Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Stamford KIC IT Triathlon

Here is what I liked about this race:
  • Raised over $140K for Kids in Crisis charity... very impresive.
  • Fastest bike split of the day was done by a 37 year old mom... amazing.
  • This cool Black and White photo (thats me #6)
Here is what I didn't like:
  • The swim, and there only being a foot of water over about a third of the course. The bottom was rocky, sharp, and dangerous. Numerous foot injuries occured, many went to the hospital, some people seasons are completely over.
  • The whole two different transitions thingy... just too much of a hassle.
  • The heat. But thats nobody's fault... I just can't run fast in the heat.
Here is photo of the Elite Wave start. That's me on the right, and Kristin 3rd from the right kind of hunched over. We had to run all the way to the first buoy before it was deep enough to start swimming.
Same on the way back out of the water. Here is a good photo of Kristin running back to the beach.

Ended up having a decent bike split, I was holding back a little because of the heat so I could have something left for the run. It didn't work. As soon as I started running I realized that I had nothing. I gave it all I had, but was still miserably slow (7:34 pace per mile). I came off the bike in 5th place, and dropped back to 21st place overall by the time I crossed the finish line.
Results HERE
Immediately after the finish line I went to the misting station to try to start cooling down, and watched the medic tent slowly start to overflow with bloody feet and shoes. I knew my feet were in bad shape, but I didnt feel like dealing with the mob scene going on there. So I just kept my shoes on until we got home.
Once home, Kristin started performing a little "home surgery". Opening multiple cuts with tweezers, flushing them out with water, scrubbing them with a toothbrush, applying alcohol. Disgusting and very painful. Had to bite on a towel at one point. My left foot in particular was pretty shredded. Fortunately nothing was too deep. I could have probably used stiches in two spots, but the butteryfly strips and bandaging seemed to be holding... So we just went with that. Here is what my foot looked like the next day.

Going stay off my feet for a while to get this healed up. Tossing around the idea of swiming across the Great South Bay of LI this weekend. From Fire Island (Davis Park) to Sayville, about 4-5 miles. We'll see if I can figure out how to do it safely and with a support crew, and if the body is up for it closer to the date. Like 50/50 right now.

2 comments:

Megan Kelly said...

Chris - well put. I feel like you and I had exactly the same race experience - even overheating on the run!

Larry B. said...

"scrubbing them with a toothbrush".

Did she use some salt and lemon juice too???

Yee-owch!!!