Race Result

Racer:	Keith Bohnenberger
Race:	Luray Sprint Triathlon
Date:	Sunday, May 14, 2006
Location:	Luray, VA
Race Type:	Triathlon - Sprint
Age Group:	Male 35 - 39
Time:	1:52:48
Age Group Place:	7 / 14
Comment:	Congrats to Dave for putting together a kick butt race

Race Report:

Goals:
No time goals. 2006 was the first year for this race and I did not preview the course.

Results:
Total: 152:48 7/14 in my age group (MOP'r indeed)
Swim: 19:09 (lake was a bit of a jog to T1) 7/14
T1: 3:19 6/14
Bike: 1:04:34 8/14
T2: 1:37 6/14
Run: 24:12 4/14

Heart Rate Info:
Overall: 159
Swim: 141
T1: 145
Bike: 165 (this isn't accurate, a couple times I looked down and saw 220. I think there were some electrical wires interfering)
T2: 164
Run: 164

Highlights:
Dave put together a well-run race in a beautifull part of VA. The family enjoyed the trip. It was great seeing a bunch of rats out there. I got my first Ironwoman hug, compliments of Gwen. Thanks gwen! Brady, Mike Tine and a host of other volunteers did a great job. I finished my first race of the season.

Long Story:

Pre-race:
I was bummed that Columbia filled up before I got around to signing up. However, shortly after Columbia filled up, Dave announced Luray. It was a week before Columbia and it gave me a sprint to start off my season with, instead of a hard olympic distance race. My early season run training was (and still is) hampered by foot problems. It turns out that I would have had a problem getting enough run miles in to to do Columbia anyway so Luray was meant to be.

After I realized that Luray was on Mothers day, we decided to make a family trip out of it. Kirsten and Kooper had soccer/t-ball games on Saturday so we arrived in Luray around 4:00 or so. We caught the tail end of the festival, I picked up my packet and chatted with Hope and Dave for a moment and headed to Uncle Somebodys (Bobs?) for dinner. We had a nice dinner and finished up just in time for the Luray festival parade. The fireman came down the street throwing candy out to all the kids. My daughter went into action. It's amazing how fast kids can clean the streets when its littered with candy. We headed back to the Mimslynn Inn. A wedding reception was kicking in full force. I was worried I wouldn't be able to sleep but with kids in the same room I packed the ear plugs and managed to fall asleep sometime around 11:00. I woke up at 5:30 and ate my bagel, a bananna and drank some gatorade. I hit the bathroom and gathered up all the stuff I had gotten ready the previous evening. My friend Donny was picking me up on his way to the race so the family got to sleep in. Donny got to the Inn around 7 and we made it to the race site around 7:15 or so. The best part of the morning was that the rain held out and it was an very pretty morning. Luray has some beautiful scenery. I love the morning right before the race starts. People are scurring all about, chatting and getting their stuff ready. You can feel the energy building. I chatted with Jeroen about our "bottle of something" bet and ran into a bunch of other rats. It was a very good MOP'r showing: Stuart, Kristen, Cory, Jamie and a bunch of other rats were out in force. It was time to head to the lake.

Race:
The swim was mostly uneventful. A little thrashing in the beginning but after a few hundred yards things spread out nicely and I got used to the cold water. 65 degrees was better than I had expected. I still suck at swimming. My arms almost immediately started burning but there were a few moments that I felt like I had a good stroke. I need to swim harder in training. My swim training entirely consists of slow swimming in hopes that I will improve my technique. I swam over the shallow part of the lake near the end of the swim(many other people seemed to be walking over it) and when I stood up to get out of the lake, I saw Jeroen about 5 yards ahead of me. That was a good sign. Unfortunately I then hit the steps to climb up to T1. I'm not good at T1. For some reason I feel ok while I'm swimming but as I get out of the water and start to jog my heart rate picks up and I get really out of breath.
T1 was long. Jeroen went running by me with his bike and I didn't even have my wetsuit off yet. That was a bad sign. I finally got out of T1 and was glad to be on the bike.
I did not get a chance to drive the bike course before the race but I ran into a woman at the Inn who said it was pretty flat. She was either a bad ass biker or she was messing with me. The first hill was a little tough but I had to smile when I saw Aarons big "... photographer up ahead..." sign. I gave him my best "look tough" pose and continued plugging away up the hill. The bike course pretty much continued with long uphills followed by short steep downhills. I was hammering down one of the downhills when I started shifting to a lower gear in anticipation of the next up hill. My chain popped off the bottom chain ring on the front. I looked back for traffic and was going to pull over and fix it but then I tried to shift it back on. After a few moments I realized I was all over the road as I looked down at my chain trying to shift it back on. Not a smart move at all. When I realized that I was an accident waiting to happend, I looked back to make sure nobody was behind me and I pulled over and fixed my chain. It probably only cost me about 10 or 15 seconds but it seemed like the whole race passed me. Other than the hills, the only other thing that stood out about the bike was when a woman passed me on one of the hills. As she passed me I commmented that the body markers must have screwed up. It had to be 36 and couldn't possibly be 63 on her calf. She assured my it was indeed 63 and not 36. She's got 23 years on me and she's kicking my butt up a hill. How awesome is that? After battling up the last hill I was happy to see the transition area again. T2 went pretty smooth. I took time to pull my bike pump and spare tube out of my shirt pocket, switched shoes, took of the helmet, put my race number on and started running. I was surprised that my legs actually felt pretty good. I was happy to be running. On the way out by the lake I saw Jeroen coming back in. At first I was confused how he could have put 30 minutes or so on me during the bike but then I got out to the turn-around and realized that he wasn't all that far ahead of me. Maybe I had a shot to catch him by the finish. The run felt pretty good considering my run training was almost non-existent. I was passing a few people and really was enjoying the trail running. I got to the out-and-back road section and thought I would see Jeroen coming back as I was going out. He was no where to be found. At the finish line I got a big ironwoman hug from Gwen and chatted with Jeroen. It turned out his recently repaired knee was not feeling so well on the run and he pulled out. That was bad news but Jeroen was still enjoying the moment and was hopefull to get back at it at Eagleman. I walked around and chatted with a bunch of rats, finally found the rest of my family, had a hot dog and a hamburger and had to pack up the car to make it back for my daughter's piano recital. On the way home I told my wife to look under her seat for her mothers day gifts and a few hours later, I was in a little church listening to my daughter play the piano. Awesome weekend!!