The Manhattan Project

After an agonizingly drawn-out summer of trying to train through the heat and humidity, the weather broke exactly long enough to complete the Atomic Man half-Ironman in Oak Ridge.

Just 10 days after blistering my feet beyond belief on an eight-mile tempo run with 90 degrees of late-afternoon sun beating down on me, I lined up to contest the third leg of our relay. Jennifer had already swum 1.2 miles in 26 minutes, exiting the water as the second relay swimmer. Incidentally, her wave started six minutes behind the first wave, and she was still ahead of the majority of the pack.

She handed off the timing chip to Allan, who proceeded to ride faster than approximately a bajillion people on the 56-mile bike ride -- which included several trips up and over K2, Everest and the Continental Divide. He put another nail in the coffin, passing a guy while running his bike down a grassy knoll into transition. Then it was my turn not to let those two bad-asses down.

Maybe I started off a little quick; I didn't start my watch until after mile 1, but the next 8 miles were all in the 6:28 to 6:58 range. It was only in the last four or five miles that the rolling hills and side stitches caught up to me, but that's my usual race plan: go out hard and risk an epic implosion. And in reality, my pace only dropped to a still-faster-than-normal clip, for a race average of 6:52/mile (7 seconds off my goal pace).

My race nutrition included one apple-pie-flavored Hammer Gel around mile 7, several splashes of water and a couple sips of Gatorade. The liquids were as likely to wind up in my shoes or behind my sunglasses as they were to find my mouth, which was the price I paid for not slowing down at most of the aid stations. But the relatively cool temperature, abundant shade and pre-race whole-wheat bagel with Nutella kept me from cramping -- even after the uphill finish atop the overlook.

Now I'm left with a couple questions. First and most important, Do I really enjoy racing 13.1 miles? My argument against the distance includes the hours of stomach discomfort afterwards; the aching in my legs two days removed; and the increased mental and physical recovery to be ready for more training and racing.

Second, Am I better suited to shorter races given my current training volume? I'm young and healthy enough to fake it, but even most competitive 5K runners train twice as much per week as I do.

Answers: I don't know yet / Who cares? I'm not getting paid to race, so I'll do whatever I (and my friends) want. We rocked the Atomic Man: first relay, third overall. I added another towel to my "RaceDay Events" Home Furnishings collection. And I had an awesome Labor Day weekend with friends, food, football and fireworks.

Next up is either the Symphony Classic 5K, or the Flintstone Sprint Triathlon. I'm ready to mix up my training with some mountain biking, hiking, trail running (yes, Cathi -- I will make time in my busy schedule) and fried apple pies -- fresh from the Apple Barn in Pigeon Forge, not a plastic tear-off packet.