Heart O' Dixie Triathlon 2015

The 2015 Heart O' Dixie Triathlon has come and gone and once more I was near the bottom of my age group. Several things were different about my training this year. I swam less but biked a little more and ran a lot more. The results reflected that.

We left Greenwood, Penny and I, about mid-afternoon Friday. The sun was bright, the humidity oppressive, and the temperature outrageously hot, but on the north and eastern horizon dark clouds were building in a threatening fashion. Not long after driving out of delta and into the hills, the storm hit with a uncommon fury. The rain came down gently, then hard, and the intensity continued to build. Traffic slowed until by necessity we were all creeping along at just a few miles per hour. Somebody stopped dead in the highway and we all had to follow suit. I saw a little side road and decided to ease off the four lane. The rain was coming sideways and it looked like clouds blowing across the road. As I was pulling off, the truck moved, was blown a few feet sideways across the pavement. "You need to pray right now," I told my wife. She did and we sat there and watched the wind for maybe two or three minutes until it slacked up some and we were able to resume our journey.

When we got to Louisville it was still dry but looking more and more like rain. We stopped at Lake Tiak-O'Khata and picked up my packet then resumed our journey to Noxapater where we had reservations with Aunt Mary and Uncle Paul. Mary Darby is the sole survivor of my paternal grandmother's nine children and is always happy to see us and us her. She cooked fried chicken and butter beans and squash and fried corn bread. I ate too much and resented it the next day. What else is new?

That storm that hit us Friday afternoon came through in the night and cooled things off. The water in the lake was far from cool but it felt better than usual. Despite having swum 19 miles in June, I was not in top form on race morning because I just have not swum much of late. I did swim well, however, and knocked off a 12:37 which was actually a few seconds faster than last year's 12:52 and good enough for top spot in my age group. My T1 was even a few seconds faster as I decided to forgo wearing a shirt for the bike leg.

On the bicycle, the temp was comfortable and I quickly found a rhythm and felt confident on two wheels. Nevertheless, I was passed over and over just like a year ago. Once, some guy passed who had the biggest snot bubble on the end of his nose that I have ever seen in my life. It was flapping in the wind, hitting his cheek and upper lip. I was shocked, amazed, and sickened. After he passed, I alternated between gagging and laughing out loud. Later I saw a large woman crash and all her gels and bottles scattered across the highway. Since there was a firetruck, several firemen and some other race volunteers on site (there is warn people about the pavement), I didn't stop. I finished the 27.5-miles bike leg in 1:34:10 compared to 1:40:50 in 2014. A little more riding this year, a little faster time in the race.

The cool temps we had on the bike quickly left us as the sky cleared and the heat built just in time for the run. It always does, and that is one of the memories that has enabled much of my training in the heat this year. Every day I went out to suffer in the 105 and over heat indexes, I reminded myself that I would have to run in similar conditions at the HOD.

As usual, the run was a little less than I hoped for. I did it in 1:13:18 as compared to 1:16:40 of a year ago. I fell off pace after that hill at mile four, like I always do, and I even fell off more on the dirt horse track at the finish on the Neshoba County Fairgrounds. The heat had gotten dangerous by then. I dropped my overall time from 3:17:08 to 3:05:15. That was a nice improvement, but still short of the sub-three hour time I was shooting for. 

Maybe next year.

When we got home, I was flipping through an old notebook and found where I had written out a strategy for achieving my time goal at the 2015 tri. Here is what I wrote down a year ago:

1. Ride the bicycle every week of the year.

2. Squat every week of the year.

3. Sign up as early as possible.

4. Work on my weight every week of the year.

5. Do transition work on the trainer and treadmill.

6. Get some new biking shoes.

7. Get running shoes I can wear without socks.

8. Build long bricks.

9. Commit to stretching.

The only one of those I did was number seven, buy new biking shoes. So to achieve a sub-three hour HOD in 2016, I am writing down one step.

10. Do the above.

This year's Heart O' Dixie Triathlon is another illustration of a biblical truth: You reap what you sow. Sow sparingly, reap sparingly. I hope to sow a little more for next year's race when I will be in a new age group. Maybe then I can climb off the bottom.