October 27, 2008 by steve.

October and time for the last triathlon of the season for Team CurbCrusher. On October 26th, I headed out to Moss Park to run in the Masters Triathlon Championship sprint triathlon. I did this race last year, so it was going to be a good chance to compare times over the past year, and its a familiar place that’s close to home so it’s a great race to end the year with.

Pre-Race

I got to Moss Park about an hour or so before the race. Since the race was in town, I was able to pick up my packed the day before, so I had my race numbers and shirt and various goodies. I walked my bike into transition and got body marked and a transponder. This was a fairly small race, I think there were less than 150 people altogether, so it was “open rack” meaning that you could choose where you wanted to put your bike. I choose a spot about two racks in from the swim entrance and up against the outside. I laid out everything, shirt, shoes, race number and set up my bucket to sit on. I think I ended up having the whole rack to myself.

Swim - 14:28

The temperature was in the upper sixties, with a slight breeze. This made it fairly cold to stand around the beach waiting for the swim start. I was in the second wave, so that meant I got to stand around for an extra five minutes. The water temperature was about 78, so when it came time to get in the water, it was warmer. I was actually toward the front of my wave as it started, as I’d gotten in the water deep enough to cover my shoulders. The swim was great. As with most swims in Lake Mary Jane though, you have no idea where people are as you can’t see your hand in front of your face in this water. I’m sure a bunch of people passed me in the water, but I got out of the water feeling good.

T1 - 5:47

T1 in a race at Moss Park has a bit of a run to it. You have to go from the lake, across the swimming beach and then into the park. Once you leave the beach, you are running either on pavement, or ground covered with pine needles, pine cones and a number of hidden roots and cypress knees. Needless to say, this can be a painful run. At the transition area, it time to sit down and get shoes and socks on, along with a bike jersey and a helmet. Grab the bike and head out on the road.

Bike - 41:02

The bike course had changed since last year, but is still basically the same. Leave Moss Park, make a right on Lake Mary Jane Road and head around the lake until it’s time to turn around. Back a couple of months ago, I did the aqua bike race and was able to average 18 mph on this course, so I was hoping for a repeat. There was a bit of an easterly breeze this morning so part of the outgoing leg was into the wind and I could tell that I wasn’t getting the 18mph that I wanted. I was hoping to make it up on the inbound leg, but from the time you can tell I didn’t quite manage that.

T2 - 1:21

T2 is simple, dump the bike, switch from the bike jersey to the t-shirt and grap my cap. It still seems to take me a couple of minutes, but hey, the race is almost over.

Run - 31:34

I was disappointed in the run. I wanted to do it in under 30 minutes, and you can see I failed. I did make a pit stop back in the campground, which took about two minutes. So if I could ever get through a triathlon run without needing to urinate, I’d probably break three minutes. I felt good for most of the run, and only walked when making the pit stop. This is perhaps the only thing about exercise that I don’t understand. I generally drink a full bottle of Gatorade on the bike and at every water stop on the run. I sweat at a rate that could keep the Nile flowing for a month. Then I need to make a pit stop. If I don’t, it gets real uncomfortable to run. I’ve tried skipping the water on the run, with the result of being both thirsty and needing to take a pit stop.

Overall - 1:34:13

Well, I was more than four minutes faster than last year. That’s a good thing. I was really hoping that I’d run enough to get my run time under half and hour. So in some ways this was a disappointing way to end the triathlon season. It will be April or May of next year before I run another triathlon, but I plan on running a bit this winter. My first order of business is to complete the OUC Half-Marathon the first weekend in December.

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October 10, 2008 by steve.

The CurbCrusher clan’s October camping outing was trip south to the Little Manatee River State Park. This park is located just south of Tampa on I-75 near Sun City. Judging from the number of golf carts on the road as we drove from I-75 over to US-301 to go to the park, Sun City is a earlier version of The Villages located up in Lake county.

The park is a quiet park. We arrived after three pm on Friday and checked in with no problem. One of our fellow FPUC group members arrived on Thursday around noon. The ranger’s office was empty with a sign that someone would be in around three pm. He went to his site and found someone on it, so talked to the campground host to no avail. He finally went back to the front and relaxed in his 5th wheel until the ranger showed up around three. He was told that there is no ranger during the week until three pm, and they are there from eight to eight on the weekends.

It is a couple of miles from the ranger station to the campground. The road is paved at both ends, but it is dirt in the middle. After you pass both the day use areas, the road turns into a dirt road. Then as you get to the campground, the road is paved again, as is the loop around the campsites. However, the campsites are not paved, but are easy enough to back into and wide enough for slides and awnings. There is water and electricity at the site, and a dump station on the way out of the campground. There is also a horse camping area located adjacent to the dump station.

I enjoyed the weekend. I read an entire book and did little or nothing other than visiting with our fellow FPUC members. Lady CurbCrusher did not like the park, and complained that there was nothing to do. This is true, there are not really any good hiking trails, and even though there is a river there are no canoe or kayak concessions in the park to take advantage of the river. There is a canoe outfitter located about three miles outside the park that rents canoes for a run into the park, and runs a bus that will pick you up in the park and take you back to the canoe place. So this is a great park to go to with people you know and want to visit with. I personally think the park rates a four out of five as a place to relax. Lady and Little CurbCrusher give the park a two out of five as there was no real playground in the camping loop and there wasn’t a lot else to do.

All in all, as the first trip since Labor Day, we were happy to be out camping again and our pictures are here.

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