Endurance events for 2009

With Spring arriving I am looking forward to a new season of triathlons and related endurance events to keep me busy through October. As a result, I have compiled a preliminary listing of all the events I am either planning to do for certain, or may compete/participate in depending on how I feel on the given week or day assuming I remain injury free. A fair warning though for those newbies out there--the number and frequency of these events would be considered extreme by most endurance athletes--my fellow competitors tend to compete in official races far less often than I do. Most triathletes usually compete once or twice a month at most though there are exceptions. Also, many of these events are not races--specifically the trailnet rides and the long distance brevet series rides in Edwardsville and if I wake up not feeling up to a ride on Sunday after a hard race on Saturday, I will skip certain events. For me the rides are an opportunity to ride in a pack and typically I won't be pushing too hard unless that is my only event scheduled that particular week. Without further ado, my tentative schedule for the remainder of 2009:

Triathlon and endurance/racing events for 2009

April

April 4th Saturday 200k or 300k long distance bike ride Edwardsville IL
April 5th Sunday Flat as a Floodplain ride Trailnet
April 11th Saturday Shakespeare’s Duathlon Columbia MO
April 12th Sunday Rez Run crestwood MO 5k plus road race
April 19th Saturday Go St. Louis Marathon
April 25th Saturday 200, 300, or 400k long distance bike ride Edwardsville IL
April 26th Sunday Steamboat triathlon Cape Girardeau MO

May

May 3rd Sunday Trizou triathlon Columbia MO
May 9th Saturday Trailnet ride or O’Fallon Criterium race or open water swim in New Town St. Charles
May 16th Saturday 200, 300, or 400k long distance bike ride Edwardsville IL
May 17th Sunday Trailnet Ride or Rolla Road Race
May 23rd Saturday Wheels over wildwood
or brevet ride Edwardsville IL 300 or 400k or open water swim
May 24th Sunday Wheels over wildwood day 2
May 25th Monday Highland biathlon or Trailnet ride
May 30th Saturday O’Fallon road race or open water swim New Town

June

June 6th Saturday QuaterMax Triathlon Innsbrook or Mud Run 5k Mascoutah
June 7th Sunday Trailnet Ride
June 13th Saturday Trailnet Ride or 600k long distance bike ride Edwardsville
June 14th Sunday Mo State Road Race Championships Ste. Genevieve
June 21st Sunday St. Peters Rec Plex triathlon or O’Fallon MO cycling race
June 27th Saturday 600k long distance bike ride Edwardsville
June 28th Sunday Trailnet Ride

July

July 4th Saturday Macklind Mile
July 11th Saturday Soulard Criterium
July 12th Sunday Joker’s Wild Half Marathon or Trailnet ride or Babler Circuit Race
July 19 Sunday Racine Half Ironman race, Racine Wisconsin
July 26th Sunday Tour de Kirkwood Triathlon or Trailnet ride



August

August 1st Saturday Missouri cycling Time Trial Championship (Jeff City?)
August 2nd Sunday Road Criterium Jefferson City or Trailnet Ride
August 8th Saturday Wood River triathlon
August 9th Sunday Trailnet ride
August 16th Sunday Trailnet ride
August 23rd Sunday Trailnet ride

September

September 4th Friday Gateway Cup Lafayette Square MO (?)
September 5th Saturday Gateway Cup (?) or Great Illini challenge triathlon (?)
September 6th Sunday Gateway Cup (?) or trailnet Giro ride on the Hill (?) neighborhood
September 12th Saturday MS150 (?)
September 13th Sunday MS150 (?) or Trailnet ride (?)
September 19th Saturday Redman Triathlon Oklahoma City, OK (?)
September 20th Sunday Millstadt Biathlon or Trailnet ride
September 26th Saturday Charleston duathlon in Charleston IL
September 27th Sunday Trailnet ride

October

October 11th Sunday Chicago Marathon (?) or Lakeland Duathlon or Ride the Rivers
Century Ride
October 24th Saturday Great Floridian Full Ironman race, Clermont Florida

*The bold connotes events that I have either already committed to in the form of paying race fees or anticipate competing in unless something extremely unusual would compel me to be elsewhere etc. Also, a number of additional races will likely be added as the season progresses and additional races send out race entries.

Castlewood Cup Race on 2/28/09

Saturday morning was the inaugural Castlewood Cup race sponsored by Big River Running in a local park in the suburb of Ballwin. It is one of the locations where the Big River runners meet twice a month for their long runs. Since late December I have made it a point to show up each Sunday when I haven't been competing to get in a long run on a consistent basis. The course itself was almost exclusively on trails through the park which also are used for mountain biking. I don't normally use the specific trails of the race course during my training runs since they are pretty hilly and I am usually trying to keep my effort and pace fairly consistent on the flat ground which is actually not that hard since this is a very large park with probably a couple thousand acres I would guess.

The race course was quite hilly in parts especially near the beginning when we started up a massive hill after running around the edge of the parking area for the first 1200 meters or so. I came out two weeks prior to the race and previewed the course, and thus knew the hills would be brutal to try and race. During the preview I actually walked up part of the first hill since there was a backlog of runners on a small trail but also because my poor legs needed a little break. I anticipated having to walk parts of the course during the race on the first hill but the runners ahead of me never bunched up and I held back enough not to need to walk on that first hill. I ended up seeing quite a few runners I knew and that I expected would finish near me in the final standings. There were quite a few announcements at the start of the race but I was far enough back in the field so that I couldn't hear about 95% of what was said. Good times. I ran fairly evenly coming through the five mile mark in about 47:30 with the majority of the hills coming in the first 6 miles of the course. Just after the five mile split/water station there was a major hill and quite a few people walked up it. I ran/jogged slowly up it slowly but surely and passed a few people.

Did I mention the weather? Yeah, it was cold, very cold. About 21-23 degrees during the race and I was wearing two bottom layers and three top layers plus hat and gloves. Trail racing is not really a specialty of mine so I was just happy not to twist an ankle and finish the race. It was billed as a 10.1 mile course but part of the instructions I missed probably included the fact that due to recent rain/weather they cut the course short to about 9.2 miles. I came out of the woods (around mile 8) and shortly thereafter we had to cross a creek and everyone's shoes became soaked with very wet water. We finished about 1 mile later but running in wet shoes in 20 degree weather is not a normal training occurrence. I tried to hold my pace the last mile or so but it was something of a struggle. Overall a good effort and I was surprised to finish in 129:19. I expected to finish around 140:00 but the short version of the course certainly helped my final time. I only walked/stopped long enough to drink half a cup of water at the five mile mark/waterstop.

I am a huge fan of the Big River Running races/guys so I will certainly be back next year assuming they come back to Castlewood for this race in 2010. Overall I finished in 115th place out of 297 total runners so I was in the top half of overall finishers.

The following day on Sunday I went back out to Castlewood to meet up with the Big River Running group for their weekly long run and just a handful of people showed up. I dropped off the pace of the fast guys almost immediately and ran alone for about an hour including on some of the hills. My legs were still quite sore and I stopped after the first five miles rather than the two hour run I had hoped to complete. As I type this on Monday my legs are still sore.