The Bytheville Run With The Dog Whisperer and Rev 3 Registration

If you by chance read my wife's blog, you realize we just returned from our summer vacation in Hilton Head, after the Vermilion race.

So after the race we took off for South Carolina and I had decided that we were going to drive to Rock Hill, SC for Day One. On the way, I declared I was taking the day off the following morning, considering the race that day and the drive. Well, the drive was going well and I was a little wired, so we hit Rock Hill and decided to push a little further, making it to Blythville, SC - just short of Columbia, SC - which left us about 3 hours of driving the next day.

As we were pulling into the hotel, I told Anna that I was wired and that I was running in the morning before we left...it is an illness.

Alarm goes off at 6:00 and I throw on some running clothes and take off into Blytheville. Generally, I love going for runs in new towns for the obvious reasons that there is new stuff to look at and the general thought that there is some adventure in getting lost in a new town.

About a mile into the run, two dogs come running out of what I thought was their yard into the street and start barking. Now the one dog doing all the barking was a small mixed breed that reminded me of the little dog from the Tom & Jerry Cartoon and just behind him was the enforcer a much larger dog. They gave chase to the property line and then backed off. A little rise in my blood pressure.

I thought nothing of it and kept running through some nicer neighborhoods for another 5 miles and headed back to the street where all the hotels were located and decided to run the access road that was behind the hotel and gas stations between all the businesses.

As I am headed back towards our hotel I hear a bark from the gas station and think a dog in a car must see me and is barking. So I keep running, iPod going the whole time, and realize the barking is not going away. I now look behind me and that same T&J dog is now chasing me with four other dogs through the parking lots. Blood pressure spikes quite a bit.

At this point, other than terror, I was remembering a story I had read about a women in Georgia who was mauled by stray dogs who held up in a foreclosed home and when she ran past the house the dogs came out and attacked her, biting her to death.

Suffice it to say, this horse picked up his pace, but the little dog starting chasing harder and so did the rest of the pack. Now I am getting a little more than worried, so I pick up the pace a little more. So does the T&J dog and it is clear this is going to end badly, if something doesn't change quickly. I mean, I'll take my chances with one small dog, but 5 dogs I have no chance.

So the picture is now: me - at pretty much a dead sprint - through this hillbilly town with 5 dogs coming down on me and I luckily see a guy pulling into a bank for work and I decide I am going to sprint for him as he gets out of his car. I can only imagine what he was thinking when he stepped out his car and saw me sprinting at him through a parking lot with 5 dogs in tow.

I got to within about 15 feet of the guy and looked back one last time as if to say to the dogs "look there is two of us now." T&J dog pulled up and just kept barking with his gang.

I now graciously thank the man and sneak around the bank and haul ass for my hotel, where I walk in and regale Anna with my morning run. I proclaim that I will be calling the Bytheville City Hall, which has yet to happen.

On the training side on things, I am officially registered for the REV 3 Full and had a great last week of heavy training. It culminated this weekend with a 3 mile swim on Friday, 20 mile run on Saturday, 102 mile bike on Sunday followed by a short run. It is time to TAPER.

Editor's Note: Wow, wasn't aware that Scott knew the meaning of the word TAPER.

Vermilion Olympic Tri Recap

I flew solo for this race. No training partner, no family, just me and my bike. Due to the new start time (7:00a.m) I was up way too early.

My alarm went off at 4:05 (like I said, way too early). I am usually really excited about this race, but this year I had hard time focusing the Saturday before and even considered bailing on the race, since the girls and I were leaving for Hilton Head the same day.

I digress. I had luckily gotten everything in order the night before, so the morning was smooth and I started to eat a little breakfast before I got in the car for the race. Banana baby food, as always.

I was out of the house by 4:45 to the beginnings of lightening and a strong “breeze” over the lake. I decided to keep my bike off the rack and just packed it in the back of the car. A good thing, since it dumped rain on my way out to the race – along with thunder and lightning my entire ride out to Vermilion. There was part of me that was thinking that I was not going to have to worry about racing because there was not going to be a race.

I got to transition a little after 5:30, which is way early for me and only a handful of people had arrived. I got my favorite spot on the bike rack, on the end, next to the aisle. I got my transition set up and had no line for the port-a-pots, which I later noticed were atrocious.

The only thing about being there that early is that it gives you a lot of time to stew, so I decided to walk to the swim course and get a good stretch, while I also watched the lightning and the lake conditions – a little ugly with 3-4 foot waves crashing on shore and a solid swell further out. My first thought was the swim was going to be an adventure, if they let us take it on.

Then the announcements started flying. The race was going to be delayed for a ½ hour for weather. All tri athletes were free to transfer races to the du because of water conditions.

The internal debate began about what I should do, because I came with mindset of doing a tri, not a du. I was not up for the extra running in the du anyways. However, the little voice in me tries to guess their intent of the announcement...are they saying it’s too dangerous to swim…am I a strong enough swimmer, all the negative thought. So I said F it and threw my wetsuit on to give the water a try and then make my decision.

Once in the lake, it was definitely rough, but I ultimately conclude it is manageable, especially with a wetsuit. Then comes the announcement that it will be a half mile swim for everybody, including the Oly tri, and there is no decision.

Moving on… my wave goes off at its newly scheduled time without issue and the swim went well. Especially since the advertised ½ mile swim was much more like a ¼ mile swim.

When I got out of the water I was totally focused and ready to ride. The ride is why I love this race. The Oly bike course is a great test with some good climbing. It really makes me push myself. The first 12 miles are brutal as there are at least 3 big climbs, where they have crushed your speed to nothing at the bottom. I had great pace going out and was just eating up the distance.

I love climbing in races, because it can be such a confidence boost when you get out of the saddle and start crushing it up hill, especially if you can start picking people off.

About 9 miles out I got in a group with two other cyclists and we ended pushing each other through the entire course, which made the second half of the course fly by. Also, the legal and illegal drafting that may or may not have occurred did not hurt the speed of the group.

I also noticed neither of the guys were in my age group, which either meant I was getting blown away or I had gotten ahead of the group.

I came in from the bike and I had a good transition of under a minute and I was off and running with one my cycling compadres. This worked great, because we both pushed each other at first with 7:00 minute miles and going into third miles we had dropped under 7:00. At 3.2 miles I decided I was going to pass my running partner and I got ahead of him for about quarter mile.
That must have sparked him, because I heard his footsteps and he caught back up me just after 4 miles and pulled ahead. He also picked it up one more gear and I dropped behind by about 25 feet (which really pissed me off) but I was able keep it there for the last two miles. I was starting to get a blister on the top of my foot, because I had gone barefoot again and thrown on my shoes too quickly.

Regardless, I finished the race in 2:04:10, which I was happy with. At the time, I did not know where that would place me, although I had not seen many guys in my age group around me.

I did not hang out for the results because, as I said, the girls and I had a car trip to start. So I said goodbye to a family friend who was volunteering in transition and I took off. As always, the volunteers in Vermilion were great and Linwood, as a race site, is also great.

In the end, 2:04:10 was good enough for 1st in my age group and 11th overall for the Olympic Race.

Editor’s Note: I can’t believe we missed a blue ribbon race!

Editor’s Note 2: There have been a couple trips to Spin in the last few weeks for tune ups and tweeks. During this time, I have noticed Scott “talking” with his bikes. Welcoming them home from overnight stays. Worried? Me? Nah.

Editor’s Note 3: One additional note on our stay here in Hilton Head…the bike is in the hallway, not the bedroom. It’s a little lonely.

Giant Eagle Multi-Sports Festival Olympic Triathlon Redux

Last Sunday was the Giant Eagle Multi-Sports Festival Olympic Triathlon.

To start, there was the 4:00 am wake up call. As I looked at facebook that morning, I was reminded that there were people just getting home from the night before.

This race was different because it was a point-to-point Olympic race, which meant I needed to have 3 transition bags packed for the race. I had a swim bag with my wetsuit, goggles, and pre-race essentials. I had a T1 bike bag with my helmet, sunglasses, and shoes. And a T2 running bag with running shoes and nutrition.

Much to Anna’s dismay, she was made official team car driver. This meant she was up at 4:45 so she could take me and PK to the start of the race and drop off our T2 bags.

(Editor’s Note: This ungodly hour would have come easier if I hadn’t had to keep telling the junior Team MoZo members to go to sleep instead of giggling about their camp out on the floor with Aunt K. Thank you again for the great hospitality and the babysitting.)

Otherwise, it was a normal race morning: banana baby food, cliff bar, banana, and sports drink. I was a little sore, so I started stretching from the minute I woke up until the swim.

Since the race was point-to-point, we had racked bikes the night before at T1 in Alum Creek. We got to transition around 5:45, which was great because we beat the shuttle buses bringing the rest of the athletes from the hotels and gave us about 20 minutes in transition with very few people and an empty port-a-pot line. The turnout for this first race was good at little less than 1000 people.

Due to the hot summer, the debate started early in the week whether the race would be wetsuit legal or not. On Saturday, the Race for the Cure female tri that day had been wetsuit legal at 77 degrees, but as we were racking our bikes that night, the water was 84 degrees. Arriving Sunday morning, the first announcement was that the water was 84.9 degrees and not wetsuit legal.

My wetsuit has become a security blanket of sorts because it adds buoyancy and speed, so I was curious how mentally I was going to handle the swim.

Another interesting pre-race announcement was that the Olympic swim had been switched to a 2-lap half mile loop due to recent deaths in the lake. WTF? Too much information. Just simply “we changed the course” would have sufficed.

I actually got a practice swim in for this race and it tuned out to be a good chance to stretch. The water was like bath water and a wetsuit would have been a complete hindrance, so mentally I was fine for the moment.

Also, the water was really shallow. At the inside line of buoys there was no point at which a person could not stand. Even at the furthest out buoys it was only about 8 feet, so it was a very comfortable swim for people who focus on the depth of the water.

The pros went off first at this race, and both men and women just flew in the water. The first male swimmer finished his mile in about 18 minutes and was so smooth. My age group wave was the 5th in the water and slightly smaller than normal with less than 40 athletes.

The swim started out a little rough, as I got off course and started swimming to middle because I had spotted the wrong buoy. Once back on course, things smoothed out and the swim went well. I was out of the water at about 26 minutes, which put me 4th out of the water for my age group.

T1 was uneventful except for a little trouble I had clicking into my pedals on my bike. Also, I did not get my goggles in their designated bag, and they now have been donated to HFP racing.

The bike was fast. It was 25 miles that appeared to have a slight roll to it, but most of the ride was downhill to downtown Columbus. I averaged over 24 mph for 25 miles and finished the bike in about 1:03. Fifteen miles of the race were straight down High Street, and were handled exceptionally well by HFP and local law enforcement.




(Editor’s note: Except early on at T2 when the professionals were coming in and couldn’t see the turn because there was one person just standing there doing nothing. The spectators were yelling at the bikers to turn, until finally somebody came up with a flag – that was waved unenthusiastically – and eventually some more cones. A couple people missed the turn and had to back track. I can tell you I would be pissed with $30,000 on the line.
Also, someone wiped out turning from High onto Nationwide and an ambulance flew past us. I kept telling myself that it was way too early to be Scott, but was nonetheless relieved to hear it was a pink helmet. Guy did end up carrying his bike the rest of the course into transition and looked like he just had major road rash on his shoulder, but sucks to be him.)

On the entertaining side, I rode near a guy dressed as Aquaman for his kids, which was funny and had to be hot with race temps in the high 80’s. I was further helped out on the ride by my cheering section of Morgan and Zoe, Mom and Dad, Sister and Brother-in-law, and PK’s family.

T2 was great practice for the Full Rev as our run stuff was hanging on hooks by numbers in a tent, which you had to find and then change. I was able to handle T2 in under a minute, probably helped by the fact that I forgot my race belt

The run was hot, but I felt good. I wore my racing flats and went sock free for the second time. I started to get blisters at about 4.5 miles, but overall the sockless run went well. I was able to average 7:00/miles or a little under for the 10k run. Once again the family was a big help as I got to the finishing chute and finished off with a strong last mile. I came out of the run with two major blisters on my arches, but they have subsided already.




My final time was 2:14 and change which was good for 5th in my age group. I was al little annoyed with myself as there was only 45 seconds between 3rd and 5th and I felt I could have made that up on the course and wish I would have pushed harder.



Overall, HFP did a great job with the race and I would recommend it next year.

Plus, there is something for everyone with a 5k, sprint tri, super sprint for women, duathlon, and aquabike.

No racing this week. I need to have a big training week.

(Editor’s Note: For those that may or may not have caught my facebook post while we waited for Scott’s gear to make its way from Alum Creek…There was a female athlete waiting in the same area - obviously a professional – and a spectator was asking her a lot of questions about her EXTREMELY expensive looking bike. He wondered why she didn’t have a speedometer/odometer and how did she know if she was going fast enough. “If someone is in front of me…I’m not going fast enough.” A pretty ballsy quote. Until we looked at the race photos and she’s the one breaking the tape at the finish line. She can be as ballsy as she wants.)