughts from the Cool Down Runner
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