Mountaineer 1/2 Ironman Race Report

The weekend started with a four hour drive from Harrisburg, PA to Morgantown, WV saturday morning. I arrived at the expo to pick up my race packet and tee shirt. The start/finish is at a park downtown so, in a college town, there were lots of bars. We decided to go to a bar for lunch but not before a quick dip in the river. I did a quick 12 min swim out to the first marker and back. Then went to the bar.

It was a microbrew pub so we got to sample some of the local beers. Had some apps and decided we should probably drive the bike course before checking into the hotel. Bad idea.

The bike course for the 1/2 Ironman was three loops of 9ish miles out and 9 back. The first mile or two was taking out out of town. Then the first hill came. "Not too bad", I thought. Then we turned off onto the back roads and we started heading down. At the bottom of the hill our friends in another car pulled off and stated that we should be almost there. I looked at my odometer and said we only went 3.3 miles. Then we started up the hill... and kept going, and going and going. Not even a false flat to catch your breath. The hill was just over 2 miles long. There was about a mile of flat and then the Olympic turn around sign. This is were things got shitty. It was up and down, up and down, up and down about 5 more times in 3 more miles. Not a good sign.

We found our hotel and checked in to our room before dinner. We were there for about 30 minutes before we drive the 5 miles back downtown to have some italian for dinner. Not a bad place. Went back to the hotel and set my alarm for 5am.

Woke up the next morning to several text messages that my twin sister had a baby! So the day started off on a good note. I had a quick breakfast of a honeybun and coffee from the hotel lobby. Drove over to the park and started setting up my transition. I went over and got body marked and got my timing chip.

There were four different races going on, five if you included the dualathon. The woman's only race was about 1/2 a sprint, the sprint, olympic and half iron. We started last.

Almost 8am came around and we were finally called down to the dock. Everyone started by jumping off the dock after walking over the timing mat two at a time. The course was two laps and with the water temp at 76, pretty warm for a wetsuit. I still wore one, though. Swimming smooth and long I came out of the water in 39 minutes. Ran to transition and got my bike. Then the fun started.

I've talked so much about the bike course to friends already that I'm tired of it. The first look took about 1:10, followed by the second around 1:20 and the third lap around 1:25. The two mile hill just kept getting harder and harder. I was either going up the hills at 5mph or screaming down them at 45mph.

I felt suprisingly fresh after the 4 hour bike and ready to run. I ran with two people for the first mile. My time was right about 8 minutes. The sun went away and the temp came down a few degrees. I was having some chafing issues on my arm so it felt like I was running with a chicken wing sticking out. The run course was again a 3 lap out and back of 4ish miles on a bike path. I really only saw one person that had a smile on her face.

Each mile kept getting slower and slower and I was averaging around 9:30 miles nearing the last lap. I hooked up with an runner who was walking and decided to walk with him. Not that he slowed me down but I really didn't have the motivation to run. I was getting bloated by all the water, coke, and infinit they had. They had pretzles but with a dry mouth, they were really hard to get down. I also had to make two stops at the port-o-pot to try and make some room for the liquid. I was on my third lap and he was only on his second. We ran/walked those four miles and I left him at the turn around. I ran another .25 miles and finished in 7:03. A terrible time but considering my 14 mph average speed on the bike, not too bad.

I checked my time and to my suprise I was actually 3rd place for clydesdale! But the bad news was they were all out of awards! I wrote my name down and they are going to ship it to me.

I went over to the post race food and was dissapointed. From what I can remember, they had carrots, grapes, trail mix, pretzles, oranges, apples, watermelon and PB&J sandwiches. I filled my plate but wasn't hungry. I had two slices of watermelon and a coke and threw everything else away. Nothing seemed good to me. We packed up our stuff and started to four hour drive home. About 20 minutes in we did stop at Wendys and that's where I got my hot, salty food that I craved.

My thoughts on the race? I knew it wasn't a big race but it fit my schedule so I did it. I understand WV is hilly but I wasn't expecting all the hills. The elevation map didn't do it justice. I guarantee I'm not going back to defend my 3rd place finish next year!

Black Bear Olympic Triathlon Race Report

It’s been awhile since I posted, so I figured I would get back into it since the racing season has begun with my race report from Black Bear Olympic Triathlon last weekend in the Pocono Mts.


This is my second year participating in this race and both times with Team in Training. You can check out my website here. Saturday was a travel day consisting of 1.5 hours. First I had to mow the lawn and run some errands. We left for the Poconos around 11am. We hit some traffic because of an overturned tractor trailer and got to Beltzville State park just shy of 1pm. My wife, son and I headed over to packet pickup and got our stuff. Nothing too exciting. We were on our way back to check in to the hotel when I came upon Coach Joe in the parking lot getting his bike ready to ride the course. We said our hellos and got back into the car for the four mile drive to the hotel.

There were open water swim clinics at 2pm and 3pm and a few of us were planning on attending to check the water temp and get acclimated to the water. We all drove over around 3pm and swam for about 20 minutes. They had some smaller boys set up to practice sighting, but they were only about 50 yards apart.

We went back to the hotel to get ready for our prerace dinner in Jim Thorpe. We had a beer or two at the hotel, then a beer or two at dinner, then came back to the hotel and had another one. Just something to help us sleep.

Race morning started at 4:30am with the alarm going off. Nothing too out of the ordinary since I hit the gym most days at 5am. The hotel was serving a hot breakfast so mine consisted of French toast, sausage, a hard-boiled egg and a toasted bagel. Carbo loading (plus I love breakfast). We headed over to the park around 5:45 and got transition all set up and just hung out until 7:15 till the race was starting. I took a few strokes in the water to warm up. My wave started at 8:04ish.

The swim was a 1500m out and almost back. Sighting was easy since we were going away from the sun and the water was calm. There might have been 30 people in my wave so we were pretty spread out by the first sight boys. I took the swim nice and easy, nothing too fast. My HR was anywhere from 140-145. My swim time was 22:52. 64th out of 269 finishers. T1 was 2:30, about average.

Running out of transition to the bike was uphill for about 1/8 mile. We hop on our bikes and out of the park. The bike portion is rolling hills for the first seven miles. Fast downhills and slow uphills. Coach Blob and I were going back and forth the entire time. After the sprint people cut off the course gets fast. There was a stretch of about three miles where we could just open it up. I got down in aero and cranked. The extension for the Olympic course was a lollipop and my tire felt mushy as soon as I got back to the lollipop stick.

The tires seem inflated so I kept pushing. There was a long downhill followed by a very long uphill. We were probably averaging around 7 mph going up the hill. About 50 yards from the top my tire felt very low. I stopped and checked it and there was a nice spring sticking out of it. I stood there for about 30 seconds debating on whether or not to change it or just pump it up and see if it holds air. I decided to change it. Ripped the old tube out and jammed the new tube in and inflated it with the CO2 and I was off. I estimated from the time I stopped to check till the time I was off was about 5:30-6 minutes.

I was pissed and lost all motivation to place in my division. Plus there were still more uphills. After cresting the last uphill and starting on the downhills, I gained confidence and started pushing again. Coming back into T2 my bike time was 1:32.45. The Garmin with auto-pause had me at 1:26.

T2 was fast. Shoes, helmet off, running shoes on and gone. 54 seconds. The run was two loops all on trails of crushed gravel and dirt. I managed to strain my calf a few weeks ago and hadn’t fully recovered. My goal was to take it easy and kick it up at the end. The weather started heating up but I managed to put together a decent run of 51:04 or 8:14/ mile. If my calf was 100%, I could have run at least a minute faster, maybe more. Coming up to the finish I was able to pass coach Blob with 100 yards to go.

My final time was 2:50.05, about 2 minutes worse than the previous year, but when you add in the tire change, it was a PR. I figured I didn’t place because of the slow bike so we just hung out for a while and then headed back home.

I checked the results online a few days and I was right, I was 4th in my division. (Clydesdale over 200lbs) The first place Clydesdale had a finishing time of 2:44.30, so without the tire change, I would have had a real good shot at winning my division. Next year for sure!

Up next I have the Mountaineer Man ½ Ironman in Morgantown, WV on June 24th then it’s full on Ironman training (not that I’m not already training) for Chesapeake Man on September 29th.

I need your help!

Hey Guys,

I apologize for not being around as much as I used to be. I moved departments and I'm crazy busy all day long. I have just enough time to come on here and read a quick blog or two and maybe even write a comment. The phone's not ringing now so I'll try and make this quick.


I'm back for year two with Team in Training through the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This year it's personal because Leukemia has struck my family. For lack of a better title, I'm going to call my wife's brother's girlfriend my sister in law. They have been dating for a good 5 years and about 3 weeks ago she went to the doctor's office for dizziness and being tired all the time. They did some blood work, sent her to Shady Side hospital in Pittsburgh and it was confirmed she has Leukemia. She's 28. It sucks. She's my honored teammate and the person I am fundraising for this year.

She's been going through chemo for about 2 weeks and has another two weeks to go. Hopefully she'll get to come home after her last round to spend time with family. I'm going out there in two weeks because they are hosting a blood drive to try and find a match for a possible bone marrow transplant.

Anything you can give would help. My personal goal is $1.800 and I'm about 1/2 way there after only sending out letters and emails for one week. I'm hoping to raise a lot more than $1,800 because cancer sucks and we need to beat it.

Please look at my website for more details and how to contribute. Anything you can give, even if it's just $5, will still help the cause.

If you are interested in Team in Training and fundraising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, send me a message and I can hook you up with the right people!

click here for my fundraising webpage

Nittany Valley 1/2 Marathon

27th annual this past Sunday and last year was the first I heard about this race, I even went to school at PSU and never heard of it. It's a very low key race with entry fees of $18 that included chip timing and a long sleeve tee shirt. Not too shabby.

Weather that day called for a high of 38 degrees but it was going to be a lot colder in Happy Valley. The nice thing about this race is the 10am start time. I'm sure a lot of the 600 entries don't live in the immediate area. Taking about 1 1/2 hours to drive up there, my buddy Keith and I left about 6:45. We were one of the first people there. I was third in line to grab my goodie bag which consisted of a reusable shopping bag (although it was an advertisement for Schick Razors). The car read 25 degrees with some snow flurries so we immediately went back to the car and sat there trying to keep warm for about an hour. 9:35 rolls around and we get out and do a warm up lap. Just bitter cold, and windy.

We lined up around 9:50 and 10:05 everyone started running. Not really a 'go' or even a bull horn siren. I ran the race last year so I was familiar with the course. My game plan was to run 7:45 - 8 minute miles the first half and pick it up a little bit the second half. My buddy Keith agreed with this plan. Mile one was 7:36. A little fast but aren't all first miles fast? Second mile was 7:06 and I could tell Keith wanted to pick it up even more. I let him go. I found out he averaged about a 7 minute mile. Dick.

The course is one giant loop out to the State College airport and back around it. The first half of the course is pretty flat but as soon as you pass the airport, the hills start. Mile 7-8.5 is all downhill. Fast. I tried to hold myself back as to not blow out my quads. I hit mile 8 right at 1 hour. I think that's a 7:30 pace.

After the long downhill, we ran along a creek for about a mile then the uphills started. I struggled up the steepest one just barely plotting along. I came to the top of the hill and tried to pick it up again. A slight downhill and we were at mile 10. I came to a makeshift water stop and saw a sign that said "Water, PBR, Lager" I opted for the PBR. The carbonation tasted great and I could have probably had more than the 3-4 oz that were in the cup but regretted it about 1/2 mile down the road. Luckily the pain went away quickly and it was just one more long uphill to go. As I said, there were about 600 ppl entered but going up that last hill there was a guy about 30 seconds in front of me and one 30 seconds behind me with one volunteer 1/2 way up clapping. Plus, the wind was right in my face. I did notice the sweat drops freezing on the brim of my hat. That's how cold it was.

The finish was about 3/4 mile from the top of the hill and I could sense the person gaining on me. I picked it up and finished strong running past JoePa's statue and thru the finish line with a new PR of 1:40.27. Last year my time was 1:51.

Having only paid $18 entry fee, I knew there were no ammenties at the finish. I grabbed two bottles of water and Keith and I went back to his car. We went to the PSU Creamery. Best ice cream ever. I purchased 3 - 1/2 gallons and a cone of ice cream for my post run snack. (one 1/2 gallon was for my sister) After devouring the ice cream we went downtown to do some PSU clothing shopping. Driving thru campus it amazed me how many new buildings there were. Huge, modern looking buildings that just towered over the smaller ones that are 100+ years old. Kinda made me sad.

I had some blister problems around mile 12 but the pressure didn't hit me till last night. Look what I found!

That got popped real quick!

And two more pictures... The new family photo shoot...


Had to put two good ones in here after that blister shot!

2nd Annual Sticks and Biscuits 5k

Wednesday night I check the weather forecast and it says "ran/snow mix" for Thursday. It's only a 5k, how could could it be?

Thursday morning the alarm went off at 6:15am. Get up, make some coffee, put some clothes on and I'm out the door to Palmyra, PA (next to Hershey) to run the 2nd annual Sticks and Biscuits 5k. I have no idea why it's named this except for the fact that it's a fundraiser for a youth hockey league. It was raining/sleeting at my house when I left around 7am but stopped as I drove east. Since our weather goes from west to easy, I knew it was only a matter of time before it would catch up.

I arrive around 7:30am, check in and get my tee shirt and timing chip. I opted to not have a glazed doughnut they were giving out but instead finished my coffee. About 20 minutes before race start the weather moved in.

The race started at 8:15am and was basically an out and back course through a neighborhood. Of course when the gun went off there were no mats so everyone's chip started at the same time. And... I forgot to start my GPS till about a minute in. I was wearing shorts and a tee shirt with my running gloves. There were an estimated 600 people so it wasn't a small race. I went out fast. It felt good considering I lifted weights the day before.

I couldn't even tell you my splits because my GPS was a little off. I probably hit the first mile in about 6:30. They didn't have another split on the course till mile 2.5 which the kid yelled out 15:42 I think. There were so many turns on the course I tried to run as many tangents as I could but with the out and back style, I was dodging other people after the turn around. I kicked it into the finish beating the two people I was jockeying with the entire race and saw 19:19 as I crossed the finish line. A new PR (although everyone I talked to after the race said it was short). I hung around for the awards and it was kinda unorganized. I waited about 45 minutes from the time I finished till some lady came into the ice rink and shouted out names and numbers for the age groups... not even finishing times. With a time of 19:19, I thought I had a podium. Nope. The winners got pie anyway. I already had some with my name on it at my Aunt's house.

I just checked the results on line and I was 10th in my age group with an official time of 19:21 (6:15/mile). I guess the good news is there were 75 people in my age group. An interesting side note... the guy that won the race was disqualified. He seemed like a ringer. The real winner had a time of 15:34. Crazy fast.

On other news, the new boy Orion is doing fantastic. My mother in law left us Thanksgiving morning to go back to her family in Pittsburgh. My wife is doing an amazing job as a new mom. He's only peed on me twice where I had to change shirts. Stupid Huggies diapers are GOING BACK TO TARGET! My mother in law is already planning on making the 4 hour drive this weekend to see him again. I knew she couldn't stay away long.

Orion is finally here!

Sunday morning (well, last Sunday), we were at Target getting a few things and my wife has these stomach pains. Goes to the bathroom and tells me she thinks her mucus plug just came out. Oh shit. She's having contractions throughout the day, very inconstant. 15 minutes apart, 20 minutes, then 8 minutes. Around midnight she calls the doctor and he basically says tough it out as long as you can and come in when you are ready. 3am rolls around and she cannot sleep anymore so we go into the hospital. They check her out, 3cm 80% effaced. They make us walk the halls of the L&D floor for about an hour and a half and check her again. Still the same. They gave her two options: Go home or take some drugs so she can sleep. She took the drugs.

10am rolls around and they check her. 5cm. Woo Hoo, making progress. We finally get admitted, our own room, then the pain begins. She went a solid 12 hours with no pain meds until she was 9cm dilated and she just couldn't take it anymore. They gave her an epidural, and an hour later it was time to push. 11:09pm he finally popped out! I saw the whole thing! (I was also watching the Eagles MNF destroy the Redskins!) Before she started pushing I told her "Honey, I know your in a lot of pain, but you would mind if I put the game on mute just so I can stay updated?" Kinda dick? Not really. I didn't leave her side for almost 24 hours! Even while she was soaking in the tub at the hospital, I was next to her (reading a magazine)

So with out further adu. Orion Peter Fogelman 8lbs 11oz 21" long

No baby yet

Everything is in a frozen state as the official due date has come and gone and no baby yet. I'm just going to post some pictures of some of the sock monkeys my mother in law and sister in law made for Baby Foges. These are basically stuffed socks with buttons, stitching, and imagination.

the gang, just hanging out

someone said this will look like me in 10 yrs

pretty sweet lion!

monkey hanging out

Roo!

We have about 20 of these for the baby. I think they are pretty sweet. My inlaws are so freakin' creative. I hope Baby Foges gets some of that!

Oh and by the way, if you don't follow DC Rainmaker, do it. He has some great posts and also gives away free stuff!