2008 Giant Acorn Sprint

On Saturday, October 4, 2008, NORSA sachem Steve completed the Giant Acorn Triathlon, which is a standard sprint distance race (750 Meter Swim, 20K Bike, 5K Run). This is the second time Steven has run the Giant Acorn, the first being in 2006. The race was held at Lake Anna in Bumpass, Virginia. [Matt – the essential information has now been disseminated. You may stop reading here, or “hang up the phone” if you want. “OK. Got to go. Bye.” *click*]

Although the race began at the appealing time of 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, Steven decided to leave the Baltimore-Washington area on Friday so that he could go to the early packet-pickup and hang out with friend Andrew “Lat-man” Latimer, who resides in Richmond.

The drive to Lake Anna takes one off of I-95 and onto a nice series of country roads. After hugging some nice curves, Steven arrived at the Lake Anna Beach Marina and picked up his race number. In the first of several coincidences, Steven discovered that his race number was 429 – which is his birthday: April 29.

After picking up his race number, Steven had time to spare and decided to drive over the bike course so that he would be nice and familiar with it on race day. The bike course was a counter-clockwise square that consisted of gently rolling countryside. The views were great with 4 water crossings over Lake Anna.

So familiarized, Steven continued on his country drive before finally rejoining I-95, almost already in Richmond. Upon arrival, Steven met Andrew, who lives in his 3rd converted warehouse loft (this one made “paper boxes of every description” – see below).

The weather was perfect on race day: 75F and sunny. The lake, which is heated by a nuclear power plant, was 74 degrees. In a second coincidence, Steven’s car odometer rolled over to 40,000 miles when he parked at the race site.

Wearing his ridiculous NORSA jersey (without anybody there to make him!), Steven completed the race in 1:21:37. This was exactly 8 minutes faster than his 2006 performance (1:29:37). He placed 16th of 44 in his age group and 143 of 339 men. Steven improved in every category over his 2006 race. His second transition time is noteworthy at 37 seconds - 1st overall in his age group and 3rd overall of the men. Age Group Results.

The majority of the competitors were parked in until 1:00, which made the post race party large and fun. Two huge vats of Chili were cooked for all of the 650 competitors. When the crowds began to thin, Steven went back to Richmond and accompanied Andrew and his girlfriend to an Italian Street Festival. After eating, Andrew had to go to a football game. Steven, meanwhile, decided to go to Richmond’s best hot tub at Andrew’s former apartment building.

Steven had to get into the pool using his best James Bond skills. He entered the apartments through the freight elevator in the back of the building, then changed into his bathing suit in the main elevator. Emerging from the elevator with a towel over his neck and his sandals on, Steven pretended to talk on his cell phone (ask Tom about Steven’s fake telephone conversation skills) until he could follow somebody into the locked gym-pool area. The hut tub was nice, and the accompanying pool was the expected frigid 60 degrees, making for some nice hot-cold recovery cycles.

All in all, the Giant Acorn is probably Steven’s favorite race. It is held when the weather is just right, the smell of fall is in the air, and the leaves are beginning to change. Steven definitely plans on competing next year and hopes to see some more NORSA support!

Also, thanks to Setupevents for another smoothly run event.