Panther Creek Weekend Aug 5th

I went up to Morristown Tennessee a day early to preride the course Saturday afternoon. This was classic east coast riding with some steep climbing and plenty of tree cover. After a season of little rainfall, the race kicked off with a swim in a lake that was so low, that most athletes, including myself, were scraping the bottom for parts of the race. Despite this, I felt very strong during the 800 yard swim and emerged from the water in second place. Unfortunately, the remainder of the race didn’t go as well. After gaining the lead in the early part of the mountain bike, I was misdirected off course. This wasn’t made apparent until entering the transition area to start the second of two laps. After a heated exchange with race officials, I was allowed to continue. I finished the bike still in the lead, but was assessed a time penalty. Going into the run, a leg twitch turned into a cramp at the halfway point. This sidelined me for approximately 5 minutes and was another mishap in an overall disappointing race. After having great luck in my first few races, this was my first introduction to some of the things that can go wrong in a triathlon. I took two big lessons from this race. First, you can never ask too many questions concerning course layout. Second, despite what happens during a race, its imperative to stay relaxed. I have yet to completely figure out a pattern to cramps, however since all other variables, such as outside temperature, nutrition, stretching, and hydration were consistent with my other races, I can only assume that the leg cramp was due to the additional stress that I put on myself after learning that I went off course. I’ll be experimenting more with cramping during my next few months of training. My next race will be World Championships October 28th, 2007 in Hawaii.