The hottest in my memory, this 2010 summer, will hopefully soon become one of the most beautiful, cool autumns ever. I've been busy every weekend lately, and I'll try to wrap up a summary of those events here in one post.
Another Lake St. John Swim
On Saturday, August 14, Kay Vee and I drove to Kate's lake house, AKA "the Asylum", to do another open water practice swim. Susan drove over with her kayak, and Kate and her mother were already there for a weekend stay. Kay Vee swam across and back, about 1.5 miles, with Susan as kayak escort. Kate paddled her canoe across while I swam, and I paddled back while Kate swam. We were through with our workout in less than an hour.
Kay Vee and I brought our bikes and did one loop around the lake. It was about 11 in the morning and the temperature on my bike computer read 100.2 degrees. We had intended to ride around twice, but the heat changed our plan.
25th Cotton States Triathlon
Saturday, August 21st was the date of the 25th Annual Cotton States Triathlon at Lake Providence, Louisiana. As in years past, I awoke around 2:30 AM, picked up Kate at 4:00, and drove the 100 miles to the parking lot of the Lakeside Inn. We arrived in plenty of time to get set up comfortably, got registered and body marked, and visited with several friends. Kate and I repeated our new tradition of swimming to near the middle of the lake for a warmup just in time to see the sun rise over the cypress trees. I reminded her of the remark I made last year, "We must be crazy to get up in the middle of the night, drive 100 miles and swim 200 yards out into a lake at sunrise, and call it fun!"
There was a larger turnout for the race than in recent years, and I was anxious to set a personal record, knowing I had been training for the Rev3 Half Ironman for a few months. The swim went very well in spite of lots of bumping and jostling for position on the outbound leg. I was feeling good and maintaining a good 21 mph on the bike, when after about 12 miles I heard a loud "PING" and knew a spoke had broken. On a custom racing wheel with relatively few spokes, the loss of one is often enough to cause the wheel to "untrue" or go out of its round shape, and shortly thereafter binding itself into the frame. There is no field fix, so I sadly faced the fact that I would post a "DNF" - did not finish.
I began walking toward some trees about a mile ahead, carrying the rear of my bike since it would not roll. Soon I began to be passed by other riders, who nearly always offer to help, even though there is nothing to be done but wait for a support vehicle. I waved as John Fike and Judge Bill came by nearly at the same time, and was surprised to see Kate only a hundred yards behind them. She had made up the 4 minute head start they had enjoyed from being in the swim wave ahead of her.
A support vehicle showed up soon and I was rescued by some of the lovely Lake Providence Junior Auxiliary ladies.
I made it back to the transition area in time to put up my bike and join Kate on the 5K run. I urged her along and she wound up winning her age group.
Gator Bait at Eagle Lake - The Flounder Legend Continues
August 28th found Kate, Paul and I at Eagle Lake near Vicksburg for an open water swim meet. The race was hosted by the Vicksburg Swim Association who did a super job of organizing and putting on a great event. There were USMS officials and lots of boat support. We competed in the 1 mile event. A half mile and quarter mile event were also part of the meet.
Paul and Kate won their age groups, and I finished 3rd. We had a great time and have added this event to our "must do again" list. We had our friend in our hearts on this day. Very sadly, Kay Vee had planned to join us but did not attend due to the sudden and tragic passing of her husband the week before.
