Cohasett Triathlon Race Lessons
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| (Monday, 04 August 2008) Written by Chris Ebbrecht |
| The Cohasett Tri was was for me a collection of race lessons. Lets start with the personal lubricant stick. As I am wet suiting up, a guy in my bike rack asks to borrow my body glide. Now body glide is a personal lubricant. Its says so right on the stick. Theres no sharing, its personal as in one user. Just like Chap Stick only more personal. I am thinking to myself if this guy knew what part of my body I just lubed he would not be asking to borrow the stick. What do I say? I can't say no cause I will look like an ass. So I say to myself 'thinking of this all day will give me a chuckle' so I say "sure buddy" and hand it over. The guy lubes his neck and wrist around the wet suit and hands it back. Then I am thinking 'what if this has some kind of skin disease' He could have MRSA or other kind of infection. I can't see behind his neck. He could have an open sore back there. So I toss the body glide stick into the first trash can I see. Race Lesson #1 - Be nice or you'll just screw yourself. Here's a little history. The Cohassett tri is the triathlon where a man died last year. This year there was fog. I mean pea soup cut it with a knife kinda fog. So, the harbour master was not letting the race proceed unless she had a certain visibility. The race went on but with a course change. I did not pay attention to that change. My mistake. Well, thanks to the master swim at the Y, I was the second person to the first buoy. Then, I missighted and followed the wrong course because i had tinted lenses when i needed clear lenses, got ran over, and then got ran over again. My goggles filled with water so I stopped to clear them and was run over yet again. Race lesson #2 - know the course. Race lesson #3 -have the proper equipment. So now I exit the swim and get to the bike rack. But no bike. Where is my bike. I mean where the @#$% is my bike? My area is in compete disarray. What the @#$% is going on? Finally I see my bike a couple over but no helmet which is why I could'nt find the bike. The helmet is down at the end of the row. The only bikes out of my transition row are the guys on either side of me and a couple of guys on the other side. So I take off and have 13 miles to think of all the things I can do to get back at these guys - cleat through the carbon wheel, bent derailer, outright brawl, etc. Race lesson #4 - getting mad gives you a great bike split. So after the race I go back to transition and walk up to both of them looking for a fight. I was hollering and yelling that one of them messed with my stuff and I wanted to know which one of them it was. Then, from behind me some guy says that when he came out of the water the whole bike rack was down. So, my head drops down and in a softer voice I apologize for my attitude. I said I was sorry. Race lesson #5 - Sometimes your stuff gets moved around. Be kind and rewind before you go looking for a fight. Now about the race results, Jarrod Shoemaker(Olympic Racer) won the race by a huge margin, then came the elite racers which raced so fast, then came the age group winners which were also so fast (including the guy next to me), then came the middle of the packers which was me. Race lesson #6 - its all about finishing and have a good personal day. The fog lifted, the man who died the year before had over 30 family members who raced with us, I had a great bagle sandwich and hot coffee, and $250,000 was raised for juvenile diabetes. Thats a good race day. By the way, on the way home I reviewed the events of the bike rack mishap. How did my bike wind up in the guys slot next to me if he left before me and his wetsuit was all over my stuff? Thats right, he did mess with my stuff - probably because I made him move a little when I arrived. He had encrouched into my area!! That @#$%. |
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