Triatomics Go BIG!!!!!!!!!!!!

From our club's Sport's Chair, Clay Moseley:

I've been meaning to post something about a couple of our own Triatomics members who have "ventured farther into the food chain" and laid it out on the line in some of the biggest races in the world.

First off, our own Liz Miller went big at the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Henderson, NV. For those of you who don't know about this race, it is a very hard course (just click on that link and the picture of the competitors on the bike says it all).  Just finishing it is tough.  Liz had an awesome time of 5:39 on that course, which is fantastic.  

Her age group (F30-34) was incredibly competitive; the most competitive women's age group, in fact.  The gal who won that AG placed 1st overall for the women age groupers, and 11th overall, including the pros (ahead of such pros as Leanda Cave, etc.).  The next age grouper was over 12 minutes back!

Anyway, great job to Liz!

Laurie on the podium. Click photo to see it larger.

This past weekend, Laurie Goddard scored a huge victory in the M65-69 age group at the XTERRA National Championship in Ogden, UT.  He's been on the verge of so many age group podiums and victories, so this is huge.  All of you who know Laurie and how hard he's worked and progressed in the off-road triathlons, then you know how big this is for him.  It is fantastic to see that he finally got that big one!!!

Does this mean that Dr. Goddard will be going to the World Championship in Maui???

Here's to Liz and Laurie!  You two represented us well and we're proud of you!

Also, many of you may not have seen/heard, but we hosted another pro triathlete in early September for his final training block in preparation for Ironman Lake Tahoe.  His name is Kirill Kotsegarov, and he's from Estonia.  A big congratulations to him for his 4th overall at Ironman Lake Tahoe.  

He loved training here and will likely be back.  He may come back and train with Viktor for perhaps one last end-o-season Ironman.  We'll see.

Again, WAY TO GO Liz and Laurie!

Storrie Lake Race Report (from Clay)

Well, it's about time we started putting this year's race reports on the blog.  I've been meaning to, but man I've been busier than usual this year.  It just so happens that I found some free moments thanks to getting sick from something that Mila contracted somewhere and now I'm here at home in the middle of the day suffering in our overly warm, un-air-conditioned house.  

The Storrie Lake Triathlon is such a cool race.  The course is fantastic and the organization is superb.  It is definitely one of the best races around and at the top of the heap as far as New Mexico is concerned.  In my opinion, anything that is produced by Chasing3 is going to be one of the best races we have.  Just as a side-note, I'll rank my favorite local triathlons like this:

Race Director, Angie Kandalaft (owner of Chasing3) putting on one hell of a great race!!!

1.  Storrie Lake, Cochiti Lake, Elephant Man, XTERRA Four Corners (tie) [all open water, great courses]
2.  Milkman, Dam It Man, Bottomless F-1 (tie) [all short distance with great open water and great courses]
3.  Socorro Chile Harvest (great course, outdoor pool swim)
4.  Billy the Kid Tombstone Olympic (needs some improvements, but lots of potential), Grady Williams in Farmington (now cancelled, was a cool race)
5.  Patriot Tri & Candyman (sort-of repeat races at the Rio Rancho pool, but well-organized with great courses)
6.  Spring Fling (yet another pool swim at Rio Rancho, good for an early season tune-up, but you have to watch out for traffic on the bike course...some improvement needed there) & Jay Benson (kind of a boring course and lots of trouble with the base, etc.; this one is a must for an early-season tune-up with it being the Abq World Championships.  It's also very well organized and promoted by my sponsor, Sport Systems)

Sorry, that was a long side-note.  I just wanted to give some perspective on how great the Storrie Lake Triathlon is.  And another early apology here...I'm going to vent about my less than expected result in every painful detail (as Dina describes it).

This year, as in many years previous, the water level was low.  It was VERY low this year, but just fine for putting on a race in the 2-loop format of 750 meters per lap, which I quite like.  The bike course is fantastic, but unfortunately the DOT put in those huge drunk strips that causes some issues here and there.  At race speed, I just have to ride in the lane because of space issues passing other riders, etc.  It works out well most of the time, but I did get crowded and honked at by a big truck right at the sprint race turn-around.  The run course is so cool with a mix of quiet back roads, some dirt roads that are scenic, and a challenging section coming back to the finish along Hwy 518, which is also scenic.  It is a great venue for a triathlon.  Add in the nice camping at a well-kept state park and you have everything you can ask for.

Looking out over Storrie Lake from T1, with boat ramp exit in the foreground.  It's a pretty setting for a lake.

Las Vegas is also an interesting town.  It's a bit different, yet also very familiar New Mexico.  It's a quirky place with two universities, so there are lots of modern amenities, but also with that rough-around-the-edges feel of most New Mexico towns.  We ate at El Fidel restaurant, at the historic hotel of the same name, and just loved the awesome food there.  What a treat!

At last year's race: Bear, club prez Bill Dunn, Timo

This year's weather was also a 180-degree difference from the year before.  It even showered nicely the evening before, giving a fresh feel to the morning.  Race day weather was just beautiful, though it got a bit hot by the time the race was finished.

I had high hopes for this race, as I have been feeling great and training pretty well, or at least as much as my life allows these days.  Unfortunately, Mila got very sick the week prior, as did Dina and so things started to get a little messy around the house.  We bailed on our original plan to take the camper and make it a family camping trip, so I had to go solo, which isn't as much fun as it used to be, especially when Mila was so upset and Dina was very tired when I left on Saturday.  That made it hard to leave.

I was lucky to hook up with my buddy, Keven Kandalaft in Las Vegas, and we scoped things out with a couple of his buddies from Boulder.  One of his friends is a wicked fast swimmer and was the first out of the water for the swim prime.

On to my own race:  race start was an early 7am, so Kevin and I got up at 4am to get breakfast down and get out to the lake and get set up and warmed up with time to spare.  It was all so easy and I was very ready to go with even some time to fiddle with the brakes on my new Felt DA.  It's a great bike, but it's a little tight with the brakes under the stays.

Normally, I would have been so amped up and ready to go, but I was feeling a little lethargic.  That is not normal for me on race mornings but I ignored it and did everything I could to get my mind on the game.  I went and got a good swim warm up, but just didn't feel spunky.  We meddled around a bit for the timers to get set and for the kayakers to get into the water and in that time I felt a wave of something "not quite right" but didn't know what it was exactly.

Last year's swim start

I actually got off to a pretty good start on the swim, but was hurting far too much and too early.  I stuck it out as best I could and found a couple of feet to follow toward the end of the first lap of 750 meters.  I just focused on following those feet the whole second lap (I think it was Kristin Moriarty and Philip Sunderland, with Chris Werth touching my feet from time to time).  Overall, the swim was good without the usual bloody scrum at the front and some good open water, so I hoped for a miracle out on the bike...

The women's wave starting in the 2011 race

Once out of the water, I felt super gassed.  I was all full of acid and didn't feel good on the longish run up the boat ramp.  In comparison, I felt awesome running up that same ramp last year...I remember it well.

Out on the bike, I messed around WAY too long with my shoes, and Kristin Moriarty had to ask me if everything was all right as I left T1 just ahead and she had to get around me messing around.  I finally got them on and barely could get past her for the longest time.  I watched as my main competition, Randy Arriola, pulled away from me with some authority.  It was not a good feeling and it only seemingly got worse until I just finally got angry with the situation and went all-out over the first climb in a do-or-die attempt to jump start my body.  I had hoped that I was just "blocked up" and needed to blow it out of my system to get going, but the weak feeling never really subsided.  It did get a little better once I got some recovery on the descent into the Sapello valley, and I motored with everything I had up that long, gradual hill to the turn around.  Things didn't seem too out of hand when I saw both Randy and Rance Irvin at the turnaround, only about a minute and some change ahead of me.  I figured if I could find my legs on the way back, I might have a chance if I could also keep things on the mend in the run.

But, there was no miracle to had on that day.  I did gain a little time back on Randy on the return, coming in less than a minute behind him at T2 (which I suppose is a miracle considering how I was feeling).  Rance flatted just ahead of me, so that variable was taken out of the equation.  He has not been running his best this season with some sort of foot problem, so I had figured I had a chance to catch him if my run held up.  Randy runs well, so with him able to kick my butt on the bike, I figured he was really gonna give me hell on the run.

Since Dina can't race this season, I thought it would be nice to add her to the  blog.  Here she is leaving T1 at the 2011 race

One of the main problems I was having, besides feeling super-weak, was that I wasn't able to ingest anything without it making me feel sick and wanting to come back up.  I didn't take in nearly enough fluids for the event (less than one water bottle), much of which DID come back up while out on the bike.  That wasn't good.

Coming into T2, Randy was just about leaving and was about 30+ seconds up on me.  I tried to hustle through, but I realized I was in trouble when all my muscles were cramping while trying to put on my shoes.  I sucked it up after taking a few extra seconds to stand straight up and grab my abdominal muscles that had seized up on me (and are still sore right now) in order to make one last big attempt at bending down to get my other shoe on.  Once my shoes were on, I hobbled out of T2 and did my best to find a quick rhythm.

I did manage to relax and find a comfort zone for a while, the problem was that it was slow and I just didn't have anything more to give.  I just locked into that and focused on doing everything as efficiently as possible.  Again, I could barely take anything at the aid stations, yet I was dehydrating rapidly and knew I needed fluids, so I mainly just threw water on myself and used it to re-hydrate my lips.  At one point, I just decided to turn my mind off to the situation and see how far that got me before I started thinking about the situation getting more critical.

Somewhere at the far end of the run course, I was feeling downright ill.  I wanted to quit, but there was nowhere to quit.  I would have just died out in the middle of nowhere so I kept on going...plus I was miraculously still in 2nd.  I looked down and realized I wasn't moving that slowly and that I had a long way to go before I was walking, so I kept it up.  I managed to make it to with about 1/4 of a mile before a hard-charging Richard Sena came flying by me.  Needless to say, I had no response and that final 400 meters felt like an eternity!

I was bummed about the whole thing, but really, I'm also a little amazed that I ended up 3rd.  I had a feeling that I had been getting stronger and should have been quite good, but something caught up to me right during the race and knocked me down a few notches.  I was pretty ill afterward and just did what I could to get myself home and to take a nap.  I was sick all through the night but slept well anyway.  I still felt crummy today too, but another long nap has helped.  I'm gonna rest for a couple of more days before doing any light training.  It'll also help me get caught up on some things, so it's not all bad.

The cool thing was to log on today and see how everyone did in their IM and 70.3 races.  Congratulations to all of you who did those events!!! 

Again, sorry for all the gory details.

Billy the Kid Tombstone Olympic Tri

I'll add a quick blog about this "new" race at Sumner Lake near Ft. Sumner.  I think this was actually the 3rd year for this event, but it has been a relatively small affair and it never fit into our schedule, so we hadn't gone to it before this year.  Chasing3 added it to their "open water series," so it got put on my schedule right then and there.  They also have a sprint version of this race that was quite popular.  So, there's something for everyone.

The trip to the lake is not so bad, as Hwy 285 gets us down to I-40 so quickly, then it's just a quick trip to Santa Rosa (also a great place for some training with all of their lakes, and one of the venues for a new open-water sprint race in August).  It's about 38 miles from Santa Rosa to Sumner Lake, so it's quite easy to stay there where there are far more amenities.  But, Ft. Sumner is kinda cool with the Pecos River flowing through it and there being some very nice quiet and scenic roads to ride on.  I love riding down to Bosque Redondo and Billy the Kid's grave from town and back.

Mila playing on the cool rocks that ring much of the lake.  It's a pretty venue.

Anyway, this race is directed by the local school superintendent.  It's a great venue with LOTS of potential.  As is somewhat the case with many rural areas of NM, the roads are less than smooth, so that is the main drawback of the venue.  It's not that bad, but the road is a little rough, much like NM-4, actually.

The lake is on the Pecos River, so it's a little murky but nice water.  It's also not all that chilly.  The swim course needs to be altered.  They ran it as an out-and-back style course with one buoy on the far end and one on the near end.  That caused a lot of messes with the two-way traffic.  One more buoy just a little off of the swim line would have helped tremendously.

Racers getting ready for the swim.  They didn't provide any swim caps...not a big deal, but kinda different...

A wider angle shot of the random swim start staging

I had a somewhat crummy swim for me -- my back had been bothering me from before Jay Benson and I aggravated it the week before.  Otherwise, the rest of me felt pretty good.  I was just off in the swim due to the tender muscles and didn't pull 100%, nor evenly.  I ended up in a not-so-great group that didn't sight well and so we didn't have a very good swim time relative to the leaders.  This would affect the entire race for me.

This shot says it all.  That's me all locked up and trying to move after a lousy swim.  My back bothered me pretty badly that day.

The exit from the swim is up a typical NM boat ramp, but not as steep as some of the others.  The transition area is in a nice, although rough-pavement, parking lot.  The state park is not that big, but nice and scenic.  The roads are rough with some speed bumps that are a minor nuisance but not that bad.  It's important to use good tires at this race.

Out on the bike, I put the hammer down (I had made a mistake in getting out of the park and it cost me probably 20 or 30 seconds overall).  I was going WAY too fast over a roller that led down to a sharp curve going over the dam.  I nearly didn't make the curve, twice actually, before getting my mind in the game and getting over the dam.  The road is narrow and open to traffic, so there were some cars behind some of the other racers who were faster on the swim than I was, so that was a little sketchy getting around all of that.  Then, it was open road.  I felt good, but saw that I had a HUGE gap to make up on the front-runners.  I didn't panic and just did what I had to do.  Fortunately, my back wasn't bothering me on the bike and I was able to really crank it out.

Coming back to the lake, we made a turn-off of the route out to an even narrower road that went down and around a curve that many of us nearly missed, as there was a dirt road leading off the apex of the 90 degree bend.  It looked like the way to go, so I over-cooked it and had to skid and hook a tight, slow turn to get back on course.  I think a lot of folks did that.  It was a bummer, as I was just about to catch the 2nd-place guy (Ken Corigliano) at the time.

Coming in from the bike.  I felt good and hammered hard on the bike.  I forgot my racing suit at home and had to race Tarzan style =)

I finally got off that little road and passed Ken and hauled it back into T2, where it was a bit confusing as to where we dismounted.  My back was bugging by that time and I had a slower-than-usual T2, but not too bad.  I was really locked up and my whole body was reacting to the tightness in my back.  I tried to find a comfortable position to get my rhythm, but it was a significant uphill in the first mile of the run.  I heard footsteps and knew Corigliano was a fast runner.  He passed me with authority and I shuddered to think how much time he was going to put on me if that situation kept up.  I fought hard mentally to not think about it and just focus on getting my body to come around and find a comfortable running stride.

Out of the park and over the first big hill, I watched as Corigliano strode away from me.  But up ahead, I saw Rance Irvin not making any progress on me at all and in fact, was seemingly coming closer into view.  I was heartened by that, so I worked on getting my effort going even better.

There was another hill up to the first aid station and so I was able to get two good cups of water.  I had hydrated well on the bike, so I didn't need to drink too much, even though it was hot without much of a breeze.  I put most of the water on my back and legs, and that did something to help my back relax quite a bit.  I suddenly felt myself becoming more comfortable and moving faster.  I was pleased to see that Corigliano was not advancing his gap as quickly as before, and that Rance was also getting closer.  I just increased my tempo and overall speed as my body allowed, and before I knew it, I was really running and feeling not so bad as before.


The return home was great, actually.  I ran well and got closer to Rance and even ran faster than Corigliano for a time, but when he caught Rance, there was an increase in both of their speeds, so I started running out of real estate to move up.  By the end, they both had over a minute in hand on me, but it had been much more earlier.  My bike/run time was better than Corigliano's by about 40 seconds or so, and well over a minute faster than Rance's, even though he had a great bike too and we were basically even (I think I nipped him by one second =).

What started out as a disaster of a run turned into a pretty decent run...I still lost a lot of time at the beginning, but pulled it out by the end.

 So, it wasn't a win, but I was actually not bummed about it.  I fought the entire way and without such a sad swim, it would have been a great race for me.  I like the venue and everything, but there are definitely some details that need to be attended to and some major improvements made overall.  It has a lot of potential as a really good race.  We'll go back if they have it again in the future.  It's a fun event overall in a cool part of the state.

Jay Benson May 9th 2010 Race Report

This was my first Jay Benson and I thought it was a pretty good race. I decided to drive down that morning which meant a pretty early start but it did mean I could get a proper breakfast! The organizers recommended leaving an hour to get through the guard gates so we left at about 4.30am to get to the gate at 6.30ish, an hour through and a race start at 8am. The traffic was clear as expected, although heading out for a race while people were on their way home from a night out was quite amusing! Getting through the guard gates was quick (10 mins!?) so we were there well before the start. This was quite good though as it gave me plenty of time to set up and relax before the race (and gave Jaclyn time for a nap in the car while I fussed about at transition). I bumped into Laurie on the way to the transition area and we both managed to get bike slots by the bike exit meaning less running in bike shoes and Clay later joined us in the same rack so we had a nice little Triatomics line up. Getting the packets and number was really easy that morning and they were doing a bagless packet pick up so as to minimize the amount of junk handed out and the number of plastic bags going to waste and it was really good, just get your number and chip, pick out a water bottle and get your shirt and away you go, no sifting through 20odd flyers just to put them in the trash.
Andy before the race:

and giving thumbs up at the start line of Wave 2:

So onto the race. It started in several waves, the first to go were the teams and elites and then waves at 3 minute intervals sorted by age groups with males first, then females. I thought this worked pretty well, but I was in the second wave so things were relatively clear for me but I guess AG women may have a different tale to tell. The run went out onto pretty open roads and was pretty quick, it starts with a very gradual downhill and then heads around and then back to transition with a very gradual uphill. The run went pretty well, I managed to keep a reasonable and steady pace at a good effort with still leaving some in the tank and it was easily my best run in a Tri and only a little slower than my current best 5km time at sea level so I was really pleased with that – putting in the miles over winter for an early spring marathon seem to have paid off. The transition was pretty smooth for my first race of the year, but seeing as we’d managed to get a bike slot near the exit, the bikers for the relays we blocking my bike rack and exit and seemed a little oblivious to my presence until I “gently persuaded” them to clear a slight path for me to exit with the tact and diplomacy only an English man could muster……

The bike was a nice loop actually, the majority of the road seemed to be pretty freshly resurfaced apart from one section which had SR4 characteristics but we’re all used to that kind of surface right? The route is quite quick and it was possible to keep a pretty good pace up, the first half is relatively flat and then the second half has some gentle hills in it. I’ve not managed to spend as much time on the bike as I would have liked so far this year and my legs did begin to get a little heavy with about 4 miles to go so probably slacked off a little and would ideally have liked to be at least a minute or two quicker and should have just cranked it but I wanted to save something for the pool. The second transition was quite nice, racking the bike near the exit where there were now no relay people to get in the way - either they’d all gone or my diplomacy had worked better than I’d expected. It was a short run to the pool entrance and I forgot to unclip my race belt but left that poolside. The pool’s pretty nice and it was a standard snake style 400m pool swim. It was pretty clear, only two spots were congested and I managed to clear through those pretty easily and there were a few folks doing nice wide breast stroke to navigate. With hindsight, I’m glad I left a little in the tank on the bike leg as the last 50m I was gasping pretty hard for air, then it was out of the pool and over the line.

L-R: Laurie, Miguel, Bill B.

All in all it was a good race, I was happy with my performance (did I mention the chest infection for the 2 weeks prior?) and it was a good marker for the other races I’m planning on doing this year. All the other folks seemed to have good races too – Clay took 3^rd overall and Laurie, Dina and Amy all got 2^nd in their age groups. There were also a bunch of other Triatomics there (Mehdi, Bill, Scott, Randy and probably a few others – my apologies if I forgot anyone!) and everyone seemed to have a good race. It was well organized and there was plenty of course support.

Clay and Mehdi before the race:

Best of the US 2009 -- Mission Viejo, CA

Here's my blog about the BOUS National Championship 2009 at the Orange County International Triathlon, in Mission Viejo, CA.




















Well, after all the anticipation, planning, training, special care taken, and everything else that went into getting myself (and family) to the start line of the Best of the US Championship triathlon in Mission Viejo, CA, things didn’t go quite as well as I had hoped. The trip was fun and the race experience there is always special, but my performance wasn’t up to my expectations. It’s not that I could have done a whole lot about it that day, but sometimes things just don’t work out the way you hope.

The course there is super cool, and really tough. The swim is in a very, VERY nice lake in Mission Viejo. It’s a private lake with a perfectly manicured beach, park, etc., etc. It was perfectly surveyed with laser precision, so we were told, thus the distance was supposedly a perfect 1,500 meters. It felt long to me, but more about that later!

The bike course heads out into a canyon in the foothills to the northwest of Mission Viejo – Santiago Canyon. It is a popular route, and with good reason. There is a perfect bike lane the entire way out with signs telling motorists to keep off the lane to keep it clear for cyclists. It did have a little debris here and there, but it was mostly quite clean. Terry Moore, the female NM representative from Las Cruces fell victim to something in the lane and got a flat.

The run course was really awesome, with a lot of changing topography and changes of direction. I thought it was a hard 10km to finish off a race, but some of the run times begged to differ. We re-entered the lake park and finished along the beach right along the waterfront. It was a great course, all-in-all. The only thing I didn’t like was that there were two different transition locations. T-1 and T-2 were separated by about 3 miles or so, thus making for a small logistical challenge the day before, and morning of the race…no big deal though because the organizers had good information to direct racers.

The “regular” race had about 1,000 people, plus the extra 100 spots for the BOUS athletes. That’s a pretty good sized race, and it had sold out. It made for a very festive atmosphere at this typical sunny southern California location.

Leading up to the race, things seemed to be pointing toward me having a good chance at a top-10 result. I had seemingly gotten over my mid-summer sinus/respiratory infection that had forced me to skip both Socorro and Los Alamos triathlons. I had worked my fitness back up slowly and had gotten in more miles on the bike than last year, but my swimming had suffered due to the sinus thing and I didn’t seem to have my best run speed. I worked on both once I could sustain the harder efforts, but I always had to watch it when I felt tired or congested. I didn’t want to have a recurrence of the infection.

I signed up for the F-1 triathlon in Roswell, the Tenderfoot triathlon in Salida, CO, and the Patriot Tri in Rio Rancho as three good lead-up races to blow out the pipes and practice the things I needed to have down to be competitive for the BOUS. They were saying that the swim would not be wetsuit legal, so I got one of those speed skin suits as a sponsorship deal and used it in the Tenderfoot tri. They’re weird things, for sure.

Travel is a huge challenge now, with all of the stuff to bring for Mila in addition to all of the tri gear. We did alright, but it is not easy: bike, race wheels, tri gear, car seat, toys, extra extra clothes, etc. etc. Logistics with travel is also tough, and this was made even more challenging by the coordination of visiting family in Los Angeles (two different households), then me taking off solo to Mission Viejo, then meeting back up a day later…… You get the point. But, that seemed to go fairly smoothly and I was not overly stressed prior to the race.

Only a couple of things were nagging at me: the fact that my head and chest had started to get congested again the week prior to the race. I couldn’t understand why, other than I don’t think I ever bucked that nasty infection 100%. Small vestiges of it came and went like the tides during the month previous, and the week before the weather took a nosedive and that seemed to exacerbate things right when I needed to be making some hard speed efforts to fine tune things for the race. I would rest up well, go do my hard speed training, then feel a massive influx of congestion and a really stuffy head. I also got a really badly wrenched neck from doing just little stuff around the house. I could barely turn my head after that. But, the training was still good and I even felt my run speed coming on just in time (I ran the Splash ‘n Dash / LA Tri 5km run course as a “brick” in sub-18 time the Sunday prior to the race, after doing bike intervals), so I was feeling confident.

Getting on the plane and doing all of the travel stuff must have sent my system a little over the edge, despite all of the incessant hand washing and taking Cold-Eeze, Emergenc-C, and Echinacea. I got into LA with a deep cough and somewhat clogged sinuses, and my neck was still stiff and sore. But I still didn’t feel bad, so I remained in good spirits headed toward the race. I was also having fun hanging out with Dina’s family in Los Angeles, who are SO happy to see Mila. That provided a good distraction to pre-race stress.

After driving all the way through the LA metro area to Mission Viejo, then getting out and seeing the bike, part of the run, and then finally the swim course, we had all of the pre-race hub-bub with the BOUS organization and the different racers from each of the states. There were some big names there, some of whom I recognized, but many of whom I have no earthly idea who they are. Jerry MacNeil listed all of their results, which sounded impressive. I knew this would be tough but also that if I had a good day, I would be competitive.

Dina, her sister Liza, her mom Olga, and Mila all stayed in one room, while I got an entire room to myself the night before the race…they insisted and I can’t say how grateful I am. I slept really solidly the night before and felt quite rested the morning of the race. I got out there early, but amazingly, I was already way back in line to get to the venue. That stressed me out a little, as I knew I had to get the race wheels on and get everything set at this busy venue before I was ready. The only problem I had was getting air into my tires using a borrowed pump (I need to get a better travel pump).

I got in a decent warm-up in the water; not great but good enough. Soon, we were lining up in our special “Wave-0” and getting all of the special treatment and announcements. It was all eyes on our wave as the 1000 other racers and families watched us “super triathletes” take off.

I opted to take the second row going into the water, as I knew I would just get trounced with these swimmers (men and women BOUS went all together). It was a good call. I got onto some feet, got hit and kicked for over 500 meters, then started having some breathing problems with the chest congestion. I was holding onto a group, barely, but I wasn’t about to let go. I tried coughing it out and would lose ground, but then redouble the effort to catch back on. It got to be a little too much by about the half-way point and I had to let go and try to clear my chest. For a couple of minutes I just mellowed out and concentrated on the coughing. I then pushed on solo the whole way back. I could see some people ahead of me, but I knew I had lost a LOT of time at that point. It’s amazing! I still would have had a relatively fast swim around here, but with that group, forget about it. I struggled in with a 22:02…not fast in that group. I had hoped for a 20-something or low 21.

I finally made it into T-1 and noticed all of the BOUS bikes that were all gone. I was with a couple of guys and got the heck out of there with a little bit of a slow transition, but not too bad. On the bike, I instantly started passing the stragglers from the swim, then some of the faster swimmers, then some of the faster females – I could tell how the swim went and how the women’s race was playing out. I also noticed that I had instantly caught a handful of guys, but that they were now few and far between…not a good sign. I wasn’t going super great on the bike. I was still coughing and trying to find my legs on the early long climbs of the course. I just didn’t hit it hard enough early to make up the ground I lost. It was becoming more apparent that this was not going to be a remarkable day. I also had a splitting headache for some reason; I think it was the tightness in my neck and upper back putting strain on my head and the aero helmet was not helping matters. It was really annoying and something I hadn’t experienced before.

Way out in the canyon near the "turnaround" where we detoured off the main road onto a strange bumpy road that is normally closed to any sort of traffic, I caught yet one last female…she was so far into the men’s field and had been so far ahead of me, I was just amazed. It occurred to me that if I didn’t ride and run fast, she might finish with me or beat me!

I pushed a lot harder once I was back out on the main canyon road. The hills were steeper on the way back in, so I had some clear goals and dug deep…at least for what I had to give. I think I salvaged a bad ride with those efforts on the way back in and managed to have the 8th fastest ride for all racers on the day. It was a 59:27 and I had hoped for and reasonably expected at least a low 58.

I had no idea how my body was going to react to the run, since I was clearly struggling a little. I was fearful of a 40-something minutes 10km on this really tough course. It was getting quite hot and with all of the landscape watering going on, it was also humid at ground level.

After another rough-around-the-edges transition, I was off on the run and feeling surprisingly OK, but again with headache and congestion. I ignored both and just focused on moving forward as swiftly as possible. I was completely alone for over a mile, then I heard the dreaded footsteps of the last guy I had caught out on the bike – turns out it was Jonathan Krichev from Alabama. He’s a very good triathlete from the deep Southeast (former University of Alabama swimmer), but someone I have beaten before and someone I can usually outrun, but not today. He was moving along just a little quicker than I could muster, so I stopped blowing my nose long enough to let him get by me. I tried briefly to stick with him, but decided against continuing because I have blown up every time I’ve done that at early stages of a run leg. I was on my own again and getting the feeling that I was not really part of the race.

It was like that for quite a while until we hit some really nasty hills at mile 3. I could see Krichev and a couple of others ahead, but what looked like WAY ahead. I tried to get through the hills strongly, but the heat and humidity was sapping me and I just didn’t have the punch to do what I wanted. I focused well and kept my feet moving quickly, but I knew it wasn’t 100%.

It’s tough when you know you’re having an off day, but all the training and struggle you go through to get there keeps you pushing. I had to rethink things a little bit out there and decided I would really try to catch at least one guy ahead. I caught a fleeting glimpse of who I recognized as the Arizona guy, Cam Hill. He’s also a great swimmer and it seems that every year, no matter how we’re both doing, I catch him in the finale of the run. I made that my main goal for the day and set about picking it up as best I could, no matter how much snot I got on myself or how much I was coughing. I set my sights on him and just ran faster, period.

The run course was really crazy between miles 2.5 and 5, but at the 5-mile point, we dumped out of the steep hills and twisty turns of the parks, out onto a parkway, where we did a final out-and-back on a final long hill and were all able to see where we stood relative to the other racers just around us. I wondered if this was all of them, or if there were more already that far ahead of me that I didn’t even see them on this long out-and-back section.

Turns out it was to be the latter. I was further down than I had hoped at that moment, but I didn’t know that yet and my main goal was to catch Cam Hill of Arizona. At the bottom of the hill, he was still quite a distance ahead, but I was gaining steam and gave it 110% up the hill. I felt myself redlining and actually feeling better as I went up. I should have been able to hit that level and hold it much sooner in the race, but this was the only time I felt like I was able to go full-gas all day. I went into the zone and honed in on him until we entered the park. Until I was on his heels, I didn’t think I was going to catch him. Once I was right on him, he heard me and glanced back and I sensed he gave up the ghost to stay ahead of me. Around the corner leading to the home stretch along the waterfront, he slowed and I took the opportunity to keep my momentum and surged all the way to the line – I put 9 seconds on him in that short distance. It was at least a fun finish to what was otherwise a lackluster day. My run ended up being 38:49 on a tough course, but I had really expected a 36-something and really had ambitions for a 35-something.

I was happy it was done and all of the wondering how I would do and worry over my sinus/congestion situation was over. But, I was disappointed in the result. I wanted a top-10, not really for anything to add to my “career” or anything like that, but to put New Mexico in there. I think we do alright with the sport, but it’s hard to come up with the big result when you don’t travel to the big races very much. That takes time and patience, as well as experience and a bit of luck. It seems the less I travel, the worse I do once I do actually go on a trip to a race. I’m so tired of traveling away to races, though, so I doubt I’m going to do a whole lot better than that in the future. I think I’ll pass on it next year. It’s been a fun experiment for me, though. I went four times and grabbed 8th place in 2007. I felt like I struggled badly that day too, but ended up with a stellar run that moved me into the top-10 in only the last couple of kilometers, passing who else, but Cam Hill and Jonathan Krichev.

In the end, I managed to squeak out a 2:02:38, good for 17th place among the BOUS racers (20th overall including the "regular" Orange County Triathlon participants). I had hoped for a 1:58 or so and feel like I had that in me without the problems (read "excuses" =). Still, with the BOUS athletes there, there were 22 men who beat the old age-group course record, and 21 women beat the old female a-g course record. Matter of fact, the first female was only a few seconds off of the previous male course record!!! That goes to show you how tough that field is! (FYI, one of the women beat me by over 2 minutes on the run) So there is some consolation in the result...I just can't get over the fact that the first place guy did it in 1:52:50. That's SIX minutes faster than the pro/elite course record!


Thanks to all of you Triatomics folks for the well-wishes. It's always fun to race with all of you. I also need to REALLY, REALLY thank Dina for her support and efforts in keeping me out there. Any success I have now is due more to her than anything else in the equation! We'll both be out there again next year!

Swim/Cycle Series Episode #2

Despite a less than desirable forecast, the day started off alright. Air temps ~70, probably the same for the water, overcast. The water level dropped significantly from last week.

(L to R: Max Light, Ben Davis, Bill Bearden, Bill Geist, Kim Meyer, Liz Miller, Peter Song, Paul Graham)

After a 2700 meter swim (thanks to Taraka for the kayak chaperone), we mounted the bikes for a long ride. The inclement weather caught up to us, however, and we finished a ~30 mile ride nicely wet. Al round good time, judging from the smiles. Thanks for coming everyone! Tentative repeat on July 12th.

Thanks Jian for the pictures!

Swim/Cycle Series, episode #1

I think everyone had a good time last Sunday at Cochiti. The weather was excellent, the water quite nice (67-68 if I heard Tina correctly), and *I* missed the dogs.

Thanks to Bill for the use of his kayak and Taraka for chaperoning the swim.

For those of you not going to the Buff this weekend, we'll gather at Sullivan Field this Sunday @ 7 am for another round. This time a few of us will be swimming longer (~1 hr) and going for a longer ride. Hopefully the weather will hold.

Race Report Deuces Wild Tri Festival, Show Low, AZ 05/30,31

The Deuces Wild Tri festival was last weekend – they have five events, including the kid's race – a little something for everyone. There's a half ironman distance race, an aquabike for those who want the half distance without the run, an Olympic distance race and a kid's race all on Saturday, and an XTERRA on Sunday. Show Low is a 5:15 drive from LA, and don't forget Arizona does not observe daylight savings time, so you lose an hour as you cross the border (a little tidbit forgotten by yours truly. And Laurie Goddard, so I didn't feel quite so much of a doofus). You can check-in at the venue till 7:00 Friday night, but can also do so early on race day.
The Triatomics who participated: Dina and Char Latham from Santa Fe both did the Olympic, Clay and Laurie both did the XTERRA, and I participated in the half. Our boys were supposed to do the kids race, but it got postponed till Sunday morning due to heavy rain mid-day, and we had to leave late Saturday night, so we'll have to wait till next year for that one.
Race morning was nice, a bit chilly (Show Low is around 6300' – helps for Northern New Mexicans, hurts the Phoenix and Tucson people) and there was the usual pre-race discussion about how much clothing to wear. Water temp was reported to be 62 degrees – I was actually comfortable with just my wetsuit, no booties or skull cap like I saw some racers wearing. The men went off at 6:30, women left 4 minutes later. I had a little trouble sighting, as usual, but got out of the water unscathed. It always seems like a long 1.2 miles to me. I knew there were a clump of women ahead of me, but not how many. With all of the men ahead as well, it's pretty tough to know where you stand. Out on the bike I passed 4 or 5 women fairly early on, and then just kept riding. I passed a couple more about a quarter of the way through. The course is a bit hilly but not bad. Especially for those of us who ride the loop on a regular basis. There is a long hill around mile 40, but certainly no worse than coming up from the Bandelier entrance to the back gate, and nothing as bad as climbing out of Ancho. My only complaint – there were a lot more people in the Olympic distance race than the long course and from about mile 27 till I came up to Olympic racers where their bike course joined the long course, I was by myself. That is a long time to stay focused.
The run was a two-loop course that consisted of dirt trail, concrete, asphalt, and hills that sneaked up on you. Definitely not a fast course. I ended up leaving too much out on the bike and never really felt that spring in my step that I usually feel after the first mile or so. It was a slow slog for me and lots of effort. Only one mile was sub 8:00, and at 7:58 for mile 1, I barely even made that milestone. There are a couple of places you have a turn around and can see your competitors. Olympic and long course share the same run, so it was fun to cheer for Char and Dina as we passed each other. I wasn't sure till the half way point for the half that I was in first place – with all of the competitors on the same course and the only delineation being the color of your bib number, and the two-loop nature, there was lots of ways to get it mixed up. I ended up coming in first, though, and beat second by quite a bit (18 minutes).
This is a great race for prizes: overall winners went 5 deep and each received a significant gift certificates to TriSports.com (the race sponsor), as well as a Spinervals CD for all AG first place,s and a decorative keychain holder thing (OK, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that – for now it's stuck in a corner with all of the other race stuff), and finishers medals for all. Plus, they have a HUGE raffle and give away really great stuff – multiple wetsuits, running and cycling shoes, aerobar sets, a Kuota bike frame, a very cool Felt cruiser, and tons of smaller stuff – well worth waiting around for Saturday evening.
I posted a couple of photos on the Photo webpage – don't worry, Clay, Dan came through for you and got some of Dina racing.

Deuces Wild!

Well, we managed to make it all the way over to Show Low, AZ for the Deuces Wild Triathlon Festival. This is a great race weekend that everyone should experience. They have the DeuceMan 1/2 IM distance race, an Olympic distance race, and a pretty wild XTERRA on Sunday. It was perfect for our little "tri family," as Dina was able to race the Olympic on Saturday while I hung out with Mila, then it was my turn for the XTERRA race on Sunday.

We took the camper and camped the first night at El Malpais Nat'l Monument (very cool place and worth a trip there on its own). Then we went to the race venue at Fool's Hollow Lake in Show Low, but missed getting the very last spot by about 20 minutes...luckily, I had a sneaky backup plan that had us camping right outside the park on a dirt road, but within range of riding to the races each day...very sneaky indeed. The camping near the lake is fantastic.

I have to apologize that I didn't take ONE SINGLE photo of Dina racing. I never even thought to pull out the camera because I had Mila in tow and she needed to eat, sleep, play, eat again, get her diaper changed, and we worked hard on being at the right place on the course for cheering when Dina came in from each leg.

(late update: Dan Rees graciously sent me some pictures he took of Dina during the run leg of her race...thanks to Dan for saving me on that one)

Like I said before, Dina has had a very rough spring with nagging injuries, colds and other strange viruses, so this was going to be interesting. She didn't get to train a single time between Jay Benson and the Deuces Wild Olympic...whoa!

She managed just fine and paced herself after taking off very aggro in the swim and realizing her body wasn't quite ready for that. She backed off and swam steady, then biked steady into T-2 for an unknown run leg. She wasn't sure she would be able to finish, but she did with smiles and laughs to spare. I was amazed at her spirit and ability to push on and do quite well. She did the whole thing in something like 3:16...it's a hilly course and not fast for an Olympic.
















A couple of comments on Dina's race: although she got a little nervous beforehand because it is a race, she didn't let it get to her too much even though she was going into a pretty competitive race with virtually NO training. I was impressed. She started out pretty hard, but realized that wasn't the right thing to do and backed off to a level she could sustain and had fun the rest of the race. She stopped to kiss Mila a couple of times, play games with Ben and John Rees (and nearly miss a timing mat in the process), etc. She still ended up 3rd in the Athena category.













On Sunday, the XTERRA went pretty well for me and I'm overall satisfied. I can't really complain, but did have a couple of minor problems.


After Dina's race on Saturday, I attempted to get out on the mtn bike for a quick ride around the bike course, but they're having early monsoons there too and I got hit by a nasty fierce storm at the top of the long, broad dome mountain that we have to climb to the top of in the race. With the lightning and hail, I had to act fast and hoof it back down the way I went up in the sloppy mud and cold, driving rain. It screwed up my bike a little bit and my brakes were rubbing pretty badly for some reason when I got back to the camper. I tried to fix them later, but it didn't seem like I was 100% successful (dang disk brakes!). I didn't worry too much about it since they often sort themselves out magically once you use them a few times on a ride.

The next morning dawned chilly and we were to the race venue with baby Mila by 6AM...way to go Mommy! I didn't have too much to worry about and even got in a good little warmup. I checked the disk brakes again and they were rubbing a little but I had hope they wouldn't hamper my speed too much.

I got enough warmup for the swim and started in the front, and when the gun went off, I hit it hard right in the scrum. I hate those aggressive swim starts, but I wanted to get out in front quickly to avoid being too far back on the mtn bike single track (passing is not so easy in mtn biking). I was quickly engulfed by the idiots and hit in the head and pushed down, so I backed off to the second line. Soon, most of those clown blew up and I found some open water in front, but could still see swimmers ahead of me, so I had no idea what place I was. I got into a very good rhythm and knew it was a good swim when I exited the water. I felt good going up the ramp to the wetsuit strippers, but they botched the strip job and it took probably 30 seconds longer than it should have. Some guys passed me in transition and I would have to work to catch them.




Out on the bike, I was feeling good. But I soon realized that my brakes were scrubbing my speed somewhat and I was getting caught by a few guys who would not normally ride up to me like that. I struggled on the early shallow climbs in the woods until it got steeper. I tried to just dug a little deeper to stay with a couple of guys that I just couldn't let go. It was a little frustrating, but I figured it might not matter on the downhill side of the mountain.

We soon got a little higher on the mountain where the rain fell the hardest and the mud was DEEP and sticky. It is that structural mud that makes fine adobe, and that's exactly what happened on our bikes. It stuck to everything and we were all soon pedaling 50 lbs+ bikes up that steep hill. We would loose 2/3 of our pedal power to slippage, and it began to be a battle of survival. Guys were clogging up everywhere and falling down and just mentally losing it. It was a little comical, but not so much when we were "in the thick of it." I knew the course just got steeper and steeper at that point, so I found a very low gear, let it skip out for a minute or two until the chain wore through the mud and just kept it there. I was a good strategy and I began to catch and pass those guys who had passed me not long before. I kept riding, to my amazement, while they were all forced to push and/or pull their mud-laden bikes up the ever-steepening gradient. We soon hit the upper stretches where there were rocks mixed in with the mud, and that made it interesting because the sticky mud would pick up the rocks and lodge them tightly between wheels and brakes, or wheels and frame. It finally caught up to me too (at one point, I think I was the only one still actually on my bike) and I was stopped dead in my tracks and fell over onto another guy who was pushing his bike at almost the same speed as me -- my cleats were all clogged up and wouldn't unclip from the pedals. So, I had to push a bit, but the really rocky section saved me because the mud cleared enough to get back on and ride the rest of the way to the top, where I figured I was back in the top-5 to 10 spots and now motoring with a lot more gusto.

I hit the nasty descent and never looked back. I knew that everyone else were now having at least as much trouble with their bikes as I had been, so I made hay while I had the chance. I pushed the limits on the very slick, muddy descents and used my brakes very little. We got to an intersection of muddy trail with muddy road and the people said we were about 3 minutes behind the leaders and we're in about 5th, 6th, 7th...that was good news.

The rest of the bike went well and I ended up with the 7th fastest bike split and in about 7th place (that's not always the case). I never felt bad on the bike, whereas last year, I felt a little crapped out by the final steep climb before the last descent into T-2, so I was happy going into the run.



I had a much better T-2 and hit the road in 7th/8th. I love it when you begin to feel your running legs early in a race. I had 6th place in my sights pretty early and ran him down before the course got really technical.



XTERRAs are weird. The course designers are encouraged to throw a lot of obstacles in your way, and that's what they do at this XTERRA. Much of the run is standard off-road running, but at one point, we had to run down a nasty slick rocky hill to the bottom of a lake spillway wash with huge boulders (imagine running across the Cochiti Lake dam), then back up a long, nearly verticle hill. That was at mile #1! That cracks your legs for the rest of the race and you never fully recover from it. I did better than last year and got my speed back up. I began to see a couple of guys ahead, but one guy that I entered T-2 just behind was just killing it and he was pulling away, despite my good run feelings. I saw the guys he was catching and figured I might if I really pushed it, so I did.








Way out on the far end, there's an out-and-back on a jeep road, and that's the first time we got to see where we were. I was in 6th, with 4th and 5th clearly not running as fast as I was, but still quite a ways ahead. Oddly, I thought 2nd looked a little slow too, but too far ahead for this late in the race. I pushed it hard and hoped 4th and 5th would crack. I got my wish with 5th...he died just enough, but 4th held tough.

Again, we had to descend a loose rocky slope to swampy islet of the lake and they made us run right through the lake...not as badly as last year, where it was chest deep and I was forced to actually swim. This time, it was only up the thigh depth and I elected to stay on my feet. Beyond that, it's another steep uphill trudge, now with totally squishy wet feet. Just before getting on the final stretches of the lake bike path and the final paved finishing stretch, they took us down into another swamp, where I got a little lost but have Dina's cheering to thank for helping me navigate to the correct place to climb back up to the lake path.
















At that final point, I turned it on with what I had, but felt a knarly hamstring cramp forming and had to back off, so I never quite caught the 4th place guy, who had had a great bike ride.

So, it was 5th overall and I was happy. We all had a lot of war stories to share with each other.



Dina and I noticed how the Arizona tri scene is quite different from ours. These guys all have these entourage "posses" of other people who do everything for them and blow smoke up their butts and just hang out with these guys. They all have fancy haircuts and cars and clothes and what the heck is that all about?

So, it was a fun trip. Now we're off to the Milkman this weekend.