Are you kidding me ?!?!

It is Thursday after completing the Great Lake Escape Triathlon in Lakeside-Marblehead, OH and I still think that the wind is going to blow me off my bike…

Saturday started as a very nice day. I was able to get to the beach and attempt some swimming so that my arms feel somewhat prepared for the swim on Sunday. It was nice a very nice day on Saturday. One that Mrs. Clot Buster and I enjoyed very much by touring around Put In Bay. It was neat to be on the island for sure. Some of the houses are incredible with their location so close to the water. The town itself is also really interesting. We had a great time just looking around and taking it all in… Don’t tell anyone but I even had some ice cream while walking around the town. I just could not resist some Eddy’s soft serve (first time I ever seen such a thing). While on the island we noticed that the wind was picking up in the afternoon but we thought it was normal for this time of the year as the sun was warming things up. We did not make much of it and went about the business of preparing for the race the night before without any concerns about what was to come the next day…

After snoring through the night all the way to 5AM it was time to get going. I woke up and got ready… but when I stepped outside to load my bike on the car I noticed something I was not expecting at all. The wind was still blowing and it was going harder than yesterday afternoon. I could not believe my sleepy eyes…

As we got going towards the race site, the wind was going strong. Once we got the transition area, which is right next to the beach I quickly came to the conclusion that there was not going to be a swim today. The wind was hauling. So much that the Coast Guard issued a “Small-Craft Advisory” as the 25+ knot winds were just hammering away at us. The water was pretty violent from what we could see. Far more white caps that I would have imagined. So, without the ability of having support boats out in the water the organizer did the right thing and cancelled the swim. The Clot Buster was very happy about this development for sure. My lack of swimming the last two weeks showed on Saturday and it would not have been pretty out there for me. So racing a duathlon was perfectly fine with me.

So, we all put away our wetsuits and got ready for the run-bike-run that would follow. 5K’s to get the blood flowing, then 40K’s battling the wind, and top it off with 10K’s just so that you can warm up from the bike ride. The wind from the NE was relentless. It would not give up at all. There were some sections on the bike where we headed right in the direction of the wind. Needless to say my average speed suffered some but I was able to mange 20.4MPH for the 40K course. Not bad at all, in my opinion.

Running in the sand is always interesting. How in the world do you manage to maintain the speed? The Clot Buster tried to hammer as much as he could to turn up a 22:43 5k and finish things up with a 49:13 10K.

All together The Clot Buster completed his last race in 2:27.16 (amazingly enough the organizers time matched exactly my watch…hard to believe) good enough for 5th place in the 25-29 age group. All things considered not a bad showing!

Throwing some numbers together here quickly, the Clot Buster finishes his racing summer totaling 257.6 Miles. Because he goes the extra mile he was able to muster 2.1 extra miles of effort for everyone’s delight.

Can you go the extra miles to help NATT? Please just consider matching a nickel, a dime, or a quarter to the 255.5 Miles I raced this summer… the additional 2.1 miles are just a bonus from me to you!

I need to go treat my wind-burn injuries…

Thanks for reading,

The Clot Buster