Silverman Triathlon

Took me a while to actually post this. Hopefully it will provide some good winter reading and motivation for next year. Take Care, Bill

Silverman Full Distance Triathlon

2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run
Stats:
Total Time: 13:44:40
Swim: 1:25:50
T1: 6:24
Bike: 7:13:28
T2: 5:24
Run: 4:53:37

Last year I decided to make a goal of completing an Ironman. The only problem was that I had no swimming experience. So I signed up for swimming lessons and learned to swim at the local pool in Los Alamos. Since the swimming was coming along well, I did the 5430 long course triathlon in Boulder in August. That race turned out all right, so I signed up for the Silverman Ironman distance race for November in Henderson, Nevada.

Shortly after signed up and reading a little more about it, I realized that this was one tough race. The bike course has almost 10,000 feet of climbing and the weather had been notoriously windy the last couple of years. With the thought of a tough bike ride, I stepped up the training rides in the hills around Los Alamos. I got in a couple of long and hilly rides in before the race and figured that I would be as ready as I could be.

The race was on Sunday, but since registration started on Friday, I left Los Alamos after work on Thursday and drove out of Flagstaff. After camping the night in the National Forest near the interstate I was up early and on my way to Henderson. My plans for the day quickly came to a halt as the Jeep shuddered and came to a stop about 10 miles from Kingman, Arizona. After a quick tow, I was at a repair shop in Kingman where a broken cam-shaft sensor was deemed the problem. Unfortunately, there was no spare part in town and it would not be until Monday before they go the part. My only option was to rent a car and continue the drive up to Henderson.

Even with the delay from the broken down car, I was still able to get a swim in Lake Mead before the race check in. At check in I got a lot of good schwag, including a backpack. I spent some time on Friday packing my transition bags and getting my stuff ready for the race. On Saturday I dropped off my bike and all my transition stuff and attended the race briefing. All that is left now was to get a good night sleep.

The weather forecast for race day had been looking good during the week before, but a couple of days before it started to change. By the Saturday before, the forecast was for windy conditions with a slight chance of a rain shower.

Race Morning

I got to the start of the race and had my body marked with my number and picked up my timing chip. I checked my bike and was happy that there were no flat tires. Everything was looking good. The weather was even better than forecast, only a slight breeze with some clouds off in the distance. Little was I about to know that things were going to change. I have never actually been in a washing machine, but I think that this race was about as close as it would come.

The soak cycle

The race started at 6:30 with a mass swim start. There were around 200 people in the full distance event and the swim was in Lake Mead. I started in the middle of the pack and just tried to get into a good rhythm. The first half of the swim went by uneventfully and I was feeling pretty good. I had now gone around the buoy at the turn around and was retuning towards the start.

The agitate cycle

As I was swimming back towards the start the water started to get choppy. Did I just see a white cap as I was sighting to the next buoy? Sure enough the wind had picked up and was blowing white capped waves perpendicular to my swim direction. As I slowly approached the final turn towards the shore, the wind continued to pickup. Once I made the final right turn, things got all crazy. I was now swimming directly into the wind and the waves which were now on the order of 2 feet tall. This made it almost impossible to see where I was going. Every time I tried to look up to see the buoys, a wave would break over my head. At one point I was swimming in the totally wrong direction and it took me many seconds to figure out where I was. I sure hope that there is nothing bad in the water, as I ended up drinking a lot of it. After what seemed like a struggle, I finally managed to pull myself out of the water and into the swim to bike transition. I was thinking that this is going to be a fun bike ride in this wind….. (Side note, the half distance race which was to start around the time that I finished the swim was delayed an hour because the conditions were too bad to swim in).

The rinse cycle

The bike started with a hill out of the lake area and then onto hilly roads. I tried to not start out too hard and was managing to deal with the wind alright. Just when I thought that things were not too bad it started to rain. This had me a little concerned as I have never ridden my bike in the rain. I had also just gotten new bike tires and I remembered asking the salesman in the bike shop how they handled in the rain. His response is that these tires were not that good in the rain, but why would you ride in the rain anyhow? My thought was, yeah, it never rains in the Las Vegas area. The rain came in waves. One minute it was raining hard and then the next there was nothing. The wind was variable also. At one point I had to lean to the side into the wind to not get blow over. This on and off rain and wind last for about the first 40 miles of the bike ride. The road had puddles in it and I road a little bit conservatively, especially on the down hills. I had started the bike in a sleeveless jersey and was glad that I had packed a wind breaker as I got really cold. There was one crazy guy who did the whole race without a shirt. Yikes! And as if the rain and wind was not enough there was also a brief period of hail and thunder and lightning.

The middle 40 miles of the bike was pretty nice. The road began to dry out and the wind was not too bad. I finally warmed enough to take off the wind breaker and focus on keeping a good speed up. Almost the entire course was either up or down a hill.

The dry cycle

The final 40 miles of the bike got tough again. As I was riding back into town the wind picked up and it was a head wind. From about mile 75 to 90 was really bad as at times I was reduced to a crawl. At mile 90, the bike course turns off the main road and goes onto a bike trail. This is also the section that has the famous 3 sisters. These are three short hills with a 15% to 18% grade. I actually enjoyed going over the 3 sisters. It was a good opportunity to get out of the saddle and work a different muscle group. At this point I got charged up and just want to finish the bike ride. So I picked up the pace on the final 15 miles. The bike trail was a grind though as it was up a slight incline the entire way. Once back into town, I got onto some fast down hills and before I knew it I was headed into the bike to run transition.

After swapping bike shoes for running shoes I was out of the transition area. After about 100 yards, I realized that I forgot to put on my race number. So I had to go back to the transition and get my race number. What a drag that was as they had already taken my bags out of the changing area. All in all, I lost about 4 minutes. The run course is a two lap course with a couple of hills. The first lap was going pretty good until about mile 10, when I started to have some digestive distress. The required several pit stops over the next 8 miles. While on the second lap the hills which did not seem too bad on the first lap seemed to have gotten much bigger. I was starting to slow down and was losing my urge to finish fast. At around mile 18, my stomach began to feel better and I just wanted to get this thing over with, so I started to push the pace again. As I went I felt better and got into a good run which I was able to maintain until the finish.

After finishing the race I got a massage and enjoyed the food and beverage. The accomplishment of finishing one of the tougher iron man distance triathlons was a good feeling.

This race was a wonderful event and very well organized. The volunteers were awesome and the support on the course could not have been better. My thanks go to the race director and all the volunteers. The course is hard but also very scenic.

A First Timer @ Ironman Florida

"Wow" does not begin to describe Saturday, November 1, 2208, for me. It was a day of multiple experiences that culminated in my finish in the time of 14:35. That time does not tell you of several quirky events that occured along the way. The morning began cool and dark with a swim start that was not nearly as overwhelming as I expected. My swim time and that of nearly everyone else was quicker than it should have been as virtually no one followed the course on the second loop. Apparently most everyone did not go left of the first buoy despite the announcer's admonishments. When I heard the announcer beg everyone to get back on course everyone around me said, "Hell no, I not going that way if everyone before me did not go there." So, I was not totally surprised when the clock showed 1:18 upon exiting the swim. I have to say that I probably did enjoy the swim more than the other two legs despite the sea of humanity around me.

Then on to T1, which was a mad house and which took too much time. In the future, I will not attempt to put on arm warmers over wet arms. Once on the bike, I was, however, very glad to have taken the time to put on arm warmers and to be able to calm down. The 15 minute shakedown was advice from my trainer, George Esahak-Gage, but it did not prepare me for followed After stopping for my special needs bike bag, the quirkiness began. About 1 mile away from the stop, I felt my right shoe was loose on the pedal. I went to click out and realized that my cleat was still attached to my pedal, but my shoe was free! How in the world I lost all 3 screws holding my cleat to my shoe is still a mystery. So began my quest for the Bike Tech Patrol and riding for 5+ miles with only my left shoe attached. I felt very awkward and wondered if I would be able to finish the ride. Fortunately, I was able to wave down the technician who was driving the course. I figure that this episode took added nearly 15+ minutes to my time, but it made me determined to try to make up for the loss. I must say the quality of the pavement in Florida is something I have never experienced in Northern New Mexico.

T2 was considerably less confusing and quicker than T1. My run started out slow but steady. My most challenging moment was coming back in to the turnaround when others were being announced as finishing. By that time it was just after 6:00 PM and starting to get dark. I had to dig down and turn away from the finish line for my second loop. By then, I had already lost my expensive pair of new sunglasses, which are someplace in the 7200 block of Lagoon Avenue in Panama City. I wasted some time going back to look for them. I had put them on my cap, which I stupidly took off at an aid station. Oh well, I was happy to have taken the time to change to a long sleeve shirt at the turnaround. The temperature droped considerably after sunset The run course heads into a state park, and stretches of the run were so dark that you could not see oncoming runners. When I was coming out of the park, I commented to a female runner that she was smart to have brought a flashlight and that I wished I could maintain her pace. She then went on to help me immeasurably by saying that she was race walking for 3 minutes and running hard for 2 minutes so I followed her routine for probably 3+ miles. It made a world of difference to my legs. When she said she was unable to keep up the run pace, I went on counting the time in my head for all but the last 1.5 miles. The finish line was there was there waiting for me, and ten months of training proved to me that I could finish an Ironman. All in all, it was a glorious day.

Patriot Triathlon in Rio Rancho

In keeping with the theme of late race reports, I was the only Triatomic that did the recent (September 14) Patriot Sprint Triathlon in Rio Rancho—Nathan Romero was the only other person from Los Alamos that I saw there. This race is one of two new ones in the Southwest Challenge Series this year that will use the same course that includes the new Rio Rancho Aquatic Center. The other race is the Jingle Bell Triathlon (December 7) and will be the same course, but run as a reverse sprint. The inaugural Patriot race had about 300 participants and had a time-trial swim start. The race was chip timed with ChampionChip which I think always do a good job of timing (including transition splits) and reporting results on their web site within days after the race. The water was a bit on the warm side, but the aquatic center is very nice with spectator seating and large locker rooms. The transition area was in the parking lot (race parking was at adjacent facilities, like the Rio Rancho Library). The transition area was sufficiently roomy and well organized as was the whole race, actually. The bike course was well marked and very similar to the Defined Fitness Duathlon (which is cancelled this year and likely beyond) and actually overlapped part of that course around the big casino-convention center area. There are some moderate hills, but nothing really steep. The road was mostly in good condition except for the last couple of miles, which they said would be repaved by next year. The run was a bit dicey for me. The first mile is paved and a steady uphill, then it turns and the next mile is hilly on loose dirt and gravel, which was problematic for my bad back, especially on a couple steep downhill sandy parts—I forced myself to walk most of this part thinking about my Dr’s advice about not doing anything stupid to hurt my back. The final mile is on pavement again, thankfully. I got 5th in my age group (out of 21) and 35th woman (out of 140)—consequences of walking in the dirt, I guess. Nathan was first in his AG and 7th overall male. Interestingly, I had the second shortest time for women in T1—doing something right in transition. There was a photographer there that took nice pictures (and offers them for sale on her web site). The awards were engraved picture frames that looked pretty nice. There was a military band there that played pre race—kinda cool. There was a lot of military participants as this race honored military personnel, police, fire fighters, and such. Post race, there was cut up fruit and bagels and all the oreo cookies you could eat. So, for a race that you can actually drive to on race day, this was a good one and would be good prep for the Elephant Man that comes two weeks after and has a similar type of bike and run course.

IM Wisconsin

A little late on the reporting end. Sorry 'bout that.
I'm pretty uncomfortable with Jeff's overall assessment but I do have to admit - I had a good day; although the last half of the marathon hurt. Especially between miles 17 and 23. At one point both hamstrings were so cramped up I hobbled like those old guys you see at the end of a race who can barely move and it hurts even to watch them. I stopped and stretched a bit and then got back at it. The cramping was always lingering just in the background but no more needs to stop. Had a 29 year old woman pass me with about 25 yards to go to the finish, and I passed her back but at the wrong time – there was a false finish and then the real finish. She had enough oomph to regain the lead between us for the finish that counted; ah well – a mere youngster with more juice left than me.

Ok, let's back up. I specifically chose IM WI because I turned 45 at the end of August and figured that if I wanted to go to Hawaii again, my chances would be much higher if I raced after August 22 this year than before that date. One of my training partners, Tamsen Schurman, turned 50 in August so we both had the same mindset in signing up for this race. Also, I have a cousin living in Chicago so it was a nice way to tie a family visit with a race. I arrived in Chicago Thursday night, did all the registration stuff Friday, then Dan and the boys came in Friday night. Doing the family thing, and renting a small SUV meant we did not get up to Madison till mid-day Saturday and still had to put the bike together because assembled bike, loose bike box, luggage, and kids would not all fit in the back of the car. No big deal, though, right? We assembled the bike in a parking lot near the transition area, and I took it for a quick test spin before dropping it off with my gear bags. Whoops – my front derailleur cable snapped. It's 12:20, I need to have everything dropped off by 3:00, and my cable is shot on my internally-routed frame. I quickly buzz over the InSide Out bike mechanics tent and wait in line, with a very sinking feeling in my stomach. The guy works on it for quite some time, and in fact at one point we had three people working on it, trying to get the cable properly routed through. It's finally ready, I take it for a test spin, but something still doesn't feel right and I have to go back. The new cable was already showing signs of wear! The guy (Les, my hero) looks at it again, mumbles about the crappy frame design and then has an “ah ha” moment and makes everything right with another new cable and a couple of tie-wraps. [Turns out he did such a good job that the bike shifts better now than it ever has and I spent a good part of the race just marveling at the responsiveness of the front shifter. Very very cool]. Oh, and look, I have 20 minutes to spare for gear drop-off Got everything dropped off on time but still spent the rest of the day essentially sick to my stomach. So much for thinking I handle unexpected circumstances calmly and cooly. I had so little time to do my last minute pre-race thinking things through that I slept even more poorly than usual before the race, having different things come to mind that I had meant to take care of Saturday afternoon but had not. Anyway, enough whining. Taz joined Dan, the boys and me for dinner Saturday night and was my ride to the race early Sunday morning so that all Rees boys could sleep in a bit.

Race day was great weather. Glassy water and reasonable temperatures. The bike course was a two loop course and by the time I started lap 2, the wind had picked up, but still nothing like the awful weather Dan had at IM Lake Placed (started raining at 7:30 AM, and ended sometime after 9:00 PM with more than 3” of rain having fallen). Taz and I ran into Cathy Tibbetts, the only other non-LA New Mexican I knew who was racing – I had met her at the Women's Masters breakfast at Kona last year - from Farmington. We all hung back before getting into the water at the last minute for the deep water start. The mass start was the usual confusion but not too bad as there is a permanent waterski jump that breaks up the starting line and therefore allows for a little bit of moving room in its wake. I still felt pretty packed in till more than ½ mile into it. At one point, some guy forcefully and deliberately uses my shoulder to pull himself forward, which ticked my off. The rest of the contact was a pain, but nothing as offensive (my bruised jaw from somebody's kick finally healed last week!). I got out of the water faster than I had expected – my crappy Kona swim was something like 1:17, so I was pleased with the 1:08 I saw as I ran out onto the beach. The transition zone is a bit odd with helix parking garage entrance / exit ramps having to be negotiated. Great volunteers helping get your stuff for you though, but it still seems to take forever to negotiate all of the distance from shoreline to change-room to bike to finally back down a ramp and on your way.

The bike course has way too many turns for my liking, and quite a few hills. Which I don't mind, except when they combine the hills with the turns. Which they did. You bike through beautiful farm country in some parts, but beware, dairy farms can be fairly pungent. I passed a few women early on, including Taz, but after that there were just a few that I continued to trade positions with throughout the ride. Of course there were also the usual speedsters who cruised past me like I was moving backward. As usual, the first half of the ride I was pleased with my speed but it fell off towards the end. I never saw anyone in my age group right after the beginning of the bike, so I just kept assuming there was a clump of them way up ahead that I just could never catch. (this is what always happens to me).

I was psyched to get off the bike and start the run. One of the stronger women on the bike started out with me. We both glanced at each other's legs and were both happy to realized we were indifferent age groups. So we ran together for the next five miles and enjoyed each other's speed and company. Bummer, though, she fell back and I was on my own. The course runs through the University of Wisconsin's football stadium as well as through its campus and by the state capitol – great for spectators. I saw Dan and the boys and enjoyed my favorite part of the race – hand-slaps from the kids. Finally got an update from Dan (after having to ask for it), and was shocked to hear I was first out off the bike! So, just like Florida a few years ago, I kept repeating to myself, it's mine to lose, just keep going. Felt really good during the first half of the run, but like I said, the second half was tough, and the last ¼ was quite hard. No more updates from Dan although I was able to see the guys quite a few times throughout the course. John even got the entire Fire Department to yell for me when I went by at one point. Finished 10:44:41 after I started. Boy, I sure felt bad at the end – that was the hardest I think I've ever worked in a race. Good enough for first in my age group, though, 52 minutes ahead of second in my age group; set a new course record but only by 5 minutes – Taz did a great job of not only winning her age group but setting the W50-54 record by more than 10 minutes! I think the speedy 45-49 year olds must all be waiting to participate in Kona next month along with Dan. What's the bottom line after all of this wordiness? We're going to Kona again next year and the boys are starting to think that Hawaii in October is a great Rees family tradition.

Heron Lake Brick Report

The brick workout and club camping trip up at Heron Lake a couple weeks ago was great! Most camped the night prior (after patiently snaking our way through a couple campgrounds with a five car caravan to find enough empty sites together) with great weather and a fun setting for the kids... it's a really beautiful area and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. The next morning we got organized around 8:00 a.m. and got in the water. We didn't communicate very well on the "group" swim, and so we got separated along the route leaving a few of us to swim on our own for a good part of the route; next time if we choose a destination OR a time, that should help. Or perhaps a staggered start with slower swimmers going out first? It ended up that people swam between 45 min. to 1 hr. 20 min... I was glad to have a full-length wetsuit on but it was great conditions and a nice morning to be out in the water. The water was glassy-calm and maybe in the mid-60s? The sun was out with clear skies as we headed out on a fun, 2-hr. ride out toward the Brazos Cliffs (absolutely gorgeous route). We came back and cooled off in the lake and joined in the kids catching crawfish, then packed it up and headed out. Thanks everyone for joining in. It was a lot of fun and we'll do it again next year. Here's a few pics:

Amy in IMWisc.

Amy just finished IM Wisconsin, and rocked the house. She has to be one of the best IM racers in her age group in the entire country. She was the 16th overall woman, 6th female age grouper, and has won her age group by at least 30 minutes. She was the 203rd finisher, meaning she was top 10% overall, and I think she beat Dan's Wisconsin time of a few years ago. I can't wait to hear the race report.

Cyndi Wells and James Wendleburger are also slicing and dicing, both hit T2 before the cut-off and are currently in the moveable feast of the marathon.

Tamsen Shurman and Dean Sprague from Santa Fe are also racing, it looks like Dean was 15th in 45-49, and Tamsen was second off the bike in her age-group. I didn't see any other New Mexicans, but didn't look all that hard either, so others might be competing.

Whirlpool Steelhead 70.3 Race Report

This is for all of you who may have family in the Midwest and want to do a race while visiting in early August. This was my first trip to the Midwest for a race, and the first time I've rented a bike from Inside Out Sports. Both experiences turned out to be good ones. The bike first - packing, unpacking, paying for on the airplane and all the other joys of taking a bike with you just didn't appeal to me for this short weekend to Michigan to visit my mom, so I went with the rent from Inside Out Sports at the race venue alternative. Boy, was that sweet. Reserve the bike on-line, show up with some stuff (pedals, speedometer,..), adjust the seat, and away I go. Simple as that. And at the end of the race, remove my stuff, drop it off, and I was done. Very, very easy. Race - The shore of Lake Michigan is really nice - sandy beaches, beautiful scenery, nice water - on a calm day. Which the day before the race was. A storm came through that night, though, so that race day was windy with a significant chop on the water. The swim course is a one-way course, determined the day before based upon the direction of the current - we were to walk north for a mile before getting in and swimming south back to transition. As I'm walking up at 6:45, watching the waves, and seeing small boats having difficulty getting out and over the waves, and only seeing two buoys - one at each end of the course, I hear the race director announcing that they have decided to cancel the swim - the conditions were just too dangerous (he told us later they couldn't get the lifeguards in the kayaks out), and that the race would be a duathlon style event instead. I was psyched! A number of people I walked back with were not, though. We all changed in transition and essentially started the race one hour later than planned. It was still started in waves, though, 17 waves in all. The W40-44 was grouped with W18-24, and started in wave 4. This was nice as the later waves would just have a hotter day later on. I ran the 1.65 mile first leg pretty fast, thinking that the sooner I got away from my wave, the better off I'd be. The end of this run (which merged with the "real" run course) has a 100 yard section in soft sand - never a nice way to finish a run in my mind. T1 went quick though with no wetsuit to worry about. Out on the bike, I quickly found my speed and the other two women in my age group who were going about the same. The wind made it interesting, as did the single lane roads with minimal shoulders. But some of the road was freshly paved, so coming from New Mexico with its bumpy, unevenly surfaced roads, this was SWEET. And it was decently shaded - a plus. I continued to exchange positions with the other two women, but it seemed to one of them and me, that the other was doing a fair amount of drafting. But I didn't say anything. I was especially cautious after receiving my first penalty ever rather early on in the ride for failing to drop back to the requisite 4 bike lengths after being passed (before I pulled back out to re-pass the passer). Oh well. She finally got out ahead of us and that was that. Into T2, I had to sign my name in at the penalty tent for my yellow card, before going on to change. Exchanged pleasantries with the other W40-44 I had been trading spots with near mile 1 - turns out we're both from out West, and we both muttered about the other woman's riding technique. I thought when I finally passed my partner though, that I was in second place for our age group to the end. The run was hot but the volunteers were great and the aid stations well stocked with all sorts of supplies, helping keeping us fueled and wet. Unfortunately for me, the woman from California came back out of no where and re-passed me at mile 12. I simply could not turn over my feet fast enough to catch back up. Bummer. Oh well, ended up 3rd in my age group, just 20 days short of when I will age-up and change age groups, and 12th overall. I'll take it. Earned my Clearwater slot outright at this race, but since having already accepted the rolldown at BSLT, turned it down here. A very nice race and the venue town is beautiful.

Heron Lake Brick INFO--Sunday, Aug. 24

Meet at Sullivan Field Saturday, Aug. 23 at 3:30 pm to caravan up to the lake and find a camping spot(s) for the group.* This should put us at the lake around 5 p.m. to set up camp, have dinner and hang out. Again, families/friends are welcome! It costs ~$10 for a campsite per night and there are no fire restrictions right now. So far, the camping group includes me & family, Jeff and Susie & family, Kim, Ben, Taraka, Paul... Please let me know if you plan to caravan or not so we know to wait for you at Sullivan Field.
Sunday Aug. 24, 8 a.m. Swim + Bike:
- We can swim out to the island in the middle of the lake and back to camp/shore, which is approx. 1600m... or, if we want extra distance, we can swim around the island or make a triangle and swim back along the shore. We can always split into two groups depending on if people want to do a shorter or longer swim. Please note: Clay suggests wearing TWO swim caps and pulling them as low as you can to cover your forehead and to wear a full-length wetsuit. The water temp. on one site lists the lake at 59, and Ben found another fishing site that lists it at 70, so error on the side of caution and prepare appropriately for colder temps.
- Ride back out on Hwy 95 that runs along the lake, cross 84 and head up toward the Brazos Cliffs on 512 (this is apparently a really pretty area), then loop back south on 162 through Tierra Amarilla, back up 84, and head back on 95 to the campsite for an approx. 2 hr. ride.
More INFO on Heron Lake State Park:
Link to the state park (directions, park map and brochure): http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/prd/heron.htm
Weather: Average weather in August: High: 83°F and Low: 48°F -- the weather for Los Ojos Sat. night is low: 49 and Sunday: 78 with scattered thunderstorms. Another report lists a 95% chance of rain that day.**

* If you want to join in the workout, but don't want to camp Sat. night, please let me know so we can look for you Sunday morning. You should be able to find us easily as apparently the camping sites are located right off the road that travels around the lake (Hwy. 95).
** I will send out a confirmation (or cancellation) email on FRIDAY afternoon depending on the weather report for the weekend. PLEASE check your email that evening if you are planning on joining in.

Socorro Chile Harvest Triathlon / Club Championships

This Saturday is the Socorro Chile Harvest Triathlon. It's a great sprint triathlon, probably the 2nd best one (Milkman takes the prize for the best sprint tri in NM). The swim is an individual time trial start in the best of the "pool swim" triathlons -- it's outdoors and it's 50 meters!

I think there are only a dozen or so more entries they are accepting, so act quick, and get your 400 meter swim seed time in if you're lagging behind and want to get registered. This is a VERY popular triathlon with great bike and run courses to go along with the unique swim format.

see: http://www.socorro.com/ssr/chile/
for more information.

Supposedly, this is the New Mexico "Club Championship" race. I don't know if that's the case this year, but I think it is. It would be great to go there and kick some of the Abq teams' butts! Everybody wear their club stuff if you got it.

Hope to see you there.

Heron Lake Brick--Sunday, Aug. 24

Where: Heron Lake*
What: Open water swim (~1 hr.) + Bike (~2 hr.)
When: Sunday, Aug. 24
Time: 8 a.m.
Optional: camp out Saturday, Aug. 23, families included
* more details will be sent out the week prior as they get worked out! Since I've never actually been to Heron Lake, I will depend on others who have to provide some guidance on where exactly to do the swim and bike + where camping is available etc.? Any input is much appreciated!
The Aquatic Center will be closed for their annual cleaning & maintenance (2 weeks?) after the LA Tri, so this is a great opportunity to get some training done in open water in preparation for any races coming up in late summer & early fall. And, the group camping will be fun too, with the bonus of not having to make the drive up early in the morning!

Santa Fe Triathlon RR

Race Report – Inaugural 2008 Santa Fe Triathlon

The city of Santa Fe decided to organize and host a triathlon this year. I found it to be a well run race, and they more or less hit the technical parts of race execution. I thought it definitely had the feel of a local triathlon, with a fair number of mountain bikes in the transition area and a lot of people acting not quite sure how to logistically tackle the day. The race order is the same as Jay Benson, a run, bike, swim. I thought the venue and the course were really quite nice, with about half the run along a paved fitness trail, and the remainder along Rodeo Road. The city had blocked off an entire lane of Rodeo Road for the race, so that along with the early 6:30 start made for a pleasant, albeit slightly long run. The bike course headed out Richard Avenue, past the community college and towards several small subdivisions sprouting out of the high plains desert. The roads were generally good pavement, and clear of traffic and the race did a great job of manning the numerous intersections along the bike course. I found the bike segment to be deceptively tough with a lot of long slow rollers that made it hard to get into a good rhythm, but the views were nice. The swim was in the Chavez Center pool – a really nice pool with wide lanes and very clear water. They had chip timing and did a great job of quickly posting results and getting the award ceremony underway. The post race spread was adequate, but nothing special. They had a lot of goodies in the race package and the shirts are nice looking cotton T’s.

Some aspects of the event were annoying to me, probably artifacts of first year working the wrinkles out. They closed race entrance a week before the race, and it was a fairly expensive 65 bucks, counting a 15 dollar late fee. I’m starting to wonder about the value of such steep late fee’s, especially in the age of Active where it is pretty easy to register an athlete to an event. They made everyone get down to SF on Friday for packet pick up and a mandatory pre-race meeting that was not very informative. The early start of the race is a bit heinous, but due to Santa Fe traffic and public access to the Chavez Center is probably unavoidable. They used the Triatomic/county bike racks, and unnecessarily cramped the transition area. They also had an asymmetric transition area that put some athletes at a pretty big disadvantage….close to 30 seconds I would guess for the worst case. The run was unnecessarily long, by 60 – 90 seconds I would venture, which was odd since as they had us run a little out and back loop-de-loop before heading out on the primary part of the run. I also thought the medals, while decorative, have the feel of a participant medal and contain no information concerning your performance. Oh, they were also making noise about mandatory swim caps for “health reasons”. The swim cap thing was really stupid for a pool swim, but they backed off brfore the race and announced that they were only "encouraged".

Triatomics, and friends of Triatomics, rocked today, especially the women. Both Kim Myers and Rachel Hundhausen were in the Top 10, and Liz Spangel who owns the Running Hub and has been very generous to the Atomicman Duathlon was second. Kim Katko was 5th. Taraka Dale, Shana Cooper, Kimberly Peterson who have been active in the S-n-D raced well, along with Los Alamos residents Liz Miller, who won her age group and Thayla Sullivan who was second in her age group.

For the guys, I saw Bill B and Rob A had medals, I think Dr. Goddard won his age group and I came in second overall. Nathan Romero won his age group, and Ben Davis was also there expressing satisfaction in his race.

My race went fairly well. I was surprised to find more competition on the run than I anticipated. The run field started off pretty fast. And I was a long, long way down right away. OK, no problem, this happens a lot these days and I usually settle in and try to pick off people the second half of the run. It actually kind of started that way for me. I came out of the loop-de-loop in 11th place, quickly passed two more dudes to move into 9th. On the gentle decent down Rodeo Road was catching the next two guys in front of me. Then we turned onto the fitness trail. I’ll tell you something. I’m not a very good uphill runner, I never have been. The worst kinds of hills for me are low angle grinders. I don’t know what it is, but I just can’t get any mojo on those kinds of hills. Anyway, this was that kind of hill. It was almost flat enough to not be considered a hill, but it weighed me down. I didn’t pass anyone else, but at least I didn’t get passed either. I hit the transition timing pad, which was about 50 yards from the transition area in 20:00 flat. As I mentioned earlier, I think the run was a fair bit long. Being this far back put me in a bad spot for overall considerations, but I figured I would keep a positive outlook, try to scratch back what I could on the bike and see what happened on the swim.

I got through transition pretty fast and had passed two guys before Richards to move into 7th. I tend to have difficulty with the run to bike transitions, and at the start of the run my ass end didn’t have any get-up-and-go as I tried to power over the early rollers. The only thing I could do was downshift and try to spin the run out of my legs. I kept poking around trying to find a winning hand with my gearing, and about 4 miles into the bike I started feeling my bike legs and moved into 6th passing a guy on a road bike who really looked out of his element. I think he might have been the first runner. Before I figured out how to bike I used to get passed by lots of people during the bike leg. I felt a little bad for him as I blistered by, easily 5 mph faster than he was going. At the turn around I was about 75 seconds down on first place and figured I must be either holding my own, or moving up a touch. Right after the turn I moved into fifth and could see fourth down the road. I pressed the return as hard as I could and moved up on the next two guys in front of me, but I didn’t catch anyone else.

Because of the unfair transition, I had relocated my bike before the race to a better spot, actually moving someone else’s stuff who was taking up two bike slots. As it turned out I know the guy whose stuff it was, and he seemed cool about me moving his things and seems to acknowledge that he was indeed taking up two spots. As a result I ended up having one of the best transition spots which helped me get into the water right on the heals of #4. It took me about 150 meters to get into the swim, but once I did I started moving pretty good, passing three guys in the last 200 meters to move into second. The winner, a guy named Eric Lujan, put a good beat down on the entire field, including me, to win by about 75 seconds.

Results can be found here: http://www.cepmtnbike.com/results_misc.c

More pictures of Mila

Hi everyone. Mila is doing better today, as is her Mommy. Turns out, learning how to eat is not as easy as one might think it is, but it's going pretty well. The staff at the Los Alamos Medical Center is pretty darn good at what they do.

Here are some real pictures of Mila. Thanks for all of your support and well-wishes. It has been really great to see all of your comments. I tell Dina that everyone is saying hello and congratulations, and it really makes her happy. We can't wait to get back to the Splash 'n Dash and see everyone...but for now, we're having a lot of fun too.

Click on any of the images for a larger version. Sorry that they're all a little grainy and even blurry. I turned the flash off on the camera so that we wouldn't keep blinding Mila. Their poor little eyes have enough problems without that too.

New Cryathlete

Mila was born July 23

Weight 3361g (7 lbs 6.6 oz), Length 54cm (20.5 in.)

Sorry about the grainy cell phone picture...I have misplaced the cable to our digital camera

Dina had the biggest physical test I've ever seen a human being go through. Just in being there and "supporting" her, I am exhausted and could not walk very well for a few hours. She had a very hard labor that lasted for more than 3 days, but she wouldn't give up and things finally started going our way during the early morning hours so that she was able to go into the final stage of labor and push the baby out from about 9am to 11:50am.

There are, of course many details as to why this was such a hard labor, but the most amazing thing was Dina's physical ability to undergo the labor and the pain, and the baby's strength. If the baby had gotten stressed, then it would have been a problem, but she was strong and only got into stress at the very end when she was being pushed out. She was exhausted by the time it was all over and was a little bit blue, but her color improved quickly and now she is rested and getting strong quickly.

Dina is also recovering nicely. She lost a lot of blood, but she has already replaced most of it the nurses say, and she actually got up to walk around much to the amazement to everyone.

Little Mila's head is a bit bruised and mis-shapen due to the fact that they had to use forcepts on her (very sad thing to witness), but she is recovering from that pretty quickly.

I'll send more pictures when I find the right cable to our camera.

Baby Brug is here!

Deborah Elise Brug was born Wed 7/16 @ 11:03 am (in time for the Splash N Dash that night? :).
She is 21" & 6' 13 lbs.
Both mom and baby are doing well and got to go home early.

Cochiti Brick #2 -- Report

The brick workout down at Cochiti Lake on Sunday, July 13 went very well. 14 people showed, mostly club members, but also a few new faces. We were expecting hot weather training, and instead got calm, cooler weather... maybe mid-60s when we started and in the 70s when we got back from the bike, with the sun just starting to break through the clouds the last few miles of the bike ride. There were 12 people swimming with varying abilities/speeds but everyone was within 5-10 minutes of each other so it wasn't too spread out; the return leg of the swim gave us some choppy water to contend with (I felt like a cork) but it was good practice on sighting and propelling forward in those conditions. Tina was generous enough to come down with the group and boat behind us again. The water was in the low 70s and it took ~1:05 to swim the same course as last time. 14 people rode the bike route into Cochiti Pueblo--we had considered changing routes due to festival preparations, but decided it'd probably be OK seeing as the festival wasn't until Monday. It turned out to be just fine with very little traffic (and polite drivers), and only a slight headwind on the return. Both the swim and bike were faster this time as people seemed to be more focused and perhaps more motivated in the cooler temps. to keep moving. Or perhaps the novelty of a new course had worn off for people who had done the brick a few weeks ago, so we just got down to business? In any event, it proved to be great training with a really nice group of people. We'll plan another one in August after the LA Tri--maybe up at Heron Lake. Details to follow. Thanks again everyone!

BSLT 70.3 2008 Race Report

**all pictures taken by Dan and added later by Dina - that's why pictures comments refer to Jeff in 3rd person**
If you read Cyndi’s post along with mine you will get the ying and yang of it all.

The red radioactive hoard that is the Triatomics showed up in Lubbock, Texas for the 19th edition of the Buffalo Springs Lake Triathlon. BSLT is a half ironman that is part of the 70.3 series, and as such has slots available for the 70.3 World Championships, in Clearwater, Florida, and as one of the old school half irons is one of the last few 70.3 races one can earn a slot to Kona. We showed up in neon-like numbers with Jim and Barbara Wendelberger, Cyndi Wells, Amy Regan, Char Latham, Martin Pieck, Jeff Johnson (me), Bill Bearden and Tom Bargeloh racing in the 70.3, and Joseph Baehr competing in the aqua-bike.

The race venue is at Buffalo Springs Lake, a man made, spring fed lake that is in Ransom Canyon located about 5 miles southeast of Lubbock, and both the run and bike snake in and out of the very large Ransom Canyon complex and the surrounding farmland. The lake is very nice and unexpected based on the surrounding topography. It is surrounded by a small residential area of year round homes and what appear to be weekend cottages. The lake is fairly clean and a very temperate 75 – 80 degrees, although the triathlon swim always manages to be wetsuit legal, barely.

BSLT has a reputation for being a very hard course that can be hot or windy or hot and windy. I’m not sure what makes the bike course hard because it is mostly flat with about a thousand feet of climbing over 5 moderate hills that are comprised of climbs in and out of Ransom Canyon, but there is something about the bike course that suppresses a high average speed and kind of weighs on you. The run course is flat with three significant hills and a mile and a half out and back on a hot flat road that is called the “energy lab 2”, a reference to the fabled energy lab out and back on the Kona run course.

A delayed storm front brought cool temperatures, overcast conditions, gusty wind and intermittent rain for race day, and although the conditions were cool, which probably contributed to a lot of pretty fast runs, the wind and rain out on the bike course made for slower than normal bike times, and treacherous descents down some of the steeper hills on the course. There were a number of people that came thundering off their bikes but no any serious injuries that I am aware of.

Before I get into the self indulgent details of my race I will recount how the rest of the team performed…

Barbara competed in and completed her very first half ironman, Jim punched in a workmanlike performance in support of Barbara, Amy placed 5th grabbing a slot to Clearwater.

Here is Amy passing some more guys on her way to 5th! :) This is shortly before the finish chute.

Char placed 15th in what has been called this years most competitive age group, Martin was 6th in his AG with very good time of 4:40, and just missed earning hardware by 3 minutes. I think he lost all his time mugging for the camera…. Here are some examples of Martin's frivolous waving to the 'fans' and bicep flexing... what a ham! :)

thanks to Dan for taking pictures! Bill plowed through the race in good form, placing 10th in his AG, even though I know he was under trained, Tom finished solidly in the middle of his AG, and Cyndi showed up and raced despite having her slide-in camper catch fire while en-route to the race. Joe finished the aqua-bike after wrecking his brand new bike on some rain slicked roads and jamming his rear derailleur.

I showed up in Lubbock hopeful for a good performance, and confident I had prepared to execute, but the pre-race omnipresent fear of failure hung over my head. Ever since the previous BSLT I had ridden a wave of good performances and I had raised my personal expectations of race day execution. Proper execution equates to satisfaction that always accompanies accomplishment of challenging goals, but the other side of coin is always there. I had a couple of basic goals for this race, I wanted to improve on my time from last year or improve my overall placement and I wanted to earn a slot to Clearwater.

Anyway, race day loomed. Suzy and I got up at 3:15 our time, 4:15 panhandle time, ate a little, packed and picked up Amy Regan at 5:00. The worst part of this race is a congested drive to the venue. The race starts at 6:30 with all the waves leaving over the following half hour, and there is usually a 20 – 25 minute wait for parking, and a longish walk to transition It doesn’t make for much time to get your transition set up, visit the john, and warm up for the swim.

I basically had enough time after I got down to the lake to scope out how others were addressing the swim start, swim about 150 yards to warm up, and go through the corral to the start. This race has a cheesy legal “cheater” that allows the swimmers to wade along the shore for 100 to 150 yards before starting the swim. It isn’t without peril due to submerged rocks that can twist your ankle or cut your foot. I elected to wade the shore as far as I could and dove in the water in about 5th or 6th place with a pack of 5-10 swimmers just to my left. I don’t think the shore walk gained all that much time but it allowed me to get in the water with a thinned pack and avoid the thrashing that typically accompanies an open water swim start. Being out in the open I was able to put the hammer down and motor through a pretty good swim in just under 26 minutes. I was the second person out of the water in my age group, beating the next pack of guys in my group pack by over a minute.

I got though transition pretty easily and settled in. The prevailing winds on race day were mostly in our faces out and at out back on the return. I figured it would be hard to put distance into people the last 20 or so miles on the return, so the time to make hay was into the wind. I immediately tried to set a steady tempo and work into the wind. My new aero helmet and disc wheel made the head wind pretty easy to deal with. I had been in (pretty minor) angst concerning which front wheel to use in the race, and based on the breezy race morning conditions decided against my deep dish and utilized a basic light weight training wheel with a rear disc. The decision proved correct as many portions of the race had stiff side winds that would have abused my deep dish front, but didn’t phase the steel rim at all.

At about mile 7 or 8 I passed the guy who I knew was first out of the water, and I figured I was in first place in my AG on the road. The ride was pretty uneventful, you had to pick your way down a few of the hills because of the rain but I pretty much relaxed, conserved and fueled up for the run. I must have been passed by someone in my AG near transitions, and due to the rain washing his number off didn’t know it, but I passed him back pretty soon on the run and pressed at a comfortably hard pace to the turnaround. I tried to pick up my tempo on the return, but started feeling the days effort around mile 9, and really struggled to maintain pace the last 4 miles of the run.

Jeff picking up the tempo on the run.

I ended up winning my AG by about 4 minutes. Second place was a guy from Colorado who ran a smoking 1:24 and plowed through a lot people, third was the guy who beat me into T2.


Early in the year when I knew I was going to race BSLT and I established my performance goals, I knew if I accomplished them I would stand a good chance of winning my AG. I contemplated what I would do in the event I won my AG and earned the slot to Kona. In our sport it is almost anathema to decline a Kona slot, and while the distance really doesn’t interest me, the iconic status associated with the race weighed on my decision process. I have always said I wouldn’t race any other ironman except Kona, meaning I would have to win the lottery or a half ironman, and since they are eliminating the half iron slots those opportunities are waning. I finally decided that if I managed to win my age group or finish high enough to have the slot pass down I would decline it basically because I don’t think I would enjoy the training or the race nor did I necessarily believe I would be able to own the opportunity to compete well. The risk to reward ratio wasn’t to my liking. On the other hand, I felt the 70.3 championships in Clearwater were more accessible from both a training and a competition point of view, so I decided early in the year to focus on Clearwater if I could earn the slot.

Jeff with the spoils: computrainer, 1st AG, wine, Clearwater slot!

The second place guy from my AG took the roll down but he looked like he was trying to swallow a buffalo. He commented to me that I was probably the smart one. I wish him a lot of success in Hawaii! Joining me, so far, in Clearwater will be both Dan Reese and Amy Regan, so the Triatomics will be well represented and I suspect we will have a grand time.

Buffalo Springs Lake "race" and extra adventure report

I really enjoyed seeing all the Triatomics folks out on the BSLT course. I've done the race a number of times many years ago (I think the first in 95?), but I never had so much fun actually seeing folks that I know during the race. And, having dinner with Triatomics folks the night before was a blast. This is a really large amount of drivel, but, hey, if you have nothing better to do, I won't stop you from reading it!

My goal for BSLT this year was to use it for practice, mainly a nice catered training day, for Ironman Wisconsin, coming up in September. That's the reason for the quotes around "race" in the title. I wanted to practice IM race pace (or what I think it might be), eating/drinking properly, and just boost my confidence as I haven't done a longer tri for about 5 years. (Frank- by the way, your post was inspirational!) I think I was successful in meeting just about all goals but that last one.

So, let me backtrack, as I've gotten a few questions about the fire mentioned in Bill's email. Mike & I left on Friday, after I got done frantically finishing up store work so I could leave for a couple days. I wanted to leave Friday because I have some ruptured discs in my back and sitting in a vehicle always irritates them. That way, the swelling/pain in my back would have one day to subside before race day. We planned to camp in our slide-in truck camper for two nights. We have dogs and our camper is nice and comfy/cool for the hounds while we are out and, with a shower, nice for the racing. (Picture of the camper before Friday shown.) We packed up the camper and headed off the hill around 3:30 PM. Mike noticed smoke coming out of the camper when he looked in his rearview mirror, when we were just about a mile past the Rio Grande on 502 east. He pulled over and we got out. When we opened the back door, black smoke billowed out. We had a fire somewhere. The location was difficult to discern with the amount of smoke. Mike grabbed the fire extinguisher and worked to put it out. I called 911 on my cell phone. In retrospect, I was lucky to get service there as I later had difficulty getting service in other nearby spots to call the insurance company. Mike had the presence of mind to disconnect and remove the propane tank on the camper. I grabbed the dogs out of the truck. Mike realized he couldn't get the fire out with the extinguisher and reclosed the back door to try to slow the fire with less oxygen. We then began the, what felt like really long, wait for the firefighters. A police officer happened to come by and blocked road traffic. I also heard him call on the radio and say to expedite the fire engine. We now had some pretty big flames shooting out of the camper. Mike grabbed my store laptop from inside the truck. At this point, we weren't sure the truck would make it. Mike & I sat with the dogs a long distance away and waited. Was it 10 minutes? I am not sure. Once the fire engine showed up, they got out the blaze pretty quickly. Thankfully, the truck was saved. The camper appears to be a total loss, along with some contents. Some items, like Mike's Kindle, managed to survive but with some real issues! That is Mike's bike on top, near where the fire apparently started. Once the fire was out, the question was- what do we do now? Did any of my tri gear or bike (all inside the camper) survive? I think we both felt a little numb. The firefighters told us they thought they got everything out, but there could still be an ember somewhere, so we should drop the camper as soon as possible. We plugged up the hole in the side, where the fire burnt through, as best as we could and turned back to Los Alamos to drop the camper off at the RV lot. Mike braved the stench and pulled out as many personal items as he could that survived.

The firefighters have arrived and begin getting the hose ready. Hooray!

The fire burnt a hole through the side of the camper.

Mike ventured inside the mess to pull out the gear.

Mike's Kindle, unfortunately, was treated more like kindling!


At this point, I am thinking the race is no more. But, Mike was determined to have the show go on. He told me that he wasn't going to spend the weekend moping. We brought home the stinky gear, I sorted the laundrable items outside into piles of "really stinky" and "maybe washable" and headed to the laundromat. (Our washer didn't seem like a good idea for the first wash!) Mike started hosing down my wetsuit and working on my bike. He cleaned all the fire crud (plastic melted from the ceiling, foam from the fire fighters, soot, ?) from the bike frame and wheels. He replaced the tires, fixed the cabling, handlebar tape, etc. When I got back from the laundromat (had to leave as it was closing), he was still hard at work and continued fixing the bike through the wee hours of the morning. My hero! The only thing we had to leave on the bike that was still a bit nasty was the bike seat. My helmet survived but the plastic/styrofoam had puffed out like popcorn, so it was unusable. Mike offered his helmet. (An advantage of being about the same size as your husband!) I redid the laundry a few more times at home to try to salvage it. Most was too stinky, so I let it on the balconies of the house, so it would not stink up the house while we were gone. I found that the La Quinta in Lubbock had rooms and was dog friendly. Around 2 AM, we hit the sack. At 7 AM the next morning, Mike then drove me to Lubbock. The plan was to replace what was too stinky to use because of the burnt plastic/electrical smell at the Expo.

The Expo came through and I was able to get what I needed, although I was about $300 dollars lighter. :-) The only thing that made me nervous was wearing a brand new style of goggles. I usually wear the junior-sized ones as they fit my face better without leaking. In the end, I would just have a stinky bike seat and bike shoes and everything else was good. With all this crapzola having happened, I decided that they just wouldn't dare leak on me and race day would go super smoothly. Thankfully, I was wearing my running shoes when the fire broke out, so I didn't have to worry about getting blisters from new shoes.

And, to an extent, it did go smoothly. We left the hotel a little before 5:00 AM and got stuck in a little traffic. (James, you were right! We left a little earlier than I would have without your warning. Thanks for that or I would have needed more time.) We brought a light, but I didn't use it right away and managed to put a cut down the entire length of my shin from one small, but very thorny bush near our vehicle. Won't make that mistake again. Oh, and Texas has those mosquitoes. Forgot about those pesky little guys! I felt a little rushed and out of sorts for setting up transition as I didn't have my normal tri bag or gear. BSLT has changed a bit and is a lot more uptight than 10 years ago. The folks didn't like the way my number was on my bike, so I had to let a lady fix it with duct tape before I could get into transition. I was planning on putting it on better once it was in the rack. But, okay. I'll just go with the flow. I didn't really get to examine the swim in/bike out/bike in/run out spots very well. I usually try to figure that out, but felt a little tight on time. I decided not to worry about it as it would be obvious at the time. (Which it was.) Made my way to the swim start and to get my wetsuit on. I tried using using silicon spray for the first time to put on the wetsuit. Worked well as it was much easier to wiggle in. Dang! The cement was rough on the feet, though. In my adventure and repacking, I had forgot my extra pair of shoes.

The swim went well (for my sort of swim)- I spent a couple of minutes in the water before my wave started and determined that the new goggles were good. Much less anxiety after that. Some friendly ladies and I, seeding ourselves towards the back of our wave, chatted. Suzanne from Louisana was funny. The swim course was different than it used to be and I couldn't really see the buoys from the start. I think it started in a slightly different spot, where folks were now warming up. I decided it didn't matter as I'd have plenty of folks to follow and would spot the buoys soon enough. She said, "By golly, I can dog paddle for 1.2 miles if I have to." The other lady remarked that we back of the packers get more bang for our registration buck as we get longer entertainment. Before I knew it, our wave was off. I decided to start to swim around the point, instead of splashing around at the edge of the water like a lot of folks were doing, after I felt a rock under my foot and thought I could turn an ankle. I am not a strong swimmer and the swim always worries me the most. My typical race-day swim thoughts circulated through my head, "Is that the right buoy? Why is everyone else swimming way over there? Are they off course or am I? Why does this person keep swimming on my legs? Haven't they already figured out that I am here? I don't really want to kick them . . . Why does this person keep crossing my path? Are they not swimming straight or am I? Where the heck am I on the swim course? Haven't I already been swimming for long enough that I should be pointed towards the finish?" I decided my goal for the swim, during the swim, was just to swim straight and navigate well. I think I did that. For the first time in my tri race experience, though, I manged to suck in a good amount of water on a breath. I didn't see anyone going by, maybe it was a wave? The wind was picking up. I repeated my swim mantra in my head that "I am in control", treaded water for a few minutes, coughed it out, remembered Suzanne's comment on the dog paddle and smiled, and then continued on (freestyle). Towards the end, I started to get a little depressed that my progress seemed so slow around the course and thought of what Sally Edwards would do with the ladies starting the Danskin tris, right before their wave would start. She would make them all shout, "I am a great swimmer." I repeated that a few times in my head, as I felt the waves start to roll me a bit. I could now see the finishing spot and was happy. One part down!

One new feature, for me, anyway, were the wetsuit "strippers". As an "old-timer" triathlete, I didn't see them in previous races. Anyway, my stripper had to tell me twice to sit on my butt. Ooops! I wasn't processing information very well at that point. It was actually pretty quick. I think faster than I usually get my wetsuit off. Transition went okay and I was on the bike. I got trapped by a slow guy on the way out of the chute, but was able to pass him once it widened out a bit.

But, arrgh, the bike number. What the lady had done didn't work. I should have redone it when I got the bike into transition. Soon, a tie disappeared. I didn't have anything to really fix it with. So, it just flapped in the wind and hit me in the legs. Then, one of the safety pins broke. Around mile 30, the last tie came off. The rain didn't help and was making it soggy so that the attachments didn't work. I didn't want a penalty for not having my bike number visible, so I stuck it under my hand and just held on to it until the bike finish. In the future, I might try that spray glue. Mike uses it to glue his road race number on jerseys and it seems to work really well.

I was a little worried about the wax on the brand new tires making the road in the rain even slicker, so I took the descents pretty gingerly. Especially after seeing some folks on the side of the road that crashed with some nasty road rash. I ate some Gus during the bike and drank quite a bit of sport drink. I started getting nerve pain in my back around mile 20 of the bike. Definitely from the drive the day before. Not so good. Stayed with me for the rest of the race and made running not so much fun, but it didn't get as screaming bad as it could have been. My bike started making a strange tinky, creaky kind of noise in the front. Not sure what it was, but I worried a bit that my front tri-spoke carbon fiber HED wheel may not have liked the fire temps. Ignoring it turned out to be a good decision as nothing broke on me. The cool temps were nice in that I didn't feel like I was underhydrating at all. There's a Triatomics jersey! Who is it? Oh, its James. And, there is Barbara. Cool! The last flat, straight part back was nice and faster, maybe some tailwind. Feeling okay at this point. I narrowly avoided a disaster when a guy had his bike upside down across the shoulder to fix a flat. I looked behind and a car was coming. I braked to allow for some extra space to get over into the road. Then, the bike fell down, right in front of me. If I hadn't had slowed, I don't think I would have been able to dart out enough to avoid the fallen bike with the car there. I could tell the guy felt bad and I think he shouted sorry at me.

Then, came the run. By the time I hit the bike/run transition, it was, ahem, clear that I needed to use the portapotty. A triathlon first for me! As I was in there, I decided it was good practice for the Ironman. ;-) I must admit that BSLT is well-equipped as they had a bunch of them at transition and there was no wait for one. (The ample number of aid stations are also pretty well-stocked, even for the back of the packers. In other races, they are sometimes out of items by the time I get there.)

I felt a little achy at this point and have not been run training like I should. So, I was pretty apprehensive about being able to do the run. I had my Garmin Forerunner on for pacing myself and my goal was just to do 10 minutes per mile and finish. I saw Martin heading in. He looked so comfortable! He was running, but was he even breathing? Didn't seem like it. Oh, to be going that direction!

I came up on a guy right away going about the pace I wanted and we started to chat. We had both been in Iraq and talked about our experiences. We encouraged each other and it really saved the day for me. The run went by pretty fast. Considering. My tendons or ligaments or something on the outside of my knees were hurting. Not the muscle tired kind of hurt, but more the I-hope-I-am-not-damaging-something pain.

My stomach was feeling a little funky and my back was hurting and his plan was to walk the aid stations and that sounded good to me, so I did that as well. I think the short break every mile definitely helped me get through the run and kept me able to drink without making my stomach worse. Oh, there is Bill Bearden! Go Bill! Headed in that lovely direction of the finish line. I tried some Coke at mile 10. Never did that before in a race, but sounded good at the time. Seemed to pick me up a little bit. Might do in the later stages of IM. Then, there was "Grey Shirt". Grey Shirt would run a little faster than my pace and then walk for a while. We would just about catch up to Grey Shirt before he'd start running again. My running buddy for the first 11 miles was having some knee pain, so he dropped off. When Grey Shirt walked for longer and I was going to catch up with him, I called out and told Grey Shirt that trying to pass him was keeping me going for the last few miles and he needed to step it up in order to pull me to the finish line. He laughed and we continued playing the game, almost to the finish, where he decided he was just going to walk for a while. I encouraged him to start running again, he did, and just ended up sliding by him near the end. Us back of the packers might not get awards, but I don't think anyone else could have more fun!

Turns out I was a few minutes slower than my time 5 years ago, but my swim was slightly faster. I wanted to finish in under 7 hours, so I was okay with the 6:51. I saw some really impressive times and placings from other Triatomics members! Way to go!

I do like the BSLT, even though it has gotten more uptight over the years. Unavoidable, I guess, with the increase in participants. I do like that it is well supported with good traffic control at the intersections, has really clear course marking, and has plenty of well-stocked aid stations. If you have pets and plan to bring them, by the way, the La Quinta in Lubbock is situated in a good spot and was a nice clean, friendly, comfortable hotel.

I didn't quite meet my goal of inspiring confidence for the IM. My back was hurting. Not sure I could have doubled the distance with that pain. And, I have never been sore after a race and, boy am I ever, after this one. I pretty much knew the location of every muscle fiber, ligament and tendon in my body the day after. Legs still sore on day two. Not sure what went wrong with that. Too little training? But, I've done this race before on what seems like less training. I think I ate properly during the race and walked around/stretched properly after the race. So, feeling more jittery about the length of the IM than before. I guess I might as well go try it. If I fail, I fail. Better than not trying it at all. I did have fun. Which has been my main goal in triathlon through the years.

By the way, they had a postcard for the Half-Iron in Austin in October in the race packet. Anyone planning on doing that race? I went to grad school there and like Austin. I signed up, thinking its a good chance to visit. Not sure how keen I will be on doing it a month after the IM, but we'll see.

My husband Mike, by the way, was my big hero in this. I would not have even attempted to go to the race without his encouragement and his hard work getting my gear fixed up again. I was overwhelmed by the fire and he made me feel absolutely confident we could get there and I could still have a great race. He never wavered in his determination to get what we needed to do done. And, he did all of this with his newly plated collarbone and a still fairly painful shoulder and limited range of motion. Thank you, Mike!

From Kona to Ironman Coeur d'Alene

The journey to Ironman Coeur d'Alene began a year ago at a hotel near the bike course of Ironman Kona. Knowing how Ironman races fill up close to the opening of the online registration I knew I'd have to do it from this hotel room. Thus the title of this post. The year that I dedicated to preparing my body for the Ironman had its highs and its lows. The shortened list of lows included: disappointing times at the Harvest Moon half-iron triathlon, three marathons where I struggled to finish them under 5 hours, vomiting on the second run during the Atomic man duathlon, plus failed training goals and weight loss goals. Some of the highs included the establishment of a successful energy conservation plan at the Superfrog triathlon, a personal best at Jay Benson Triathlon, meeting certain training plan objectives, establishing a reasonable nutritional plan, plus meeting a special lady who is attempting to understand this obsession with the sport of triathlon.

Before I begin the formal race report I'd like to thank those along the way who have helped me reach this longtime goal of mine. There are those who brought me into this sport after I had long past considered that an Ironman was not something I was going to do in this lifetime, specifically, Kai Kadau and Partha Rangaswamy. Then there are those who got me out there to train even when it would have been much easier for me to back out. Especially when I realized that I was severely behind the training schedule laid out for me, namely, Rob Aulwes and Tim "Bad" Gallegos. My success can also be attributed to Martin for preparing a training plan that I could work with as well as introducing me to energy conservation strategies. Then there are the numerous others who knowingly or unknowingly provided me with encouragement along the way.

Pre-race

As the race date approached there were many things flying through my head all evidence of the fact that I had a good dose of pre-race jitters, nervousness, and taper anxiety. Questions running through my head were things like what do I put in my special needs bags? For that matter what is a special needs bag? Do I ride on my carbon tubular wheels or do I go with the clinchers? How do I make sure that I eat and drink enough while not eating or drinking too much? What are my specific fluid intake requirements? How much electrolyte do I need to take in? How do I avoid the urge to hammer hard on the bike where I feel comfortable and still retain enough strength and energy to complete the marathon? Do I need to get the neoprene swim booties and swim hat on account of the reported lake temperature being in the mid-50s? Am I ready? And the list goes on and on.

When I would tell people especially my family members, there would be this long pause followed by "Okay!," "Are you nuts?," "You are crazy," or my favorite quote from my step-father, "Is the race sponsored by a mortician?"

When I got into the tapering portion of the training plan, I struggled with wanting to put in that extra workout to "make up" for my missed workouts in the prior weeks. Realizing that it would take approximately two days for me to drive up to Coeur d'Alene, ID and that if I stayed in Los Alamos I would be all the more tempted to get another long ride in. So on Sunday, June 15th I began my journey to Coeur d'Alene. The goal was to arrive at my special lady's sister's house on Wednesday June 18th. In addition this would give me time to relax along the way and settle into the final week of training approximately 4 hours worth. Also it gave me an opportunity to exercise some mental training for the upcoming race. Namely, I was going to try to exercise my plan of energy conservation in driving up to Coeur d'Alene by focusing on minimizing gas consumption in my not so eco-friendly Ford Explorer. So when the hills loomed ahead of me on the road instead of gunning the engine to crest the hill I allowed the vehicle to crest the hills a the lowest motor rpms while maintaining a sufficient speed. This was going to be my plan to apply during the Ironman.

On Thursday, June 19th, I took a 45 minute swim in the lake. The realization that I had failed water walking training as all exposed body parts cooled. At this time I was thankful for having that little extra "fat" insulation upon my body. Later in the day I stood in line to pick up my race packet and pick up my souvenirs for the race. Looking around me everywhere there were people running, riding, and swimming. Well this did not help my nerves one bit so I decided to drive the bike course. In driving the bike course it was definitely apparent that the bike course would be one of the most challenging bike courses I have ever raced on with the exception of the Fat Man course here. The course had lots of curves and "rolling" hills with grades approaching 7 or 8 percent in places. This caused me further anxiety which prompted a call to Clay. Thanks Clay for settling my nerves and giving me a strategy in dealing with these hills.

Friday, I found a quiet stretch of road to both run and ride upon. For those of you unaware of the Ironman experience, on Friday night a banquet is prepared for all the racers and inspirational videos of the Ironman experience is shared to provide inspiration. Some of the inspirational people present at the banquet included a double amputee who competed in Ironman Kona. Also present were some people who in the last 8 months preparing for this race had lost 86 pounds. There were those who were of the older generation still getting out there and racing. On my way home my brother-in-law leaked a secret to me as a result of my worrying about my sister. My mother was on her way with my sister. Talk about the emotions that began to flow. I would have watching me the following family members: father, step-mother, mother, sister, niece, nephew, and girl friend. What a crowd. Four of which had decided on Wednesday or Thursday to come up from Sonora, CA and Reno, NV.

Saturday found me trying to act surprised at my mothers presence, picking up my girlfriend from the Spokane airport, enjoying all the family members present, and worrying about what they all would be doing while I was racing on Sunday.

The Race

At 4:15 am I found myself on the way to the race course. Complete with all of my food that I had prepared for the race. The day dawned with low settling fog. I took this to mean that the the race would not have a lot of wind. Later I would realize this was a misread of the weather of the day. At the race venue I prepared my bike and myself for the race.

At 6:25 am the Pros were off while the amateurs were funneled to the beach. It was a slow walking mass of neoprene moving to the beach for the mass start at 7 am. Knowing that I struggle with the water I wandered to the outer flanks and to the back of the pack. There I tried to pick out a line to follow. Well my following the line did not work out as was evidenced by my getting to know the lifeguard who told me which way I needed to go. Thanks to the life guards directions I found my way back to the course. On course I realized I was with people as the thrash fest resumed. Done with the first lap I looked at my watch approx 56 minutes. Back in the lake with an idea as to where the course was I was done with the swim after 1:46. Thus my second lap was 50 minutes. Guess my adventure on the first lap took an extra 6 minutes. Yes I need to work on my directional skills, as well as, my swimming speed.


The transition area was well equipped with many volunteers. The wetsuit came off easier than it went on. They helped me change into my bike jersey over the wet body. Upon exiting the changing tent a couple of ladies applied ample sunscreen. It felt good being pampered and cared for like no other race that I have been too.
It was now time to bike. I settled into a comfortable pace for me passing numerous people along the way. There was a temptation try to make up my lost time but echoing in my mind was Martin's and Clay's advice conserve your energy. Fuel up. The course took you down an edge of the lake with beautiful scenery then you turned around to head out toward Hayden Lake. On the first lap, I settled into a habit of eating, drinking, and riding. The uphills drove the heart rate up while the downhills I coasted and let the heart rate drop low. Going up I'd pass a particular lady, going down the lady would pass me. I had to comment on this game we were playing. On the flats though I settled into a rhythm which left her behind. She caught me while I took my stop at the porta potty. Filling up the back of my jersey with a new supply of food at the special needs stop. On the way I saw three pros on the run course with Victor Zymetsev in third closing in on the second place runner. Around the center of town, I passed my cheering section where my sandwich fell out of my back pocket. I wouldn't know it was gone until I started up to the hilly portion of the course. Realizing it was missing I decided the clif bar was the alternative. Taking two bites of the clif I turned one of the technical corners to be faced with an major uphill. What timing I had? The remaining portion of the bike had similar poor timings. But I tried to find humor in the situation and remain cool.

Into the changing tent to change into the tri-jersey. Let's see do I have every thing for the run. Yep. Out of the changing tent and to the run, I went. Over the timing mat, oh but wait where is my race number? The photo captures the panic of it all.

The first half of the marathon took approximately 2 hours 30 minutes. I was feeling great. At mile 14 the cramps began to set in. My left hamstring and my right calf. I had a solution in my special needs bag with the electrolytes present there. Well I got to the special needs area open up my bag to find no electrolytes. So I downed a gel and some pretzels and soon the cramps were gone. I was feeling relatively strong. As I passed mile 18, the normal area where my prior marathons deteriorate yet I was feeling still very great. At mile 20, I look at the time on my watch and realize I could get close to a 14 hour Ironman race if I keep this current pace. At 4 km to go my body began to revolt. So much for my 14 hour race. Walking about a mile and a half I made my way toward the finish line.


About three quarters of a mile left, I decide I must finish this race in style. I begin to run. My sister and nephew greet me at the final turn. They begin to run with me but seeing finish line and not wanting to be disqualified. I shewed them away to run to the finish. Doing a victory flight, a race volunteer sprints to get waiting niece. The niece charges me grabbing my hand throwing me slightly off balance. She then changes direction for the finish line and we cross in step.

Post race included willing volunteers to monitor my health and well being but beyond waited my sweetie who escorted me to the massage tent. This was a sweet end to my "Sweet 16-triathlon."

For those of you who thrive on a challenge, are willing to contribute many hours to training, want to experience the joy of accomplishment, discover the limits of your own body, experience the best supported race you'll ever do, ... I thoroughly recommend adding an Ironman to your race calendar in the future. I am planning on doing another one in the future.