GatorMan and Midnight Run, July 4th 1993
(found in the archives of rec.sport.triathlon 8
years later!)
I went to Florida to visit my sister over the
Holiday weekend, and
we did two races. The first was the Gatorman,
a sprint triathlon,
at 7:30am Saturday morning. The second was a
midnight 10k.
Ponte Vedra Beach Gatorman Triathlon
Swim: 1/4 mile Bike: 10 miles
Run: 3 miles
We arrived Friday night, as Ponte Vedra is about 4
hours from my
sisters house in Clearwater. The directions
were a bit vague --
the last part being "look for Micklers cut
off, and then look
for race signs." There were no race
signs Friday night, but after
driving around for a while, and asking people who
looked like
triathletes, we decided this was it.
Saturday morning, there were race signs, and about
170 other
triathletes. The swim was in the ocean.
From the transition
area, waited crossed a street, walked about 200
yards to the water,
walked 1/4 a mile up the beach, and waited for the
start.
The first wave was men 39 and under. The
second was everyone else.
My sister later told me that durring the second
waves four minute
wait, they sang "Amazing Grace."
It looked like the swim was a bit long, and judging
from my
time of 7:30, it was. We ran from the beach,
into the waves,
swam out 20-30 yards, and turned left. I
think from bouy to
bouy it was over .25 miles, and swimming out to and
in from
the buoys made it even longer. It was very
crowded swiming
out to the first bouy. I had a twelve inch
scratch after
the race, that I showed off to everybody who was
interested!
I have never swum in to the beach in a race.
I discovered that
you should time the waves. When the water is
being pulled out
to the next incoming wave, it is almost useless to
try to swim.
If you wait until the water is coming in and not
being pulled out,
you can really fly. How do you other
triathletes handle this?
After the swim, I was riding out of the transition
by 10 min.
Not bad since we had to run at least 2 tenths of
mile from the
swim.
The bike was supposed to be 10 miles. At the
end, my odometer
read 9.4. It was a very flat course (I love
Florida!). I averaged
about 22mph for the first half. When we
turned around, there
was a bit of a head wind, and I slowed down.
I finished up
averaging about 21mph. I actually passed
about 5 people on the bike!
(I usually pass 1, and get passed non stop -- but
this time I did not
get passed for the first 5 minutes, and then only
5-10 people passed
me the whole time. Maybe I'm finally
improving on the bike.)
My transition from bike to run was well under 1
min. I only had to change
shoes and remove my helmet. It was an out and
back course on the same
road the bikers were coming in on. I saw my
sister riding in after
I had been running about 6-7 minutes. I
yelled to her that she was the
fifteenth women I had seen, so she better hurry up.
I felt really strong, and was only passed 2-3 times
in the run, though
I only passed 4-5 people. I saw my sister
again on the way back, and
she was still 15th. I yelled at her some
more.
I came in in 1:01:30, about 3-4 minutes faster than
I thought (all made
up on the bike, where I usually average 18-19, not
21). I immediately
got some water and started walking back down the
course so I could
motivate my sister. When we met up, she was
within striking distance
of 2 women, but she was not running well. I
motivated her into speeding
up and catching them. She hated me for it
during the race, but thanked
me later. She finished in about 1:08 or so.
I was 3rd in my age group (out of 6 or 7). My
sister was 2nd in hers,
out of 7-8. We waited around for the awards
ceremony. I won a T-shirt
out of a grab-bag.
Matt Mahoney was there -- I think he was 4th or 5th
in his age group, which
is much more competitive than mine. He
finished in something like
57 min. He can post later to verify this, but
it was interesting to
meet someone from Internet Land.
We left the race, went to our hotel, showered, and
headed home for
Clearwater. I took a 1.5 to 2 hour nap to get ready
for the night race.
We ate about 7, went to a Clearwater Phillies
baseball game (my brother
in law works for them), watched fire works, and
went to the midnight
race.
It was an outback course, into a wildlife perserve.
Almost four
miles were over water, so it was incredibly humid.
It was very
surreal running in the perserve. There were
no lights, but the
street was lined with candles inside of milk jugs.
Runners were
going both ways, and you could hardly see.
I started in the back of the pack with my sister
and some of her
friends. Once the race started, I decided
that I felt good
enough to run somewhat hard. I wish I had
started near the
front, as my first mile was a minute slower than my
pace
after that. I finished in 46 minutes.
No age group placing
here, as the top five were under 35 minutes (it was
a big
race with 1500+ runners, and Clearwater is the
Scientologists
headquarters, and they have huge running teams with
very
competitive runners). My sister ran with her
friends the
whole way, so she was about a minute per mile
slower than
normal, and finished in something like 58 min.
I almost wish I had run the 3K instead of the 10k,
as I could
have one my age group -- winning time was 13
minutes! A non-
running friend of mine (well, he runs every once in
a while)
did place 5th in 15:xx min.
We headed out to breakfast since we were starving.
We didn't
get home until almost 3am, but it was a great way
to celebrate
the 4th of July. If you've never done a
midnight run, I
highly recommend it.