My Sherpa World Championships

Up until recently I haven't really been a sherpa for someone during their race.  I have been to races and not participated.  I've hung out while waiting for someone to finish.  But I hadn't truly been a Sherpa until last fall at the Savannah Rock n Roll Marathon.

Some of the Signs I made

My wife, sister, and a friend were all doing the Half.  I drove them around and ran around the course cheering them on.  It was a pretty fun morning.  The race goes by pretty fast when you are running around all over the place trying to cheer on 3 people running different paces.  But many good lessons were learned.

Some More of the Signs I made

So going into the Quintiles Wrightsville Beach Marathon, I felt pretty confident about the sherpa task at hand.  This was no half marathon, however.  This was the Full Monty.  My sister, Marcie, was running her 10th Marathon.  Yes, 10th.  As an aside, she's got this thing about that.  I ran a marathon first.  So then she did 7 of them.  Then I started doing them again, and closed the gap to 7-4.  Then she has to zip all the way up to 10 to secure her lead. It's a bit immature, but I digress . . .

The Girls before the Trip

Then there is my wife, Laura, and our friend Kary.  This was their very first marathon.  They had not even done any half marathons until the fall of 2013.  But now with 5 half's under their belt, they were ready to mix it up with the big girls.  Then, from the girls' running group was one other girl doing the full, three other girls doing the half, and a couple doing the marathon relay.  So I had some peeps out on the course as they say.

On Friday before the race, I offered a bit of FB encouragement:

The race was on Sunday, so we drove down Saturday morning.  I led the caravan of 4 cars. My parents and Laura's mom came for the weekend as well.  So he headed down with 13 people.  We didn't stop on the way, and had lunch at Which Wich when we got there.  We headed over to the expo.  The girls got their packets and checked out the stuff for sale.  Not a real big expo, so not a lot of stuff to go through.

We headed over to the hotel around 2pm and checked in.  I went for a run, just out to the ocean and back for 8 miles.  We headed over to Longhorns and ate around 5pm.  So a pretty quiet evening as Laura got all her stuff together.  I had her check and recheck to make sure she had everything.

I also put together my sherpa bag.  I use my Ironman Chattanooga backpack.  The straps on the outside work really well to hold rolled up signs.  It has plenty of room to hold whatever clothes, hats and gloves the girls may throw at me.  Since I had 4 girls running the full, 3 girls running the half, and a husband wife team doing the relay, there was the potential for me to have to carry a lot of clothes.

Pre Race Finish Line Pic

I packed my sherpa essentials: Maps, Pace Charts, Camera, food, phone charger battery pack, sunglasses, hat and my signs.  The phone battery charger is my sherpa secret weapon.  Though not as long as an Ironman, I knew I was gonna be out there a while, and that I would be working my phone overtime.

Race Morning
I got up with Laura at 4:30 and walked down to the lobby with her.  They had some coffee made, so I grabbed a cup.  We met up with almost everyone and eventually walked over to the shuttle buses.  It's about a 1/4 mile walk. Unfortunately, the buses were for spectators only.  There was no line, so they didn't have to wait.  I gave my sister, and Laura, and our friend Kay a hug and they hopped on the bus. I waved my sign I made just for the sendoff and I headed back to the hotel.

Shuttle Buses

I hung out in the lobby and had some more coffee.  I grabbed some bananas and stuffed them in my pack.  Soon it was time to head out to the 4 mile mark on Military Cutoff Road.  I had brought one of our old mountain bikes to help me get around the course faster.  It really paid off as I got everywhere quicker and easier than walking or running and really didn't get tired during the race. They start this race early at 6:40am, but there is an early start option, which Laura and Kary took.  They started at 6:15 am.  So it's still kinda dark when they came through the 4 mile mark a little after 7am.  First was Kary, then Laura came.  They all looked pretty good.  Marcie started at 6:40 so she came through after them.

Mile 4

Then I headed back to the hotel.  My youngest son was up, so I went down and ate some breakfast with him.  The rest of the crew met down for breakfast around 8am.  I saw them for a few minutes, but then headed off to the 11 mile mark.

Mile 11

I had originally planned to see them right at 11.  Unfortunately that was in the Landfall neighborhood.  They have a guard at each gate and he wouldn't let me in.  At first he asked me if I was a participant.  At first I thought, well I'm on a bike, so that would make running a marathon easier.  I just said no, and didn't follow up with "you idiot".  So I did say thanks for nothing and headed out around the shopping center to Highway 74 where they were coming out of the neighborhood. 

Mile 11

Marcie came through first around 8:15.  Then Laura and Kary came through together.  I swapped out nutrition bags with Laura. All 3 of them looked really good.  After they passed I headed back to the hotel.  I had a little bit more breakfast as well.  I sat there for a little bit and then realized that Marcie was coming up  on 18, on Military Cutoff Road in front of the hotel.

Mile 18

So I hopped on my bike, and I came out to the main road.  I actually spotted her ahead of me.  So I took off as fast as I could to get ahead of her.  I found my parents about a half mile down and came over and stopped by them.  I told them she was coming up quick.  She said she felt pretty good, and she looked it.  I then headed back to the hotel to get the kids and Laura's Mom.  I roused them out into the car.  My oldest was still asleep, but Kary's son and my youngest all went with me.  We brought some chairs and I got the old folks all setup to see Laura as she came by.

Mile 18

Mile 18

Laura and Kary had the look of 18 miles into their first marathon.  I offered words of encouragement and they seemed to be in good spirits all things considered.  I then took the boys and Laura's Mom to the finish line and set them up on the final stretch to the finish so she could wait there.  Soon Marcie was coming into the finish.

The Final Stretch

She blazed through ahead of her goal pace and finished in 3:46:04! Pretty impressive.  I congratulated here in the finish chute, telling her what a great time she had.  She seemed pretty pleased.  I then headed back to the hotel to get my oldest who was finally up.  I took him to the finish and then hopped back on my bike and headed out to mile 24.

Mile 24

Again I was at the Landfall Gate and couldn't go inside.  As I'm checking my pace chart I see that they are not on pace.  5 minutes go by, then 10, then 15.  I started getting quite worried.  This race has a bunch of time cutoffs throughout the course.  They try and open up different sections of road and clear the draw bridge.  So they have cutoffs at miles 4, 11, 19, 24, and the finish (yes even 24).

Mile 24

So a wave of relief came over me when I finally saw Laura come out of the neighborhood.  She was in a full walk, But she was determined.  She had made all the cutoffs and now she just had to get to the finish.  She had been in a lot of pain, but she wasn't gonna quit.  Kary came through a few minutes after.  She didn't seem to be in such good spirits so I did what I could to cheer her on.

Coming to the Final Stretch

After seeing them go through 24, I texted my sister and headed off toward the finish.  I told everyone they were in the last 2 miles and we got ready to see them.  My son texted me when they came through the 26 mile mark, so I got the camera ready.  They both seemed pretty happy at this point.  They got spurred on the run in the last 100 yards even though they were hurting so much.

The Big Finish

Laura came across first and she just had permagrin across her face.  Kary got kind of emotional when she saw her son.

It really was an amazing moment.  Laura grew up in a very sedentary lifestyle.  For so many years she thought I was crazy for all the running I did.  "How can you like it?" was a common phrase.  I think that at that moment, when she crossed the finish line, and completed a marathon, she was able to open her eyes to a whole new world. I have read that only 0.5% of the US Population has run a marathon.  It is an exclusive club indeed.  There is a feeling you get when you accomplish something that at one time, you thought was impossible.  It is hard to describe, but it is an incredible feeling.

Eventually we got back to the hotel.  Everyone took showers and we headed over to On the Border for a post race celebration and had a really good time.  I watched the kids at the pool again, so we all had a relaxing afternoon before heading back home the next morning.

It is the job of the sherpa to look after their athlete's every want and need.  To double and triple check the race details.  To be a chaeuffer, water boy, and clothes handler.  To report back and update anyone who is interested in their progress.  The Athlete is the rock star.  The sherpa is the stage hand.  The idea is to try and take all the stress and worry out of everything else so they can focus on their race.

Sherpa Mapping

I wore my Garmin watch during the whole race (yeah I'm geeky like that).  I put in 17 miles on foot, bike, and a little bit in the car.  I caught everyone I wanted to see at miles 4, 11, 18, 24, and the finish.  I got pictures on my phone for constant facebook updates all morning long for all 3 girls.  If there was a Kona for sherpas, I'm pretty sure I would have qualified.  But, alas, there is not. This was my "A" sherpa race, and I nailed my World Championships.

Blakeney Masters

So it's been quite well documented that swimming is my weakest of the three triathlon disciplines.  Just to prove it to you, let's look at my performance at Ironman Chattanooga.  With a huge current that kept me much closer to the leaders than any other course would, I was way back in the pack.  I mean coming out of the water in 737th place out of almost 1,600 non-pro men, isn't exactly impressive.  Thats the 46th percentile.  Compare that to my bike and run splits that were both in the top 1% (well 0.7% and 0.5% respectively).

So there's some work to do. I put more yards in last year than ever before.  I did a lot of 4,000+ yard workouts.  Most of that was on my own.  I was still going to Masters in Rock Hill, but the last few months I had been swimming in my lane by myself.  There are quite a few different group levels, and quite a few lanes in the pool.  So consequently, there are not a lot of people in each group.  So I'm ahead of the beginners, but not fast enough for anyone else.

The Bubble

I got the workouts, and they were great, but no instruction.  I guess I was hoping that there would be more "coaching".  There really was none of that.  The people were great, and it did help me a lot last year, but I still felt like I needed more.

Sans Bubble.  Someday I will see this!

So my friend, Melissa, at Inside Out Sports gave me Patty Waldron's email.  I had meant to contact her at the beginning of the year, but I was a slacker.  I finally got to meet her at fellow Big Sexy Brad's fundraiser, Bubbles for Bears.  It was good to connect with her and put a face to the name.  So shortly thereafter I showed up on a Wednesday in the middle of February.

Bubbles for Bears with the Big Sexy Crew

The Blakeney Swim and Racquet Club is located on Rea Road south of I-485.  It takes me about 17-18 minutes to get there at 5 o'clock in the morning.  It is an outdoor pool, but they have a bubble.  The concrete is still very freaking cold!  As I started swimming there, I quickly realized that these people were hard core.

8 Degrees and Fog

One morning it was 8 degrees outside, and like 30 people showed up to swim in this outside bubble with frozen concrete. Hard Core.  The facilities are probably the least of any pool I've swam at.  Luckily none of that really matters.

This could be fun to swim at in the summer

Patty started instructing me from the get go.  She runs the practices but she doesn't swim.  She observes people and gives instruction along the way.  She also explains the workout, gives encouragement, and yells at people to start intervals.  I never swam growing up, so she is by far the most enthusiastic person about swimming that I have ever met.

Summer, Summer, Summertime

She even took a video of me one morning to show me had bad I was.  Well, she didn't phrase it that way, but you get the point.  I've also begun learning different strokes.  Before Blakeney, I had never done anything other than freestyle.  Now I'm actually learning breaststroke and the backstroke.  No butterfly yet, we'll see.

Bring your Equipment to the Bubble

I did have to get a kickboard.  Like I said, the facilities have a lot to be desired.  So you bring your own paddles, buoy, kickboard, and fins. So I'm starting to get used to it now, and I'm really starting to enjoy it.  I don't have to think about swim workouts.  I just show up, and do the workout.  There is usually 5 or 6 people in the lane, so I can just follow everyone else.  I've never really circle swam before, so that's taken some getting used to.  I'm always afraid I'll get in someone's way because I'm so slow.  Luckily I seem to be able to hold my own during the kicks.

The Clubhouse

After the swim, I dry off some, throw some clothes back on and drive up to the clubhouse to shower.  Sometimes the guy has coffee ready, which is nice.  I hop back in the car and head up to 485 to get into Charlotte.  The traffic is good on 485 as they have the extra lanes opened up from Rea all the way to 77.  I hit some traffic at the 485/77 merger, but overall not too bad.  It is faster than making the drive all the way in from the Rock Hill Aquatics Center.

Yeah, we do some serious kicking

The cost of the group is about the same as the Y.  I did have to join US Masters Swimming.  That's basically for the insurance, so Patty or the Club is not liable.  So I'm gonna stick with it this year.  Patty thinks in 3 months I can make some real progress.  So we'll see at Eagleman 70.3 as that will be a non wetsuit suit.  It will be a true test.  Bring.  It.  On.

Banks Trail 5K Race Report

My first race of the year.  My training had finally started to kick in the last few weeks.  I felt like I was floundering for most of November, December and January.  I felt pretty good heading into this little local 5K race.  This is the second year of this race.  It is a fundraiser for the sports at my son's middle school.  I did this race last year, and as I said, it's mostly kids 11 to 14 years old and their parents who occasionally jog.

So why do I show up?  Think of the children . . . and how much fun it is to rub it in the face of a bunch of punk teenagers trying to run fast to impress the girls.  But I digress . . .

My parents were nice enough to pick up our packets on Friday.  They were both going to do the walk, but my mom had to pass on account of her heel.

The weather was dryer this year, but also colder.  It was about 32 degrees at the start.  It was just me and my 14 year old son running the race.  My wife and younger son opted out.  They didn't have as many people running this year.  There were just 140 registered this year, and there were over 300 last year.  I think the age group breakdown that they do kept a bunch of regular runners away.  Some of the people that came just to do another road race didn't show up when they heard that all the adults were lumped into one 16 and over age group.

All the stuff in the bag

So everyone huddles in the gym until right before the race starts.  I mean they don't leave the building until about 3 minutes before the start.  I did get in a little warmup and some striders in.  I had been pretty sore all week from playing basketball on Tuesday night.  We played adults versus the kids with my son's 6th to 8th grade team.  10 minutes of basketball and I was hurting the rest of the week.  It's tough getting old.  But today was yet another opportunity to school some more punk teenagers.

Start/Finish Line

I positioned myself near the front with my son and a couple of his friends.  As the timing guy yelled "Start" I just kinda strode out pretty easily and slowly built up to pace in the first couple hundred yards.  Not much competition as just after the 1/4 mile, I took the lead from 3 kids.  As I passed I heard, "OK, we're dead."

Initial Out and Back

So then I just tried to keep my stride and my pace.  I've rode this road hundreds of times on my bike, but haven't really run it. This first mile is basically a slow gradual uphill the whole time.  About a half mile in, I felt pretty tired, but thought "this is what it's gonna be like" so I just went with it.  I started feeling less sore as I went.  I guess I was working the kinks out, so my stride started to feel smoother.

I was glad to come though that first mile with a 6 flat split as it was mostly uphill.  The second mile had several ups and downs in it.  I didn't do so well on the 'ups'.  When I hit the end of the lollipop of the course I tried to lengthen my stride and push.  Seeing all the people on their way out certainly was a pick me up.

As we came back through the crossover for the lollipop, the gator that was leading got hung up in some traffic.  I passed them on the left between the oncoming traffic.  Once it thinned out a bit, the Gator sped up and passed me.

So I tried to length my stride that last mile.  Again, when I passed people, I kinda got a boost of energy.  That was especially true when I passed my Dad who was doing the walk.  I came down near the turn for the finish and went up that last little hill.  I was glad to put a good last mile in at 5:52 to make up for that 6:09.  I just tried to push that last little bit for the finish.  I crossed the finish line first to very little fanfare.  The RD congratulated me on a good race.  I told him it was a course record (that's  a joke).

The Boys after the Race

I got some bagels and bananas and something to drink.  I waited for everyone else I knew to finish.  One of my son's friends that I've known since he was born came in second just ahead of his principal.  I went outside just in time to see my Dad finish the walk.  He said he enjoyed it quite a bit!

My Dad Finishing

They had a raffle for all the entrants (and you could buy extra tix), but we didn't get anything.

Ann, Thomas, Ransom, Jake, Kary, and Me

Since this is a middle school fundraiser run they have different age groups as I mentioned before.  They have 10 and under, 11-12, 13-15, and then 16 and up.  That last one is kind of a big age group.  I got the overall award, but they double dipped and gave me the 16 and up as well.

Winners, Winners, Chicken Dinners

Our friend Kary won the women's 16 and up.  And Thomas, who was second overall, obviously won the 13-15 age group.

Always Representin' Big Sexy Racing

I was glad to get a good tempo run in and win the race.  Full Results Here.  I got a gift card to Six Pence Pub and to Omega Sports.  And a sweet certificate!

2015 Race Preview

I'm pretty pumped about my 2015 race schedule.  It may be just because we have that race in Hawaii in October.  Maybe it's because I'm doing a Challenge race.  Maybe it's because I'm trying to follow the exact same formula that brought me success in 2014.  Maybe it's just because I like to race.  So without further adiue: my 2015 Race Schedule:


 02.28 Banks Trail Middle School 5K, Fort Mill, SC.  Not exactly a blockbuster start to the year.  But, hey, you need to get in shape first, and most of January and February I'm primarily swimming.  But I have to do this race, you know, to defend my "Title".  Last year I won a $50 gift card to some restaurant that I can't quite remember the name to.  Anyways, think of the children.  It's for the kids.  That, and additional subsidies for a school for which I'm already paying for through taxes and new fees everytime the kid brings home a piece of paper.  But I digress . . .

04.11 Charlotte RaceFest Half Marathon, Charlotte, NC.  OK, now we're talking.  A real race with some real competition.  I really want to try and lay down a post-35 PR.  Or what I call a second kid PR.  I have to separate out my PR times because I will never be able to touch the times that I ran in college or right after college.  I'll never touch a 1:13 half again, but I would like to run faster than the 1:21 I ran last year in Rock Hill.

05.17 Challenge Knoxville Half, Knoxville, TN.  I'm kinda excited about doing this Challenge race.  I was going to do the Carolina Half near home, but it went away this year.  I'm interested to see what Challenge has to offer, being the anti-WTC, anti-Ironman racing series now.  I know this was a Rev3 race, but I'm hoping by next May that Challenge will have put their stamp on it.

I've done the Oly and Half at Rev3 South Carolina (now defunct) and the half at Rev3 Florida.  I had kinda soured on Rev3 races and didn't do one in 2014.  It was mostly because the price was the same as an Ironman 70.3 but you didn't get the same race value.  An Ironman 70.3 has similar swag, but the production and the competition is immensely better.  Plus they are talking about qualifying for an "Americas Championship" race.  The details of that are yet to be released, but if there's a chance to qualify for something then I'm in.  Of course if you have to do multiple races to qualify, then I'm out.  At least until the next season.

 







06.14 Ironman Eagleman 70.3, Cambridge MD.  I've always wanted to do this race.  For me it's held a little bit more buzz, or more juice as it were.  The competition here is crazy good.  Maybe that's always been because there were Kona slots on the line.  That is not the case here in 2015.  Obviously I'm not racing here for a Kona slot (see what I did there?).

I'm here for the competition, the fast course and the salt water swim.  I've never done a salt water swim race before.  In fact I've only done a serious swim in the ocean one time, at Myrtle Beach.  So since Kona is obviously in the ocean, I feel like this will be a good simulation. Plus the hot run will be a good test as well.

09.12 Finish Strong Half Iron, Pittsboro, NC.  So this race is on the sked because it is 4 weeks out from Kona.  Like I said I wanted to simulate 2014 as much as possible.  Just like last year, a low key half (Atomic Man) 4 weeks before the big one (Ironman Chattanooga).  Plus it's up near Raleigh where I have free bed to crash at with some friends.  

10.10 Ironman World Championships, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.  OK.  So this is it.  What (almost) every triathlete dreams of.  Right or wrong, somewhere in the back of every triathletes head is the thought "I'd like to goto Kona someday."  I heard a stat one time that said only 3% of triathletes ever qualify for Kona. Obviously there are many others that race it as well via charity, celebrity, lottery, executive challenge, etc. 

For me, it's another goal.  I really want to represent myself well at this race.  The last world championship race I did (Vegas 70.3 in 2013) I had perhaps one of the worst races of my life.  I would like for that not to happen this time.  I'm not looking to place super high or anything.  I mean, its a non-wetsuit ocean swim, so I'll be 20 minutes behind everyone out of the water anyways.  Then factor in how I barely qualified.  So just statistically speaking, I have to be one of the slowest M40-44 qualifiers out there.  So I have that to look forward to.

That all being said, I think I can do relatively well.  It's a long day.  Wind and Heat are usually to my advantage.  Qualifying early lets me plan out my entire year based on building up to Kona.  So I think I have a decent shot to not embarrass myself.

So I've crafted my 2015 race schedule to be almost exactly like 2014.  That's mostly because I had an amazing year in 2014, right?  Hopefully it will all work out well for me again this year. (And kudos to me for writing this blog entry and only using the word "Kona" 9 times including this one.)