Race Shirt Heaven

Last post I spun the yarn concerning my trip to Shitsburgh, PA for the half marathon a few weeks ago. I ran out of space before I got to say that the shirt from the event was top shelf, nice moisture wicking material, good sizing, and not gaudy to look at. The only problem is that it's black, which isn't optimal for summer workouts, but oh well. And actually, I somehow managed to get two (2) shirts out of the deal, compared to everybody elses 1 shirt. When we went to the marathon expo to pick up our packets I was handed a bag that had the official race shirt as well as a yellow Nike Dri-Fit shirt as well. When I saw it was an XL (I ordered a L upon registering), I asked my friends what size there yellow shirt was. The only problem was...I was the only person that got one. Apparently there was a mix up and I was given a bag with a shirt that someone had used to put a shirt they had purchased in. At no point in time did I remotely consider taking the free $40 shirt back, this represents reason #10,471 why I'm going to hell. We'll consider the yellow shirt to be shirt #3 of the racing season.

Another thing about Shitsburgh was the bag check on race day. FedEx was one of the sponsors of the race so they had a few package delivery trucks there where you could check a bag while you ran the race. When my friend and I got there we took the bag there assuming it would be there when the race was over, this was not the case. At the end of the race (sweaty, cold, hungary, etc.) we went to get our stuff only to find out they had moved the trucks to a location that was completely impossible to get to. To make a long story short, by the time we managed to get to the trucks and actually get our bag about an hour had passed. They're lucky I didn't catch a cold, a lawsuit would have been in order. But, this did give me a great idea for future races to score tons of free stuff. Buy a few shitty delivery trucks that remotely resemble FedEx delivery trucks, paint them white and make some big FedEx stickers for the sides. Next, drive to a race and set up a
'bag check' and put people's bags in your trucks. After the start of the race, drive off with everyones shit. Boom, the perfect crime. Nobody will know what happened for well over and hour, and by then I'll be long gone. How you like that Danny Ocean?

Fast forward to last Saturday and race shirt #4 from the Springboro YMCA sprint triathlon. We got up ass early to drive over to Dayton so we could be there by 7am to prepare for the 8am start. The swim was inside the Y's pool and was guaranteed to be massive chaos, people going in every 3 seconds, swimming a lap, going under a lane seperator, repeat til at the end of pool. It was like a massive fucking mosh pit, not to mention we had to stand outside half naked in the windy cold for 20 minutes. The swim was mainly ruined by people who needed to stroke their own egos by starting near the end of the line and pass slower swimmers like me, instead of starting near the front where they belong. What a bunch of jerks, I don't even want to talk about it, their lack of sportsmanship bothers me so much. There's no need to ruin my swim just to make yourself feel better dick head, I can't wait to pass your ass on the bike or run. I did the swim in 7:45 which was good for 180th place out of 232 people, yowza! That sucked! Oh well, time to regroup and hit the bike, which was to be my big comeback. I went out like gangbusters and rode hard, passing a lot of people. The odd thing about a triathlon of this format is you don't really know who you're racing because you didn't start at the same time as everyone else. So, if you're even on the course with someone, the person who started after the other in the swim is actually ahead according to the clock. I was making hay bigtime on the bike, did that part in 33:27 which was good for 52nd place during the bike portion, now we're talking.

Time for the 5k run, this should be my time. I popped an energy gel during transition #2 in preperation for the short run, I had never actually run a 5k so figured it would be pretty easy. But, it was also the first time I had biked super hard then attempted to run immediately afterwards so my legs were a bit tired, combined with the fact that I had just busted ass 7 days prior in the half marathon and this could have been some of the hardest 3.1 miles I've ever done! Did the first mile in 8:10, mile 2 had a massive, and I mean MASSIVE downhill, with an immediate turnaround and return trip up Mount Springboro. Did mile 2 in 7:40ish, my watch took a crap which sucked. R.I.P. Ironman watch, ironically it never lived to see me do an Ironman event. I'm not sure what mile 3 was but I was moving pretty good, total run time 24:09, good for 54th place of all runners. Overall time (including the 2 transition areas) 1:08:26, 66th place overall. Eventhough the swim was chaotic and it psyched me out, the event was still fun and I think I did really well for my first tri. I definately look forward to doing another one in the near future. The next planned one is an olympic distance event at Antrim Park in July, which is a 1.5k swim, 40k bike, and 10k run. And, not only was the event fun, but the shirt was high quality as well. I'm not sure, but I'm going to check the message boards to see if I can get an Ironman tattoo or sticker for my car since I've done a tri. If anyone knows the rules about this, let me know.