Triathlon is a Team Sport/Kinetic Half Race Review

Anyone that tries to tell you that Triathlon is not a Team sport is wrong!!! If you don't believe me, read on and I will tell you why as I recount my race experience at the Kinetic Half Iron at Lake Anna in VA. The day started at 3:30 am as I awoke to leave by 4am to drive the 1.5 hours from Southside Richmond up to Lake Anna in Spotsylvania County. As I pulled into the race site, the sun was coming up and revealing that the Lake had a nice chop on it compliments of the wind. That same wind would make portions of the bike course very challenging later in the morning. After picking up my race packet and timing chip, and making an obligatory trip to the restroom before the lines got too long, I headed over to transition to set up. While in transition I was able to wish many of my teammates from Endorphin Fitness good luck and then I headed back to the beach to catch up with my good friend and teammate Eric (Dr.) Glymph prior to the start of the swim. Eric started in the wave ahead of me which spread us out by 4 minutes. After cheering for Dr. Glymph as he headed into the water, I waited for the horn to sound for my wave to enter the water. When it did, I quickly found that the chop on the water on the way out to the first buoy was going to make it challenging to swim a fast freestyle so I quickly switched to breast stroke (which is a more comfortable stroke for me anyway). After rounding the first buoy, I was able to through in a few bursts of freestyle and after rounding the second buoy and heading back to the beach, I had a slight benefit from the chop moving with me. I came out of the water in a surprisingly fast time for me (32:54) although I question the length of the swim. I had a decent T1 and headed out on the bike. It was around mile 25 that I caught up to Dr. Glymph and shared my usual words of encouragement (C'mon Doc, let's roll). While the Doc experienced some more difficulties than me on the bike, I managed to create a bit of a gap on him. As I came into T2, I was feeling pretty good having averaged 20mph on a very challenging 56 mile bike course with lots of rolling hills and wind. Heading out on the run, I still felt pretty good and managed to run 7:13 for the 1st mile and right at 7 minutes for mile 2. After that, it started to fall apart for me and I was reduced to 8 and then 8:30 pace. Many participants were stopping to walk on the difficult run course that was far from flat and I too was reduced to walking for short periods by the time I came around for the third lap. As I was coming up to one of the last aid stations with a little over 2 miles left, I heard a friendly voice from behind. It was Dr. Glymph. We stopped for some water and then he said "C'mon, let's finish this together." And that is exactly what we did. We stopped to walk one or two more times, but we summoned the strength to help each other cross the finish line together. There were no egos and no expectations - just two teammates willing each other across the finish line. Looking over and seeing Eric as we crossed the finish line together was more satisfying than any personal victory that I have ever had in triathlon, because we did it together and this is what teamwork and being part of a team is all about. This experience will certainly rank as one of my top memories from the 2010 triathlon season. I look forward to racing again with Dr. Glymph and the rest of the Endorphin Fitness Team. We had about a dozen teammates competing today and everyone was encouraging each other out on the course and some of our teammates that were not racing came out to cheer us on (and make some delicious food for after the race!!!). Up until this year, I have never had a triathlon coach and I have never been a part of a triathlon team. My experience today has given me a whole new perspective on triathlon. I feel fortunate to be a part of such a GREAT team and have teammates and friends like Dr. Glymph.

As an aside, Dr. Glymph and I both set PRs for the 70.3 distance today, but that won't be what we remember most about our race today!