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.