Over the Mountain Triathlon
June 21, 2003
For those that
haven't done this race it is worth the trip to Kings Mountain,
North
Carolina. Kings Mountain is about 2 hours from Asheville. This
is pretty
country with Kings Mountain looming above the town. The town
treats this
race as a pretty big deal. The general population are very
much country folk
and stand some what in awe of tri folk. Some of the
conversations we had
with the locals were pretty neat. They thought we were "Gods"
and "world
class athletes". None of them seemed to notice the feet of
clay that went
from my ankles to my chin.
The race is point to point so the logistics of setting
everything up is a
hassle. The race starts in Moss Lake and goes over Kings
Mountain on the
bike. The run is a hilly 5k course that is repeated twice.
The 1500 meter
lake swim was fairly routine. The 28 mile bike course was
beautiful; going
up over the mountain with very fast downhill's with long lead
outs. The run
was the same as every other run, it hurt like hell.
The transitions were very long and the course and longer bike
section
certainly did not lend itself to a total PR.
Tri club results:
I won my Age Group 55-59M. For some reason, the other guys in
my AG, from
Winston Salem and Charlotte decided to sit down after the
first mile of the
run.
( Christmas in June and thank you Norm Blair). Sarah Katz was
8th in the
20-24 AG. She blistered the swim and then as all swimmers that
are new to
Tri's discovered, that asphalt is very unforgiving. Janet
Green was second
in the 40-44 AG. She had to really work for it. There are some
tough
"mature" women out there. Kim Shankle was 6th in the 25-29 AG.
If she ever
gets her swim down the women in that AG better look out. Diane
Sharp won the
50-54 women. That lady can flat run off the bike. Nothing like
a dose of
Maggot intervals on a Tuesday night to make the run in a tri
manageable.
I haven't given times with the places since this particular
tri is weird due to the distances and the long T-1 and T-2's. The times are on
the Set-up web site if any one is interested.
- Jim Green