Wood River Tri 2012

This was my 12th year competing in the Wood River Triathlon, my first time was in 2000, it was my first year of competing in triathlons, I took a year off in 2010 because I was training for Ironman Louisville and was not in shape for a short fast race.  Now that is kind of a funny statement, because this year I have been training for Ironman Wisconsin, which means, once again, I’m in long, slow shape, not short, fast shape, I really had no business competing in this race.  Oh well too late now.  Over the years, my times ranged between 1:30 (my first year) and 1:14 in 2007, this year I finished in a mediocre time of 1:21:39.  Not my worst, but not a time I am really happy with either. At least I still pulled out an age group award. I’m not complaining, it could have been worse and I really thought it would be, because my runs all year have been awful and I have been plagued with injuries in the last year, it’s like a dark cloud is following me around. I’m ready to break out of the cloud and get back to some fast times. 

So this is how the race went for me. After I entered the race I had second, third and forth thoughts about doing it, I even thought about selling my entry, but then my daughter Jade and her boyfriend Zach, said they were going to do it as a team, so now there was no way I could get out of competing.  I could not let Jade do it without me. 

 

Race day came and we started with the club photo, looking at this picture you would think everyone in the club was there, but they weren’t in fact more people competed from the club than were in this photo, they just got there late and missed the photo opportunity. 

Metro Tri Club (aka: Team Godzilla)

(Photo Courtesy Jeff Schleicher)

After the photo I milled around a little snapping a few photos with my adventure cam. I got a photo of some of the past and present club board members, just hanging out waiting for the start. 

MTC Past and Present Board Members

Russ even grabbed my camera and took a photo of me hanging out, if you notice I’m smiling even though I was pretty sure this was going to be a really ugly race for me. 

Robin Hanging Out

(Photo Courtesy Russ Darbon)

It’s not like I haven’t been training, I have been training like crazy, most days doing two a day workouts, but again, it’s all long slower stuff and not fast stuff.  I guess I can’t say it is never fast, on Tuesday and Thursday mornings I run with Jenny, Russ, Jim, Carl and Chris and sometime Caleb and Shanna come too.  They are all faster than me, so I’m always chasing, which is good as long as they don’t kill me, sooner or later I should start getting faster. 

Jim

(Photo Courtesy Jeff Schleicher)

Jenny

(Photo Courtesy Jeff Schleicher)

Russ

(Photo Courtesy Jeff Schleicher)

Chris

(Photo Courtesy Jeff Schleicher)

Carl

(Photo Courtesy Jeff Schleicher)

I was number 22, so my start time was 7:05:15, so just before 7:00 I jumped in the dive tank to warm up.  As I was there Terry came over to do the same, of course I had to challenge him, since he is my biggest nemesis.  Before he could get his goggles on, I yelled “race you to the other side” and took off, he jumped in sans the goggles and came after me.  I had to beat him now because I knew he was going to kick my butt once we were on the course.  Hey, so I had to cheat a little, remember I don’t swim, I slowly drag my sinking carcass across the pool by sheer determination, not by any skill. After my big win against Terry I talked some trash then headed to the starting line.  

I was soon on my way to what I thought for just a few minutes had been the fastest swim of my entire life. 

Robin trying to look like a swimmer

(Photo Courtesy Jeff Schleicher)

I took off, and I felt like I was going at my normal pace, I got passed by two guys, that wasn’t too bad for me though, I got to the end of the pool and ran out looking at my watch for my split time and low and behold I saw 7:19. 

   

Almost a fast swim

(Photo Courtesy Jeff Schleicher)

That was the faster time I have ever gone in my entire life, I could hardly believe it.  I ran to my bike where Patrick was hanging out, giving me some Patrick style encouragement to help me tie my shoes faster.  I grabbed my bike and hit the road, looking at my watch again. Now everything came in focus.  My watch had bounced over to real time from stop watch mode in the pool and my time wasn’t 7:19, it was more like 11:15, which is normal for me.  It was like someone had just let the air out of my tires. I went from ecstatic to “oh I should have known that was wrong”.  Well at least I had a couple of minutes of fitness bliss thinking my training was really kicking in. Back to reality and back on the road.  I rode my six laps on perfect roads, averaging just under 6 minutes per lap.

Robin speedy fast

(Photo Courtesy Jeff Schleicher)

Robin Suffering

(Photo Courtesy Jeff Schleicher)

Everyone on the course was great, cheering me on every lap, giving me a little confidence boost. Even my teammates that I rode past or they rode past me, cheered me on.  What a great event where you know so many people who want you to do well and the volunteers were great too, my favorite was Lydia at the second water stop, she always encouraged me even though I wanted to kick her grandpa’s (Terry) butt. 

Terry my Nemesis

(Photo Courtesy Jeff Schleicher)

I finished the bike and headed out on the run, this was the leg I was most worried about.  My running has been awful all year and I just can’t seem to get any faster, I’m not sure if it has been the heat or something else, but it has been ugly.  I ran the first lap averaging 8 flat miles.  I wasn’t sure I could hold up, but the weather was cool so I thought, “just hang as long as you can”.  I started passing a lot of people on the second lap and that helped me push a little harder, I ended the second lap with exactly the same split time as the first. 

Robin finishing 

(Photo Courtesy Jeff Schleicher)

I ran through the finish line and saw Jade and Zach just showing up for the race. Even after all my notes saying don’t forget your race packets, they did, so Jade had to call and have her dad bring them.  They were starting to get a little nervous, this was not Jade’s first race, but it was Zach’s so they were asking a million questions.  They even had a cheering section show up to watch them. 

Zach's Cheering Section

Now, my race was over and theirs was about to start, Zach who has never swam a lap in his life was going to swim and also bike, Jade was going to run.  I hung out with Jade cheering Zach on getting ready for her run leg to start.

Jade and Mom

Zach took off on the swim leg and was passing a ton of people, but then again when you are 6’8” and the water is only up to your waist, you can move pretty quickly.  He had a nice little system, he would dive do a couple strokes and push off the bottom again. I was really surprised at how fast he made it through the swim, I’m sure it was faster than my swim leg was. 

Zach kind of swimming

He was out on the bike in no time and oh my gosh, he rode way faster than I thought he could, he was averaging just over 6 minute laps.

Zach

I told Jade I would run with her, she was ok with that, but then again, she wore her headphones the entire run and every time I said something to her, she would yell “what, I can’t hear you”.  It was really kind of funny.  She was still glad I went with her though, just knowing you’re not suffering alone means a lot. 

Jade getting her Run on with mom along too

(Photo Courtesy Russ Darbon)

We ran the first lap a little faster than the second, but the laps times were pretty even. I was defiantly the proud mom standing behind the finish shoot watching her run through it. 

Jade Finishes

(Photo Courtesy Russ Darbon)

Oh and Zach loved the finisher medal, I think he might have worn it to bed that night.  They were pretty darn happy with their race and both Deena, Zach’s mom and I were pretty proud. 

Another happy group at the race was Carl, Chris and Caleb’s family, I think they had 5 family members competing.  I told you earlier that I had been training a lot with Carl, Chris and Caleb, and get this they are all related, uncle and nephews. Oh and they are all fast.  The entire family is not in the tri club yet, but I’m thinking they soon will be, I think just about every one of them took home hardware at this race. 

Carl, Chris & Caleb's family

(Photo Courtesy Russ Darbon)

So the race was over and it was time for the awards, even though my time was not at all what I am capable off, it was still fast enough to pull out a 2^nd place in my age group.  My nemesis Terry beat me, like I knew he would, but his time also put him at 2^nd place in his age group.  To me, that means we tied, we both had a 2^nd place finish, and that’s how I’m going to look at it.  At least until next year, since I have vowed to be in faster shape and kick Terry’s butt next year. 

Terry and Robin 2nd Place

(Photo Courtesy Russ Darbon)

One last thing, I want to say thanks to all the Metro Tri Club members for coming out and not only racing, but cheering everyone on, I know it means a lot to me and to all the other members of the club also.  I had a sore throat by the end of the day from cheering so much.  But the Biggest THANKS of all goes to the city of Wood River for putting on such a family friendly event, the course was perfect, the volunteers excellent, the food couldn’t be better and the chance to hang out with family and friends on a Saturday afternoon, well that is priceless. 

See all run/bike photos by Jeff Schleicher click here
See all swim photos by Jeff Schleicher click here 
See all photos from the Adventure Cam click here
 

Annual Peach Pedal

(from left/back to front) Mark, Mike, Chuck, Russ, John, Kujo, Pete, Lori, Karen, Michelle, Anna, Robin, Linda

So on Sunday a bunch of friends and I headed out to Marine, IL to take part in the Annual Peach Pedal. Of course my real reason for riding was not the pedal itself, but the need to pick up a homemade peach pie from Mills Apple farm.  I know the name states it’s an apple farm, but they also grow peaches.  Plus, they make the most awesome pies ever. You can get Peach, Apple, Rhubarb Apple, Apple Caramel, really, you name it, you can get it. They are all so good, it’s hard to pick a favorite, but I think the Peach probably wins for me.

A few days before the event, I called Mills and reserved 2 peach pies for me and one for Chuck. We wanted to make sure we had them waiting at the end of the ride.

We all gathered at the registration desk about 7am, where John handed out $3 off coupons.  Once we were all registered, we stood waiting to start, I thought a few of the group members were in the bathroom line and that’s why we were waiting. I couldn’t figure out what was taking so long, and then Mark says John said to meet him on the corner.  Well, we headed to the corner and didn’t see anyone.  Chuck, Russ, Mike and I were together with Mark, Linda and Karen ahead of us. As we rode past Chuck’s truck parked at the side of the road, we saw that Lori his wife and Michelle had a flat tire on one of the bikes, we stopped and Chuck pulled the tire off for them. Looking back, we should have taken the time to have Chuck fix it. That would have been the right thing to do, but instead we left them to work it out themselves.  On a positive note, they did fix it and since they were riding one of the shorter routes we still ended up finishing at the same time. 

We headed north on Wagner road and found that it had been recently rocked, we later found out that about 75% of the route had been recently rocked.  Let’s just say we spent a lot of the ride working on our bike handling skills.  I hate gravel, which is why I have never attempted the Dirty Kanza race, I did feel like I was at DK during this ride though. 

At the first rest stop, we were able to get back together with the entire crew, and I told John I couldn’t believe he just left us like that.  Oh, of course he had some excuse like he thought he missed us and we already left.  I may have spent a little too much time at the start chatting with a guy who had the coolest “Tony the Tiger” jersey on, I had to find out where he got it.  So I guess you now know what I’m asking for, for Christmas this year. 

Now that the group was all back together we headed out on the next leg of the ride.  We spent some quality time together wondering who would go down in the gravel first.  After fish tailing a couple times, I was sure it would be me.  Our next stop was at a gas station in Livingston, where I bought a “Little Debbie” brownie.  I shared it with John, and I don’t know about him, but it seemed like the best brownie I have ever had.  Well if you have ever had a LD brownie, you know that they are not very good, but when you are so hungry your opinion sometimes changes.  If I had one right now, I would probably take one bite and throw it away. Of course there have been times when I have seen some shot blocks on the road where someone has dropped them and seriously thought about picking them up and eating them.  What we won’t do if we feel a bonk coming on. 

On we went, right through the small town of Livingston as the only Church in was letting out.  We had to deal with some traffic for a while with everyone leaving church.  They were probably commenting, what heathens we were for being out riding our bikes instead of in church, but they were all feeling generous and no one tried to run us off the road, we can count that as a blessing for the day.

We may have counted those blessing a little too early though, it wasn’t long and we hit some railroad tracks and ended up with a flat tire in the group. The bigger problem was as we were waiting for the tire change a coal train rolled across the railroad tracks that we would have to cross, and of course it stops. It was stopped for a long time and although Anna thought we could crawl under the train and drag our bikes, that thought got vetoed.  We decided to try a different route that would get us back on the real route without going too far out of the way.  It was a good choice, but some of us missed a turn so Mike had to sprint up and get us back on track.  The funny part was, Chuck the master orienteerer was up front leading us when we missed the turn.  Well to Chuck’s credit, he didn’t have the map and was just pulling the group along, he figured someone with a map would yell to him to turn. What he forgot was the fact that he is half def and couldn’t hear them even if they did yell. It’s just a good thing Mike was there stop him before he ended up in Chicago. 

After we got back on track we had a really nice pace line going when out of nowhere two guys came flying past us. Oh, if you ride you know how that works, you never let someone dust you out of nowhere. As the two guys pass us, Mark and Linda who were on a tandem, get the guys in their sights.  John, who is behind me, looks up and says “oh no, it’s on”.  Was he ever right, Mark took off after them and we all followed, I put my head down and it took everything I had to hang on, but we finally backed off after a mile or so. After a short recovery from that sprint we rolled into the last rest area and it was then that I realized it was Antonio a superfast guy that I ride with on the Tuesday Night Team Godzilla ride that had passed us. After seeing him, I was feeling pretty good that we stayed with them to the next stop.  

We had about 6 miles to go to make the finish, so we headed out.  We came upon the guy in the Tony the Tiger jersey and he fell into our pace line and rode in with us.  Just before the finish, we passed Lori and Michelle finishing up the shorter loop, so we knew that they got the flat fixed without the help of that low down Chuck, who just left them stranded on the side of the road. OK, really they told Chuck to go, that they had it covered, but I like to blame Chuck for everything. 

 

We stopped and got the group together for a photo op and Tony the Tiger took it for us.  As we chatted with him, we found out that he was in from Wisconsin, but he use to like in U City, so he and John talked about that area for a while since John lives there now. 

It was a great ride in great company, with the coolest weather we have had all summer, plus we even got a few rain drops, not enough in this drought year, but it was nice to have gotten a few drops.  As for the pie it was great as always.  You know I only live 9 miles from the apple farm and I ride my bike past in at least once a week, but it takes going to the Peach Pedal for me to stop for a pie.  Maybe that’s a good thing, if I stopped every time I rode past, I would be 400 pounds right now.

Tour de Donut 2012

My Horoscope for July 14^th, Donut Day!

“You are likely to hit at least one obstacle today -- but sometimes roadblocks are there to keep you from getting into dangerous situations, so take a deep breath when you encounter one. Try not to look at it as a bad thing. The limitation you encounter is there for a reason. You may have to struggle more than usual to get somewhere today, but in that struggle you will appreciate your journey all the more.”

But do you think that I believe this to be true? If you know me at all, I just laughed when I read this.  I even sent it to Chuck and he laughed too.  I guess I need to think before I laugh from now on.

See something else happened in the days leading up to the Donut that might have also been a message to me. Mark, Jenny and I went out to pre-ride the course on the 4^th of July. Jenny got a flat just 10 miles in, and this is how it went.  Jenny had a mountain bike tube with her, no good, Mark’s tube didn’t have a long enough stem for Jenny’s wheel, no good, my tube got caught in my bag zipper and had a hole, no good, Jenny’s patch kit had dried up glue in it, no good, Mark’s patch kid had dried up glue in it, no good, my patch kit was at home in the bag on my other bike, no good again.  So it goes to say we didn’t finish the ride.

Just two days before the donut we tried another pre-ride only to find out that the roads had been graveled between miles 16 and 25, with one really bad section around mile 16. We finished the ride, but were contemplating how dangerous this ride could be with the all the gravel and the big field of racers.  There was also a fast decent at about mile 3, we worried about bike congestion on such a steep decent and the danger of it. Of course it didn’t stop us from racing anyway.

So Race day rolled around and there I was in Staunton, Il, the home of the Famous Tour de Donut.

My teammate Jenny and I had rustled up four domestiques for a short 34 miles of pure riding pleasure with some hills and gravel thrown in for good measure. 

We had 3 returning domestiques, Mark, Joel and Daryl, plus one new one, Russ.  It’s great that these guys will spend their Saturday morning pulling our butts around the Donut course. And they work hard to pull us to a fast finish, for the last 3 or 4 years we have finished either 1,2 or 2,3 overall. We were hoping for a 1,2 finish again this year.

My teammate Chuck wouldn’t be riding with us this year, because his son Jacob wanted to ride and eat donuts, so they showed up ready to eat.

A few of my Team Godzilla teammates also showed up, not everyone, but a few.

Even Gary and Steve were there ready to go, I would call Gary the grandfather of the donut, but he might not be so happy with that title, so I won’t. Maybe I should say the Godfather of the Donut.

We were all being followed by the paparazzi, the famous videographer Patrick, and famous photographer Rob.  Ok maybe they aren’t so famous, but they work for donuts and that is about all we can afford, we spend all our money on our bikes.

After a team picture was taken, which may have gone off a little late because I was in the bathroom, but hey, if you gotta go, you gotta go. I went out for a quick warm up spin.

Lucky for me the infamous tandem team of Mark and Linda saved my place on the starting line while I warmed up.

So after some opening comments by the awesome race director Christian, who was all over the place on race day, I’m surprised he was caught on film.

The national anthem was sung and we were ready to play ball. The start of the race is always sketchy with all those bikes rolling out at once, but all six of us got on the road without incident.

The riders were sent on a short loop through town and then headed east to Reservoir road. My team’s strategy was to try to stay safe in the masses and regroup at the top of the hill at the end of Reservoir road.  When we got to first turn onto Reservoir road, Mark and Joel were in front, me and Daryl were behind them and Jenny and Russ were behind us.  Just in front of us, two bikes went down hard on the corner, but we all made it though without incident.  Not far past that corner we headed down a steep, fast decent and bikes were handlebar to handlebar, everyone was flying, my speed was about 35 mph.  Daryl and I were to the right side of the road while Jenny and Russ were over to the left, about halfway down the decent, I hear an explosion, it was a tire blowing, I turned my head slightly to the left and saw a lady go down, then saw Jenny and Russ both in the air along with their bikes. Then I heard another loud pop and assumed it was another tire blowing.  I later found out the second pop wasn’t a tire blowing at all, it was Jenny’s helmet hitting the pavement, we need to take a moment her to give thanks for helmets.

Daryl and I hit the bottom of the hill pulled off the road and ran back up the hill. All three involved in the crash had skidded to a stop on the right side of the road.  Jenny and Russ were getting on their feet and trying to help the other rider, whose name I later found out was Kay, to get up.  I quickly dialed 911 on my cell phone, good thing I had put it in my jersey pocket, and in just minutes a police car appeared.  I hung up and was talking to Kay helping her stand then later helping her sit, she wasn’t feeling well and sitting was a better idea.  We checked out the bikes, Russ’s was ok, Jenny’s and Kay’s were trashed.  While all this activity was happening riders were zooming by us, I think most of the field had passed when Jenny told us to take off, she would stay with Kay since her bike wasn’t rideable.  As I started to walk away, Kay asked if I should stay to have my arms looked at, I looked down and my arms were all bloody. I said, “I’m fine that’s your blood”.  Daryl and I ran down the hill grabbed our bikes and started the accent to the top, with Russ behind us.  After making the turn at the top of the hill Mark and Joel were riding toward us, with very concerned looks on their faces. Chuck had ridden past them and told them about the crash, but they had no idea what had happened or who was hurt. We quickly filled them in while trying to navigate around hundreds of slower riders.  I still have no idea how a dozen more people hadn’t gone down in that crash, it was really a miracle.

We soon hit the 1^st donut stop and we flew through it, eating no donuts, then on Old Rt 66, we came upon some stopped car traffic and another bike crash, about 8 riders down, we slowly maneuvered through and picked up the pace again.  I really had no expectations at this point, I figured we were so far back there was no way we could get back in the race. 

The boys worked so hard pulling me along in some places we were hitting 24 to 25 mph, but then we would get caught up in thick crowds of slower riders and would have to back off.  Of course, sometimes I needed to back off.  I have no idea how they did all that work, Mark, Joel, Daryl and even an injured Russ were working their butts off for me.  They are an awesome group of friends, and happen to be super strong riders too. 

As we hit Airport road we knew that there was a section of deep gravel ahead, when we turned the corner everyone was off their bikes walking through it, we jumped off too. Looking back, there was a line we could have taken to ride it, but there were too many people in the way to take the line. 

Back on the bike we rolled through some really rough and graveled roads, a few times I got caught up in the crowds and the guys had to slow and wait for me to get out.  Of course there were also a few times when my legs just wouldn’t do what I asked and the guys were waiting then too.  There was a lot of yelling “she’s back on” during that 8 mile section of the ride.

Oh and also during that section I heard Russ behind me yell a few expletives. I yelled back “are you ok Russ” and he said he had been stung by a bee. It got him right on the neck I think more than once, I’m thinking it was a vampire bee.

We soon made it to the second donut stop and we were actually on a really good pace. Along the route local residents were out in their yards cheering us on, cheering always helps me pick up the pace. Mark yelled “what do you want to do Robin” meaning since we were so far off the front, should we stop for donuts or blow the stop.  I said lets blow it and we kept going.  With 10 miles left to go we finally hit some smoother roads and was able to pick up the pace. 

We held the pace well all the way back with me only falling off one time, we even had Joel, who was pulling at the time, pick up the pace, he was confused though, he is used to Mark yelling “Robin’s off the back slow up”, so he started to slow and Mark yells “no faster”, we just all started laughing and I thanked Joel for trying to give me a break. 

We were once again back on Reservoir road heading to the finish line, we rode past the crash site, and I was thinking “come on get past here, don’t let this spot jinx you”, if I were catholic I might have crossed myself.  As we passed the many cheering spectators, I heard a guy yell “Darbon, hurry up, you have to work midnights”, oh Darbon is Russ.  So Russ not only crashes, gets stung by a vampire bee, then has to help pull my butt around, but he also has to work midnights after the whole escapade.  He’s one tough Brit though, he took it all in stride, like he says, “it’s just a flesh wound”. 

We  turn into the final straight away and come upon a rider who ended up in our picture, so the finish photos isn’t great, but I think you can see the guys look like they were out for a social ride, while I was gasping for air.

We rode through the finish, did a short cool down lap and headed back in to recount our race.  I think I told the crash story 20 times in the following hour.  Russ showed off his wounds, no photos of his hip road rash though, that would have made this post X rated. He did show it to me and he gets some bragging rights with that road rash.  Russ’s jersey has holes in it, his shorts were bloody, but fine and he has a little cherry on his ankle. 

Rob took a team picture of us, but Daryl had to run off right after the race, he was couching his son’s baseball game, so he missed the photo opportunity.

Then we got a picture with our Cyclery teammates.

Lots of Zilla’s took home hardware, and even though Al isn’t a Zilla I had to put his picture in because I ride with him every week and tend to use his draft a lot.

Of course Jacob has all the bragging rights, he placed and Chuck, his dad didn’t, but it looks to me like Chuck was just as proud that Jacob won, that means he kind of won by proxy.

  

As for me I ended up 4^th out of 122 in my age group and 15^th out of 456 women, and 119^th out of 1438 finishers. We also had a ride average of 20.3 mph, not bad for being trapped in the crowd so many times.

Thanks, to my domestiques, Mark, Joel, Daryl and Russ, better known as my guys, for all the hard work and giving up their chance to win an award, because I know that all of them can ride much faster without me.  You know I appreciate your hard work and I know how lucky I am to have friends like you.

One last note: Although Jenny, Russ and Kay are bruised, sore, and covered in road rash, they are all ok and will ride again, that’s what really counts in the end.

You can see all the photos taken by Rob by clicking here.