Race Result

Racer:	Keith Bohnenberger
Race:	Luray International Triathlon
Date:	Saturday, August 15, 2009
Location:	Luray, VA
Race Type:	Triathlon - International Distance
Age Group:	Male 40 - 44
Time:	2:51:13
Age Group Place:	29 / 57
Comment:	It's always great to see a bunch of RATs and FoRATs (Friends of RATs)

Race Report:

Race: Most of you on the list probably have a good understanding of this race but for you new folks:
The Olympic distance on Saturday and the Sprint distance is on Sunday. The race is run by David Glover who always does a fantastic job. The really nice part of the race is that you can go up on Friday and make an entire weekend out of it or you can go up the morning of your race and be back the same day.
The swim is in Arrowhead lake. In mid-August the water temperature is up there. I think 2 or 3 of the 4 years I've done this race the water temp was above 78.
The bike course is fantastic. It's very scenic and has a little bit of everything. Fun down hills, long false flats and a few hard hills.
The run course is rolling and always seems a lot harder than you think it should be. They had Heed and water out on the run course.
The post race food this year included peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, lots of fruit, oreo cookies, chips and a few other things.

My Race:
About two weeks before the race may family and I headed half way across the country to Branson MO. I took my bike and got 2 rides in during that 11 days we were gone and 1 run in. Mostly it was all about hanging with the family ... and eating way too much bad food. I wasn't sure how the time off would affect my race. I've been pretty consistent with my training so I wasn't too worried but it did rattle the confidence a bit.
I drove up the morning of the race and got there in plenty of time to get my race packet and set up my transition.
Swim: 32:22
The water temp was about 80 degrees. I'm not sure what the USAT rule really is but I think from 78-83 degrees you can where a wetsuit but you can't win an award and your time doesn't count towards your USAT standings (Please correct that if I'm wrong). I can't swim, I'm usually about 30 minutes of so outside of winning an award, and I don't care very much about my USAT standings so once again, I wimped out and wore my wetsuit. Before the swim started I made a huge mistake. I noticed my goggle strap was pulled tighter on one side than the other so I tightened the looser side so they matched up. I tried them on and they felt a little tight but not too bad. Half way through the swim my head was killing me. Dumb move. I couldn't wait to finish the swim and rip my goggles off my head. The good part of the swim was that for the first time ever I drafted off of someone for a good portion of the swim. They were swimming next to me for a while and every time I breathed their stoke splashed water right in my mouth. I tried to pass but tired and got caught again pretty quickly. At that point I decided to slow down a bit and draft off of him. I don't think I was too annoying. I think I only hit his feet twice. Once I got out of the water I ripped the goggles off my head and immediately felt a lot better.

T1: 2:42
Not much to report. I definitely like the carpeting cover the rocks. Nice touch David.

Bike: 1:24:43 (PR for the course)
As always, the course is fantastic. The first loop I felt like I was working way too hard and lots of people were passing me. The second loop I felt much better (perhaps this was due to the two weeks of little training or perhaps it was just normal struggles after the swim). The down hills are awesome. The long false flat was really grinding at me and the last hill as always was tough. Over all I had a good bike.

T2: 1:07
In and out as fast as I could handle.

Run: 50:21
Out of transition I noticed that the roots of the trees on the run path were painted orange. Man the things you have to think about when you put on a race. My hamstrings felt tight at the beginning of the run and the last couple of years the run hurt me more than I though it would so I decided not to push it too hard at the beginning of the run. After the tough bike ride, the hills and the heat of the run take their toll. I started picking up the pace a bit on the second lap. I slowed my pace down on the up hills and tried to pick it up on the down hills. It was great seeing Shawn Clark and friends at one of the water stops. I tried to drink at every stop and dump water on my head to stay cool. After such a challenging and fun bike course this run is always a bit of a struggle for me (and I think for others)

Once again I raced with no technology. I like it until after the race is over when I want to know my split times. I had a PR beating my previous best time at this race by over 2 minutes so I was pretty happy with my race. It was great seeing all the RATs and friends of RATs out there. Many thanks to David for putting on a great race and thanks to Kevin for bringing the RATs tent out.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at Reston!