I first saw the application at the Mt Washington road race, and was immediately interested.  The race featured a 6.5m mountain bike leg from Franconia NH up 1,000 feet on a mix of roads, bike paths, and single track.  This was followed by a 1/2 mile swim across Echo lake.  The final leg was a run up Cannon mountain, which was about 2.5 miles and climbed 2,200'.  It sounded like a "fun" way to step into the strange world of the triathlon.

I convinced Rich Bolt to join me, which didn't take much convincing at all!  We went up to Franconia a few weeks back and ran the course with Kevin Tilton (yes, the same Kevin Tilton who is now on the TEVA US Mountain running team!).  It looked like a fun challenge and I figured I'd just muscle my way through the bike and try to survive the swim.  Rich would be racing to win as he has the ability to bike with anyone and is running pretty fast right now as well.

On race day we found out that Rich made the first heat and I got stuck in the second heat of the bikes and started on the line 2 minutes after the first 150 runners.  Rich made the cutoff by just 4 runners!  The heats were not seeded, numbers were given based on when you entered and whatever the total was they split in half and off you went into your respective heats.

I think Rich and I were the only ones who warmed-up for the race by doing a three mile run.  I was nervous as I had only been on the bike once in the last year and hadn't swum since the Alarm were still big (yes, they were big).  I was also a bit worried about my arch.  I had a plantar fascia problem last year (I stepped out of bed and got a partial tear and a really cool looking bruise) and it resurfaced when I did a workout a few days previously.

No time to really think about that as the race director went over the logistics of the race.  I did have time to point out to Rich all of the guys in "funny" outfits.  Speedo's look funny, but even funnier when someone is riding a bike in one.  I watched the first heat head off and made my way to the front of the line.

The Race director said "only get on the line if you plan on sprinting the entire way".  I looked around and no one really seemed to mind that I got on the line.  Then we were off.  It only took a few hundred yards before I started getting passed by a significant portion of the field.  I couldn't believe how fast everyone was riding the initial flat 2 miles of open road.  Finally we hit the first hill and I got out of the "saddle" and started "honking".  I started catching people who had smoked the first 2 miles while at the same time began to pass the slower starters from the first group.  At 4 miles we turned onto the single track section.  This was tough as I still had a lot of people to pass.  It was difficult to get around groups on the narrow, but straight abandoned road section.  The "Scarface" trail section was another story.  There were mud holes and some tricky parts.  I was reduced to walking a few times to get around groups of people.  I also had a heck of a time getting my feet back into the toe clips after jumping off the bike.  My foot was hurting pretty bad whenever I ran on it and the pressure from biking in racing flats was not helping.

I hit the end of the bike ride with the 29th fastest time, passing through the exchange zone in 40th place overall (including those who started 2 minutes ahead).  This meant that I had passed 127 bikers from the first heat and about 50 from my heat who had gone out faster than me and were caught.

The transition was funny as I was the only one with a kick-stand on my bike!  I just propped it up and took off for the beach.  The swim was fine for the first five minutes, then it got tough.  I had a lot of people passing me and it was hard to keep swimming in a straight line.  At one point I got kicked and breathed in water.  It took me some time to recover (by getting on my back) and get my face back in the water.  It felt so good to hit land, I couldn't believe it had only been 15 minutes of swimming.

I swam the 112th time for the 1/2 mile with a time nearly twice that of the fastest swimmer!  I came out of the water in 51st place.

I took my time at the exchange, getting my feet dry and putting on socks and shoes.  I wasn't too worried, I just wanted to make sure my shoes wouldn't come untied.  The climb was something else.  The footing was lousy in spots, with lots of lose dirt.  The best running seemed to be in the grass along the access road we were running up.  I looked ahead and could see plenty of people to pass.  It took me about 5 minutes to feel like I was running, and by that point my foot was really starting to hurt.  Eventually I had to run with my foot at 90 degrees as any attempt to push off with my toes was agony.  I couldn't believe I was running like that (or fast walking) and still passing people.  I pushed right to the finish and was glad to be done.

On the climb I passed 30 people as I ran the 5th best time.  I crossed the line in 21st, but moved up to 18th as a few had started 2 minutes ahead of me.

Rich ended up finishing second, but kind of got gypped as the winner was in the second heat and Rich never got to race him head-to-head.  I ended up with an severely aggravated Plantar Fascia and a couple of days off for my efforts.  Plans are in the works to go back next year, and make it into the first heat!