Elephant Man, Olympic distance, Elephant Butte, NM 09/26/10

Another great race weekend at Elephant Butte thanks to Kori, Scott, and the entire Elephant Man race crew. I love this race – in a town of 2500, they get 150 volunteers to help out. How cool is that? A new twist this year was the kids race (Elephant Kids) held Saturday evening at 5:00. Made it easy for you to get registered, get your kid registered, and then watch him race, AFTER a day of soccer in Bernalillo, or whatever. Lots of age groups, different distances for each. Very well run and a great experience for the kiddos. Free T-shirts, race number belts and chip bands (thanks to Dam It Man leftovers – a lot like our Splash n Dash (Atomic Man) swag this year), real timing chips, open water swim point to point parallel to shore, then into the Elephant Man transition area where their bikes and shoes were waiting. They had a nice way of identifying kid ages (straight from Kona Ironman last year) – not only were they body marked with their number and age, but each age group got a color-coded swim cap and wrist band – which made it very easy for the volunteers to identify the proper turn around spots on the bike and run for the different aged kids. There’s a hill immediately coming out of transition for the bike, but the littlest ones (6 and under) got to simply do flat laps around transition in the large parking lot before heading out onto the run. I love those training wheels speeding around the corners. The older ones headed up the hill and out into the state park a certain distance depending upon their ages (oldest: 13-15 age group), before returning for their run. And did I mention that Ben crushed the 9-10 year old competition?! (Just a little proud mom crowing here).

OK, Olympic distance report: weather is always nice down there this time of year; it doesn’t get real hot till the end of the race, however there was more wind than in the past – never a good feeling to watch the strongly flapping flag early in the morn. Four waves of athletes this year – all the women except the athenas went first. A huge group got off in the front; I certainly was not one of them. The wind caused a decent chop so one leg of the triangular course was tougher than the others. Out on the bike the wind made the ride more interesting than usual. We headed out into the wind, though the tough hill is situated such that the wind was actually helpful. It’s still a steep section, though, that separates the strong from the not-so-strong. I had passed a number of those good swimmers by this point but there were was still some unknown number ahead. Came into T2 and took my good ol’ sweet time, just as I had in T1. As Dan reminded me later, you can’t transition an Olympic distance the way you do an ironman. Oops, that sure cost me.

The run was its usual scenic self – sandy for almost the entire first mile makes it tough, but then it’s up onto the dams with nice views. I saw the first four women way ahead of me and had little hope of catching up. Then I saw Mary Uhl, always a very tough competitor, coming at me as I was coming up the hill to the turn around so she became my goal. Finally caught her around the 5 mile mark (lucky for me she hasn’t been able to train much this year!). There’s nothing like running downhill and along a sandy trail hoping someone’s not right on your tail. I ended up 5th OA, 1st AG. As usual, an early race start gave me plenty of opportunities to cheer for fellow Team TriSports.com people, as well as fellow Triatomics. Speaking of which – a great Los Alamos club showing this year: Bill Bearden, Frank Cherne, Chuck Farrar, Greg Geoffrion, Matt Heavner, Char Latham , Amy Lee, Max Light, Clay Moseley (overall winner – congrats!!), Dina Pesenson, Sanna Sevanto, Andy Sutton, Karen Young, were all there (sorry if I missed somebody). A decent number of cool bottle opener medals and a signature EM beer were awarded to our club members. For those of you who missed it – put it on your calendar for next year – the last Sunday in September. It’s a fun weekend and a great race.

Elephant Man 2010

This was my first attempt at Elephant Man and my last race of the season. We headed down to the lake on Friday to camp for a couple of nights and take advantage of free fishing day that Saturday (there's a reason we tend to only fish on free fishing day - we caught nothing!). Anyway, packet pick up was Saturday afternoon and I was really impressed with how professional the whole set up was. Its all centered down at the beach and there were a handful of tents up with the packet pick up underneath and it was operated with great efficiency. I got my stuff and numbers and headed back to the camp ground for a nap. Later in the afternoon we headed back to the lake for a quick swim and everything felt pretty good and me and Jaclyn bumped into Clay, Dina and Sanna enjoying the beach and Frank when we were on our way out.

The morning of the race we packed all the tent and stuff up and headed to the lake. I racked the bike next to Frank and picked up my chip and got everything set up in transition. Didn't really get chance for a warm up but saw a bunch of other Triatomics - Bill, Amy Regan, Chuck, Amy Lee, Karen and I've probably missed a few - as usual my apologies if I've not mentioned you! The swim started in 4 waves, women first, then men under 39, men over 40 and Clydes and Athenas. I was in the second wave and the swim started about 30 mins later than scheduled. The first leg of the triangle swim was OK, the wind had got stronger and there were some white caps throughout the whole swim, after the first buoy it was into the headwind and the water started to get pretty rough and I was bounced around while trying to make forward progress and probably swallowed more of the lake that would be ideal! I finally got to the second buoy and made the final turn to the shore - I think I tried to overcompensate for the wind and in trying to stay straight ended up heading too far right rather than staying to the left and had a couple of attempts to get back on track before finally getting to shore which probably added a little bit to my swim. I got my wetsuit off at the lake front while it was still wet and did the short run up to transition. The transition was set up really nice, they had these wooden racks on the floor which just had slots in for a wheel - the good thing about this is that it forced you to be a certain distance from your neighbor so everyone had a good amount of room, especially when alternating slots had bikes pointing in the opposite direction. T1 was pretty good, I didn't rush and just got everything done before heading out on to the bike.

The initial climb out of the lake area wasn't bad, it was definitely no Cochiti! The wind was still blowing pretty hard and it was full on into the face, kinda like early spring riding around here. And of course there was the hills, it was mainly rollers so it was easy to crank on the downhill and see how far you could get up the other side with the momentum which was a little tricky with the headwind. The hills went on for about 12 miles or so before the 17% grade climb I was warned about - thankfully it wasn't a long climb but there was another incline after it which was a gentle grade but seemed to go on for about 2 or 3 miles. At around mile 15 we crossed I-25 and the terrain seemed mainly flat or a slight downhill so it was easy to tuck into the aero position and try and get that average speed up. The last couple of miles were through town and back to the lake to T2. Every bump or uneven pavement was marked with green crosses so they were easy to avoid and there were arrows marked all the way on the bike course - couldn't fault a thing about it and if you're used to riding the Bandelier Loop there's nothing about this bike course to scare you.

This is where things got a little tough, transition was fine, no problems, but as soon as I started running I had terrible stomach pains (which I thought were cramps up until after the race) and it seemed like it was going to be when, not if, I launched. It was at this point it stopped being a race and turned into something I just wanted to complete. I was hoping that the pains would stop at some point but they kept with me throughout all 6 miles coming back in waves and slowing me to a slow jog and I had to stop every so often to let the pain subside. - at one point it crossed my mind that maybe my appendix had burst!!!! I have two theories on what caused this - the first year I did Splash'n'Dash I used to get stomach pains on the run from swallowing air on the swim - if I did the same on this swim and with the bike leg in there, that swallowed air would probably be lower in my GI tract and could be causing the pain I was having. I managed to fix this for SnD by paying more attention to not swallowing and swimming faster also helped as I was forced to take deeper breaths. The other possibility is that what I was drinking in my bottles was heavier than my usual stuff and I seemed to drink more of it that I possibly should have done - this could also have had an effect on my GI tract and maybe in conjunction with the amount of lake and air I swallowed may have added to the problem. I'd used the same fuel for a Brick the week before though doing the Loop and doing a hilly 6 mile run in White Rock with no problems but consuming less of it. Unfortunately every step I took hurt and the downhill, which was more physically jarring hurt even more so the run was a little disappointing for me. The run course itself was pretty nice - it starts off with a sandy section and a good climb for about a mile or so and then its out onto the dam and around the lake before a final slight climb to the turn around. There was a good crowd at the finish line and I dragged my butt over the line before heading to the lake to cool down and have a soak. Everyone seemed to do really well, there was plenty of silverware taken home, Clay won overall, Amy Regan got 5th woman and Dina, Amy Lee, Chuck, Frank, Sanna, Char, Greg all took home awards. The organization of this race I was outstanding, it was definitely the best Tri I've been to, its well organized, efficient and the course support was excellent, I couldn't recommend it enough.

Patriot Triathlon 2010

This was my first time doing a race down at the Rio Rancho Aquatic Center, they do a few races there throughout the year, the Spring Fling in April and the Jingle Bell in December there too. My race prep had not been the greatest, I’d only been back from a week in England for my brothers wedding about 2 weeks and had just about recovered from the over indulgence and excesses that brought with it. I decided to train right up to the Friday for this one and didn’t do a taper, I figured that I’d rather train a little harder with a focus on Elephant Man which is 2 weeks after this one. I even had a couple of beers the night before, something I never do before a race – some residual Englishness from the trip coming out I think! The venue is close enough to Los Alamos to do the 1h30m drive down that morning so we set off pretty early after grabbing a light breakfast and arrived there just after dawn. The parking was a little tricky with a full parking lot and no guidance on where else to park! Thankfully we still had some shreds of common sense and drove further down the road and asked someone at the race venue entrance who directed us to another lot 100m down the road which was about half full with plenty of space remaining.

After that it was a short walk to do the pick-up and get the chip, all of which was really well organized and ran pretty smoothly. Then it was racking the bike and having a look at the race. The racks seemed a little cramped and pretty tightly packed together, when I got my bike out for a quick warm up, I was knocking back wheels with the row behind me! The indoor pool swim was interesting, it’s a 25yd pool so its 16 lengths Splash’n’Dash style and the swim start is seeded time trial start. Thankfully you had the chance that morning to adjust your swim start position so I jumped up 30 or so spots as I’d given them my 50m pool time rather than 25yd time. This did lead to a bit of confusion and there was a little jostling for position in the line before the start as I wasn’t the only one trying to do this – the numbers were almost meaningless! The swim went pretty well for me, the lanes seemed a little narrow but thankfully I’d positioned myself well and didn’t have to pass or be passed during the swim.

T1 wasn’t the greatest, for some reason I spotted my bike and turned into the wrong side of the rack so I had to u-turn out of to get to my bike so I lost a little time there and then a photographer was capturing this magical moment at the end of the rack so I had him to navigate too! Anyway, I was soon ready and off onto the 15 mile bike which starts with a climb up and out towards the Santa Ana Star Center and through some mini-roundabouts which caused a little havoc when the traffic was slow moving. I confess that I did pass a car on the inside - hopefully I won’t get a barrage of emails for unsafe bicycle riding but I was in a race dammit! There were police or volunteers at most of these so it made things a little easier and finally it was onto quieter roads with much less directional assistance in a more industrial area. There were some spots where I had to search out cyclists ahead of me to see which way to turn. The gentle climb turned into a few rollers and a few more ascents upto about mile 8 or 9, then it flattened out into a residential area and it was downhill for a long stretch. The last mile was a pretty good climb up to the transition area and I had a horrible suspicion I’d be seeing this hill again on the run.

T2 went smooth and uneventful and I was onto the run. This started on the same stretch of road the bike did so it was a good sized climb before a left turn and more of a climb. Eventually the course diverted onto a dirt trail with a little more climbing and lots of sandy spots which led to pretty soft footing and seemed a little hard on the legs. Then there was finally a downhill section which I managed to get a bit of speed going for about ¾ mile or so. Then it was another left onto the same hill the bike finished on which I wasn’t looking forward to, I also seemed to get a bit of a headwind all the way to the finish so needless to say I didn’t really enjoy the run too much. It seemed like an Escher staircase where the downhill and the uphill didn’t really seem to add up.

Anyway, I got over the finish line in a reasonable time and was pretty beat by the whole race. It seemed pretty challenging for a sprint with a good number of climbs both on the bike and the run (the pool thankfully remained flat) and I kind of wish I’d tapered a little bit for it so I could crank a little more on the run, although I was really happy with my bike split. Afterwards there was a good amount of refreshments but the downside to starting near the front of the swim and it being a time-trial start was that there is a huge gap waiting for the results and the awards. Oh and it’s about exposed as it gets, not much shade and it was a pretty hot morning so we nipped off the Lowes and got a few things while waiting around but still didn’t escape the race site until about 1.30ish. Another thing - a few Triatomics got led the wrong direction on the bike, I don’t know the full details but I think it was a race official on the back of a motorbike who led them off. The official line is that it’s down to the athletes to know the course but to be honest with you, if I had a race official in front of me I would expect them to know where they were going and it would have been very difficult not to follow them. Anyway, a bunch of Triatomics were there and we seemed to do pretty well as a club bringing home some silverware and plenty of the new uniforms were on show too!