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.