Things didn’t go so well at Kure Beach. The same storm system that dumped ten inches of rain on the DC area was churning up the sea at Kure Beach. It was extremely choppy surf with huge powerful waves hitting the shore. Someone said it was worse than last year, which was really bad. They announced that if we didn’t want to swim in those conditions, we could just do a duathlon with the run/bike/run. I stood on the beach before the race watching as all three buoys came loose and the lifeguards on surfbaords had trouble chasing them down and getting back out to place them. Then as I was waiting for my wave I saw most of the yellow cap guys (age 40-49) give up return to shore. I chatted with a woman in my wave standing next to me about how we are supposed to get thru that if those guys couldn’t. I decided that I’d at least try.

The waves were so powerful and they just kept coming with no break in between to make headway. I tried diving under each time and kicking hard, but each time could feel the wave pulling me back toward shore. After a while, I looked aroudn and couldn’t see the buoy over the huge waves, so had no idea where I was, and didn’t see any other swimmers around. I looked at my watch and had been in the water for over 6 minutes. I decided to give up and just do the optional duathlon.

I was told by volunteers on shore to stand by the beach transition area and wait for them to call the duathlon start. After waiting with a few others for about 5 minutes, someone said they thought that it had started a long time ago. We went up to the road where the run started and the volunteers confirmed that the duathlon started a long time ago, and told us to just go ahead and go.

I was disappointed at my failure to get past those waves, and very angry at having missed the official start of the duathlon. I started off at a slow jog and considered just throwing in the towel. The duathlon wasn’t going to give me any points for the series, and getting started late was going to make my official time look crappy.

I decided that I really needed a good hard workout, so I’d stick it out. Then I thought, hell, I’m going to try and pass everyone I see. I did pass everyone I saw, which was fun, tho I realized I was at the back of the pack, so it was easy! I yelled at someone during the bike that was blocking to “move over or pass”. When I did my flying dismount, I heard a guy behind me say “Wow, nice dismount!”. On the run, I slowed my pace down for a minute to chat with a guy I had met the night before. He said he made it thru the swim and I high fived him as I said I didn’t. Completing the run I had to go through the transition area and dodge around all the racers who were preparing for the final swim. I was sad that I wasn’t among them. I crossed the timing mat, and knew I had done well, but it wasn’t the same feeling as crossing the official finish line.

Duathlon Results:
My watch said I completed the run/bike/run in 1:00:04. If I had been able to put in a decent swim, I’d have done really well.

Official Duathlon Results:
Run 1.5 miles : 22:05 (i missed the start of the DU by 7 or 8 minutes.)
Bike 20k: 32:39
Run 1.5 miles: 14:17
Overall Time: 1:09:00

I saw the woman I had chatted with earlier on the beach. She was studying people making their final swim. She commented on how they were just taking their time not panicing. I asked her if she had made it thru the swim, and she said no, and that she felt awful about not getting to cross the finish line. It turned out, she was the woman who wins my age group at all the NCTS races. Very nice and smart woman! When I told her I had seen her name at the top of my age group in nearly every race, she replied that she was merely lucky. Triathletes sure are a modest bunch. (BTW, my bike split was only 29 seconds slower than her)

It took me several days before I let go of my swim failure and could once again look at the ocean and enjoy watching and listening to the waves crash against the beach.

The biggest bummer of not completing the race is that I didn’t get any points for the NCTS series. I am trying to make it into the invitational race at the end of the season.

The good thing about my failure is the fact that I shifted my race thinking from looking at my watch and competing against only myself and my predetermined goal….to trying hard to pass people and competing against other racers.