Recent Race Results »

Team Member: Louie Kirchner

Race Name: Gulf Coast Triathlon

Race Date: 5/12/2012

Race Placement/Time/Qualification: 11th AG, 4:53

Tell us about your race (limit 500 words)…: My week coming into this race was a total disaster. A trip to the doctors office the week before an “A” race is never a good sign. Race morning I felt barely good enough to toe the line. I figured whatever happens I’m just going to go after it like I would have if everything was normal (it wasn’t…far from it) and hang on for as long as I could, and just maybe I could have a good day.

There was a rip tide warning flag up when the sun came up as well as a dangerous marine life flag. The swim was the roughest swim I’ve ever done. The swells seemed enormous and I was getting tossed all over the place. I focused on managing the current and swimming straight, meanwhile my stomach was not happy about the situation. The swim would be a bright spot on the day for me – I was one of only a handful of people to swim under 30 minutes and was 3rd OA out of the water.

Out on the bike course my stomach settled down a bit and I blasted the first 25 miles in pretty close to an hour (tail wind, flat, good roads). I hung on to a 24mph avg to nearly 48 miles, then we hit the coast again and a storm had rolled in. Winds began gusting 30-40 mph and it began to rain (hard). I chose to run a disc in the rear and paid for it at the end. Traffic was also heavy and scary. I hung on for dear life and rolled into transition in 6th place, but the home stretch on the bike left me pretty defeated.

I hit the run and wasn’t feeling to bad at first. I was holding close to the pace I wanted to and felt like I was in the race for a top 5 finish. Then I realized nothing I was taking in was leaving my stomach. It was sitting in there sloshing around, which became a problem around mile 6. I just couldn’t take it anymore – all the jostling left my insides aching in pain. I walked a bit to calm it down and went into damage control mode. 7 minute miles became 8′s and 9′s as I walked through each aid station trying to will myself to the finish. Eventually I made it and was happy it was over.

It was a tough day for me, especially since I targeted this as an “A” race. I did everything I could to try to make it happen but in the end there are sometimes things you just cannot control. I’ll focus now on getting healthy and trying to rebound with a good race at Macon next month.