Race Result

Racer:	Keith Bohnenberger
Race:	Black Bear Triathlon
Date:	Sunday, May 31, 2009
Location:	Lehighton, PA
Race Type:	Triathlon - Half Ironman
Age Group:	Male 40 - 44
Time:	6:44:21
Overall Place:	5 / 7
Comment:	Team Bohnenberger Relay

Race Report:

Race: Black Bear 1/2 Ironman
Place: Beltzville State Park, Pennsylvania (About 4 hours from Reston)

This race is billed as a tough 1/2 Ironman. The bike course is hilly. It is on rural roads which are open to traffic. You do two loops, with a little extra distance on the second loop to get you back into the lake. They had Heed and water at the bottle exchange about 18 miles into the bike. You passed the bottle exchange once on each loop. The run course is mostly flat through the woods around the lake and across the damn. They had Heed on the run course along with water, gummy bears, coke and a few other things.

Many people I talked too seemed to be using this race as a training race for Lake Placid.

The race was very well run. The volunteers were great. The post-race food included pizza, soft pretzels, Rita's Italian Ice, fruit, TastyCake treats and more. Overall an excellent race for anyone looking to do a challenging 1/2 Ironman.

Beltzville State Park is less than an hour away from where I grew up and about 25 minutes from where Patty grew up. I've been thinking about doing this race for the last couple of years but since it's a hard race, relatively early in the season I didn't pull the trigger until this year. This year I decided that I was going to do the race but I wasn't going to do the run. I was either going to do a relay with my wife or I was going to do the aquabike. Eventually my wife decided she was in for the run and we signed up for the relay.

We used the race as an excuse to get our extended family together for a day of "Lake fun". My parents, my sisters, niece, nephew, brother-in-laws, sister-in-law and mother-in-law all came out to help us enjoy the day. We drove up on Saturday to pick up our packets and hung out a bit at the lake so the kids could have some fun and forget about the 4 hour car ride. Later we made our way to Patty's mom's house for dinner, some games and an early night of sleep.

I woke up at 5:00 or so and went through the usual race morning routine. The race info said to get to the road leading into the lake before 6:30 to avoid the back up. I got there at 6:25 and it still took me over 35 minutes to get parked. Patty and the kids slept in a bit and got to the race around 8:00 or so. I definitely suggest getting to the race early. Since many people were arriving a bit late they moved the race start from 7:30 to 7:45. Transition was pretty easy for me since I was only doing the swim and the bike. As I made my way over to the swim start I ran into my parents. My dad looked out onto the lake and asked how far I'd be swimming. Since there was a sprint race going on at the same time the swim course looked a little confusing. I pointed out the far buoy and told him I'd be swimming out around that buoy and back. Since the swim start was further down the lake from the bike transition, it was about 2/3rds out and a 1/3 back. It looked really far. He was impressed that I thought I could swim that far but I don't think he was really convinced that I'd be able to pull it off. My parents have never been to a triathlon before so they were a bit surprised that so many "crazy" people got up so early to do such a thing.

The swim start was at the far end of the beach. Near the swim start they announced Craig Dietz, the swimmer on the "Bob" relay who was born with no arms or legs. I watched him get in the water, flop on his back and swim to the star buoy. Very inspirational! The course ran along the shore line out to the damn and back a bit to the bike transition. I had no problems sighting and was pleasantly surprised that I was swimming pretty straight. Every time I looked up I was actually heading in the right direction. I knew there were a lot of FOP'ers in this race so I wasn't at all surprised when packs of swimmers from the wave behind me started passing me. I think I did better at pacing myself than normal and thought I had a pretty solid swim (for me). I got out of the water in 41:03.

Now the hard part. From reading the race information and from reading Jeff Wolfe's RATs race report I knew the bike was going to be challenging. My training was consistent but didn't include as many "long" rides as I would have liked and certainly didn't include as much hill work as it should have. I did a "map my ride" of the course online but I didn't actually drive the course. I knew about where the hard hills would hit and about how long they would last. It was a two loop course so I figured I would err on the wimpy side for the first loop and speed up on the second loop if I had enough energy. The first loop was great. I took it a little easy on the up hills and I had a blast hammering down the hills. The best part was seeing Patty, Kirsten, my sister Mickey and my mom and dad at the end of the first loop. After I passed them hooting and hollering and cheering me on, I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. Well at least until the next hill. This course was either up or down. No flats to be found. I still felt pretty good until about mile 40 and then the hills started getting me. I was able to keep a pretty consistent effort from the first lap but I didn't have any energy to speed up. The hard hills on the first lap were naturally harder on the second lap. The second lap also included a "bonus hill" on the way back to the lake that the first lap didn't have. I started looking at the bike computer way too often. I was pretty happy when I finally saw the lake again and came into transition to see Patty. I took the timing chip off my leg, handed to Patty, gave her a kiss and wished her luck. Then I went to hang out with our extended family and I ate! The bike took me 3:43:35

The run course was also two laps but was mostly flat. We cheered Patty on at the end of the first lap. She came through in about an hour which was a little faster than her goal. She ran the first lap with her fuel belt on but gave it to me as she passed by. About an hour later we headed to the finish line to cheer her on an watch team Bohnenberger complete their first 1/2 Ironman relay! Patty hit the finish line with a run of 2:13:17 which beat her goal of 2:15. She had a blast running across the top of the damn. She said the trails through the woods were a bit challenging. She was impressed with how much nutrition they had on the run course. Heed, coke, water, gummy bears etc. She's used to the long lines of the Marine Corp Marathon and was very happy to not have to wait in line and battle her way through the crowd to get a drink.

My parents had a blast at the race. They enjoyed cheering on the bikers as they passed by. Several bikers mentioned how helpful their cheering was after climbing a tough hill. After the race we hung out for a little while and then all packed in the car for the long 4 hour drive back home. A most excellent weekend!