Race Report, 2008 AG Nationals, Clearwater 70.3 Championships

A Tale of Two Races - National Age Group Championships, Ironman 70.3 World Championships, and Other Thoughts

These are a long time coming, Warning, this is very long and likely boring. Peruse as you choose.

My season has concluded with the completion of the abovementioned two races. The former occurred September 21st near Portland OR, the latter on November 8th in Clearwater, FL. Both events were superb, and I would heartily recommend either to anyone.

Both races require some level of qualification. The 70.3 requires qualification at a World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) branded 70.3 qualification event, and typically a top 3 or 4 in your age group will ensure a slot, but some events will roll the slots pretty far down the AG. In my opinion, the 70.3 is substantially harder to qualify for. I earned the 70.3 slot by winning my AG at Buffalo Springs 70.3 Ironman.

One can earn a slot to the AG national championships several ways. If you were a USAT All American the previous year you can automatically go, also you can go if you have ever been a member of Team USA and competed in an ITU World Championship event, or you can earn a slot by finishing in the top 10% of your AG in any USAT sanctioned event in the same year. I have all three qualification criteria.

The AG Championships is the premier event for USAT, and is probably the second most competitive age group event in the United States, after the Hawaii IM, and the 70.3 Championships are a new championship venue for WTC, the folks who own Ironman, and has quickly become a premier international age group event.

Going into the AG national championships I had hoped to go top 5 and to break 2:05. At Clearwater a 4:20 placed third for my AG the previous two years, so my goal was to go 4:20, which I thought was very reachable, and though if I had a great race I could go 4:15. I also wanted to be competitive with the top end of the AG.

One of the unique aspects of triathlon is the venue it provides for relevant, competitive adult athletics. This is achieved by the age group system which is very vibrant in triathlon, compared to other sports. Occasionally attending a national caliber race is a neat experience because of the buzz of expectation and anticipation that surrounds an event where a lot of talented and hard working athletes are going to put it on the line, head-to-head.

AG Nationals

The AG Nats were a bit of an afterthought for me, not a target race. I mostly wanted to do it because I have been racing well this year and thought I had a good chance to place well. Clay and I had been talking about going to this race for a while, but we waited to pull the trigger on the decision due to the race timing as it related to Mila’s birth and other normal life issues. The race venue was at Hagg Lake, a reservoir about 30 miles east of Portland, well out of the suburban sprawl. Most people stayed in a town about 15 mile east of Portland called Hillsboro. Hillsboro appeared to be an upscale and fairly new suburb with a ton of high end chain retail and restaurants. Nice to visit, fun to have all the convenience, but at the end of the day it looks and feels like a million other places. I still prefer Los Alamos to all that generic crap.

Hagg Lake was really nice. The lake is entirely in a state park and had a 12 mile road circumnavigating it, which the bike portion basically raced twice. The road undulates along the contours of all the lake drainages, but with the exception of the descent and accent off the dam, was very ridable, and made for a fairly fast bike leg. I would have to say, this was actually one of the more fun triathlon bike courses I have ever rode. There were a lot of very fast downhill sections, and most of the hills could be powered in the big chain ring, that along with the lake shore park-like setting made for a very enjoyable ride. The run was an out and back that also followed the lake road, but the dips that you could power down and up on the bike actually made for a very hilly and challenging run. The lake temperature was in the high 60’s low 70’s and very comfortable in a wetsuit. The entire park was closed to auto traffic, they even made the athletes park about 5 or 6 miles away and bussed us to the race venue.

We showed up in Portland about noon on Thursday, walked around downtown Portland for a few hours, checked into our hotel and drove out to the race venue to figure out how to get out there and to do a very short swim to get a feel for the water temperature. We ate dinner at good Italian restaurant that was walking distance from our hotel. The next morning we ate the hotel provided continental breakfast (a very good breakfast that I think USAT negotiated with the hotel for athletes) and drove out to the venue to check-in and check our bikes.

There are two kinds of folks in this sport, those that like to work out the day before a race and the sane ones. I go to races, big races, and see all kinds of fools biking, swimming, even running – and sometimes hard. I always wonder what they are looking for with that last minute workout, and if they ever find it. Clay likes to work out the day before a race. Since we were together, and I’m not really in a position to judge his performances, I decided to do an easy ride around the lake with Clay just to get the lay of the bike course. To foreshadow a bit, I have never had a good race after doing exercise the day before. I have now had three or four examples where circumstances led me to doing something the day before a big race, and each of those races have been bad races. We had an uneventful evening, eating at a PJ Changs that took forever to get into.

Race day dawned cool and overcast, with the first waves going off in temperatures of about 60 degrees. They did a good job of staggering the waves, sending most of the older waves off first and then pausing for 30 minutes before starting again with the younger waves. Each of the younger age groups (under 50) seemed to have between 70 and 120 competitors. The swim start was off a long dock that defined one side of a boat ramp allowing everyone to line up side by side.

I arrived with dreams (our dreams always exceed our goals, no?) of a top three placement in my age group, and thought if I had a great race I could do even better. I was hoping to go at least 2:05, or faster and thought my recent training indicated that the sea level course would let me rip it. I used the two weeks before the race as a planned easy phase such that I showed up well rested and ready to go.

I got out on the swim well, and noticed after about 3 or 4 hundred yards I was swimming side by side with a dude from my wave. I figured if we were going the same I might as well try to draft off of him. As is typically the case when I try to draft an open water swim, I spend more effort zigg-zagging around trying to stay on the toes and I would have been better off just swimming on my own. After about 10 minutes of this I gave up the drafting and just swam my own pace and own line. I actually passed the guy I was with exiting the water in about 21:30, at least thirty seconds slower than I was hoping for. Running up the boat ramp I heard someone say that I was the 5th white cap out of the water…made me feel pretty good at the time, but ultimately proved to be incorrect, I think I was 10th or so.

The transition is pretty strenuous, with a long run up a steep boat ramp and then through the actual transition area, which was well organized and had plenty of room, but was also pretty large. Got out on the bike okay, and settled in. I lost a little speed on a few of the first turns, not sure of how much speed I could carry, but not much. I got passed and passed a guy in my AG within the first two miles. Spent the first 5 or 6 miles finding my bike legs, and noticed that my rear shifting was drifting up the rear cluster. About half way around the first lap, I lost the ability to shift into the top half of my cluster and threw my chain twice. I lost some time trying figure out the shifting issue, and one of the times the chain came off I almost had to stop to get it back on the sprocket. After the race I discovered that my cable housing had frayed to the point of impinging the shift cable…a problem I knew was manifesting but did nothing about. Pretty stupid. Once I figured out the problem, I could at least deal with it. Despite all this I made pretty good pace on the bike actually passing one guy in my AG on the longest hill I was muscling up for all my worth (due to attenuated shifting in the easier half of my cluster). I finished the bike in the high 1:03’s and probably lost a minute or more with the mechanical, but was fairly happy with the bike.

I got through transition pretty well and saw I was sitting right at 1:28 a little slower than I wanted, but not by much and I figured if I ran a 37 I would hit my target of 2:05. At that time I thought I was sitting 4th or 5th, but was actually around 8th. The run was very hilly, and while I felt like my running had good depth, I really couldn’t spin it up, a problem I had been experiencing all year with the faster races….likely a by-product of the bigger volume and slower tempo work I have been doing this year. The hilly nature of the course wasn’t helping either, as I am not a very good hill runner. I passed two guys on the outbound and hit the turn in low 19 and then just bogged down the rest of the way. I got caught by two fellas in my AG about a ½ mile from the finish. I beat one of them but got out kicked the last 50 yds by the other. My run ended up low 39, pretty disappointing as I was certain I would go low 38’s or even 37 something. Physically I felt pretty good at the end, spunky even, but no speed.

I ended up 7th in my AG, going low 2:07, around 85th overall, top 15% of all the guys under 50 which is okay, I suppose. I beat some pretty good people, and was only 2 ½ minutes from placing top three in my AG. I was generally unhappy with my performance, and thought I left a couple of minutes out on the course. The one good takeaway for me was the fact that while I wasn't really that fast, I felt very strong throughout the entire race, and didn’t really feel that extended afterward….hoping that was a harbinger of my physical state for the 70.3 championships 6 weeks later.

New Mexico had a good showing with 7 or 8 athletes from our state showing up. Clay ended up the top NM finisher in 2:06, after getting a penalty somewhere out on the bike. Clay was pretty bummed about his race, only feeling good about his swim. Steve Hall from Albuquerque went low 2:07 beating me by a couple of overall slots. As it turned out Steve, Clay and I were all within 10 overall placements of each other. The other NM folks we talked to all seemed pretty happy with the day.

They gave us a hat, a coat, a couple of shirts, an organic energy bar and we got a pretty lame BBQ lunch after the race, plus we were forced to watch the Elite National Championships for a while, which would have been okay if they were also giving us cold beer. Since they were not, I had other matters on my mind and Clay and I figured out how to skedaddle out of there.

I think if you registered early it would have cost $90 bucks, an okay value. All-in-all the race was well organized and a great event. The neat thing about races like this are the tight finishes and great competition, seconds count and race day execution is pretty important. I would certainly encourage anyone to go, if only for the experience of top-flight racing.


70.3 Ironman

The 70.3 was in Clearwater FL, and I loved Clearwater. The northern end of the island is still pretty quaint, mostly dominated by older beach houses and not nearly as much upscale development as we found on the southern beaches. It was easy to walk around the town, there are just enough restaurants and stuff to keep you entertained, and regular grocery store shopping is pretty close. There were several state parks nearby and the beaches were nearly pristine. My family rented a beach house for a week and made a vacation out of it, inviting my father and his wife. The cost of a week rental is not cheap, but not expensive either and we had a house that was located at the end of a cul-de-sac that directly accessed the beach. The early November weather is almost perfect. High 70’s low 80’s, cool nights, and it isn’t crazy busy that time of year so the beaches were not at all that crowded. Also, while the water is getting cool, it is still warm enough to play around in, some. We found Clearwater Beach to be family oriented enough, but a couple could also have a lot of fun.

The primary venue was basically downtown Clearwater Beach in an park and pavilion area that was adjacent to the beach. There were a fair number of vendors, and the organization was outstanding. They had a lot of volunteers, each of whom was cheerful and seemed very excited about the race. I thought the organizers made each athlete feel special throughout the check in process. There are neat little touches, like personalized numbers that have your first name on them, so throughout race day people would cheer for you by name. The race packet consisted of a fairly generic shirt, but without much advertising, a fairly nice pair of Foster-Grant Ironman sunglasses, an event booklet and a little nylon backpack to put it all into. Finishers received a hat, a towel, and a very nice finishers medal. Post race they fed us pizza, rice and beans and other typical stuff. The post race awards ceremony included a buffet style dinner and a pretty glitzy awards show.

The swim was a narrow rectangle that headed straight out into the Gulf made a 100 yd turn and came straight back into the rising sun. It was warm enough that I could get by with only my Desoto Bib-John, which is a more comfortable wet suit configuration for me. The run was a two loop affair that ran the athletes across a causeway that connected the town of Clearwater with Clearwater Beach and through some neighborhoods in Clearwater. The route was bone flat with the exception of a steep, short causeway bridge we ran over 4 times, that probably gained 50-75 feet of elevation. I actually found it to be just enough of a change to keep my muscles fresh. The bike course is somewhat notorious for drafting and inflated times I would give the race organizers very high marks for carving a very safe bike ride that plows right through the middle of a very busy suburban screed. Bikers had one entire lane of traffic devoted to the race, and the police were very good at maintaining traffic control at the numerous intersections. The ride is almost completely flat and would make for very fast times under almost any conditions, however the situation of this particular race make for very, very fast rides. There is drafting, and lots of it. The draft packs form almost organically, and are hard to marshal because the race lane is filled with athletes, and the other lanes typically have snarled bumper-to-bumper traffic making it nearly impossible for the race officials to get around the course. I think they focus on the pro’s and everyone else is left up to themselves. This is a course that definitely rewards runners ahead of bikers/swimmers, but it still seemed that within the age groups the best people more or less rose to the top, so the frequently maligned format probably doesn’t matter all that much at the end of the day.

Joining me were Dan Rees and Amy Regan. Dan was in the middle of a monster race schedule that started with IM Lake Placid in July, IM Hawaii in October, the 70.3 race, and ended with IM AZ in late November. Through all that Dan qualified for Kona in Lake Placid, and set a half iron PR in Clearwater, and had his second fastest IM in AZ, going around 10:24, give or take a couple, a pretty impressive schedule that would have broken me into a million pieces.

We had to drop off our bikes the day prior, and this race also utilized transition bags, disallowing anything on the ground around your bike. The bags were mounted on long racks that were ordered by number. Between the bag racks and bike transition was a changing tent, one for men one for women. We were allowed to attach stuff to our bikes, as long as nothing was on the ground. I chose to mount my shoes, but put my helmet and sunglasses in my transition bag, figuring I could save a little time by putting my hat and glasses on as I ran to the bike. The bags were color coordinated so we had a blue bag for the bike transition and a red bag for the run transition. They were clear to provide that mnemonic at check in, and I am sure every athlete coming out the water was saying to themselves “blue is for bike” over and over. Race morning I got there early enough to pump my tires and make sure everything looked good figure find visual clues for my bags and bike.

The racing started at 6:45, with Dan and my wave going off at 7:55 or so. We were in the second to last wave, each wave had a 5 minute cushion. The last wave was all the men in their 20’s. I figured the AG winner was going to emerge from that wave since there are usually fast as shit ready to turn pro 22 yo dudes at races like this hoping to make a yearend statement to potential sponsors. My main early goal was to at least beat most of that first wave of 20 yo’s out of the water.

Amy was in one of earliest waves almost an hour before Dan and I. Dan and I had prearranged to meet at an impressive Ironman 70.3 “sandcastle” that they had constructed, 10 or so minutes before Amy’s wave, with the idea we would go up to their hotel room for a few minutes to relax before our wave.

We hooked up at the prearranged spot, watched Amy take off, and headed up to the room to perform the AM duty, and change into our wetsuits. We came back down to the beach about 30 minutes before our wave to swim a little and get ready for the race. The water was not too cold, and I decided on the bib john without the vest and swam around for about 10 minutes. We were basically warming up right next to start corral, so we could watch a couple of wave starts to get the best starting beta. They started the swim with a 10 or 15 meter beach run into the water, and the water got thigh deep pretty fast making it hard to run, but it stayed thigh deep for 30 or 40 yards. The folks that got out the fastest started with a dolphin dive, and just kept standing up and diving until it got too deep to do that anymore, so I decided that I would execute that maneuver at the swim start.

About 10 minutes before our start I got into the start corral with the other athletes and just tried to stay loose and not get too nervous. Dan decided to drift to the back of the wave, so we bid each other good luck and got ready. They gave us about 2 and a half minutes to get lined up and ready. I went down to the water, splashed some water on my face and upper torso and shouldered my way into the front line. When the gun went off I executed the dolphin technique and quickly separated myself from the guys around me, once I started swimming I had only minimal contact and was clean away with not many other red caps in front of me.

One of the best aspects of our altitude adaptations is the sea level swimming! I have learned that I can just drill the swim, and won’t really get very tired. Since I was so disappointed with my nationals swim I really focused on moving forward and executing proper technique. The swim was pretty straight forward, I didn’t hit too much early wave traffic, and the only real chaos was the return leg into the rising sun. I came out of the water in 27 minutes, 10th place in my AG. There was a pretty big spread of swim times, with the bulk of guys in my AG coming out of the water in around 30 minutes.

Transition could have been a little smoother, but it didn’t go too bad. They had wet suit strippers that yanked the wet suit off. After picking up my blue bike bag I grabbed my hat, glasses and race number and handed my swim stuff to a volunteer who put it all in the blue bag for me to pick up later.
I got out on the bike feeling good and started working. I was immediately passing folks, was passed by a guy in my AG, who I paced off for a few miles until I was passed by two guys from the wave that followed mine. As they passed us, I followed their tempo and paced off of them. They were keeping a stiff pace, but sustainable. Shortly after the first water hand-up at mile 16 or 17 we were swept up by a large fast moving group of young guys and men from my age group. There were likely 15-20 when I was passed, and the group acted like a vacuum cleaner just roaring by everything in its path and picking up new riders here and there. I tended to stay at the back of the pack trying to at least honor the spirit of the drafting rule, but even 20 feet back you get a heck of a draft when you have 30 or 40 people riding in front of you, and there were 5 or 6 other people trying to the same thing.

The ride continued in this fashion until the second water hand up at about mile 35. It was on the uphill side of a long causeway bridge, the most significant hill on the entire course. I don’t like to carry a lot of extra stuff with me and plan on getting fresh liquid every water hand up. I had difficulty making the hand up, and being in the back of the group got gapped by the group. I quickly caught back up and noticed that the group had actually been split in two, and I was in the second pack. Someone told me that the other guys had actually surged through the hand-up….smart move to break things up. I made a strong move up the cause way to catch and made a pretty decent dent up the hill, but realized I would have to bury myself to pull them all the way back on the flats so I eased up to see if anyone else in the second group would help. Nobody came through, so I figured what the heck, and I rode the rest of the way with the second group. As it turned out that first group put about 3 minutes into us, which would have been pivotal had I been aware enough to mark the surge.

The remainder of the bike was uneventful, and I ended up executing the bike ride in 2:13, around the 20th or 25th fastest ride in my AG. Looking at the results it appears most of the guys who finished in the top 25 of my age group came into T2 in one of three groups that were each about 3 minutes apart. The group I came in with was the middle of these groups and I exited T2 in 10th place. Interestingly, the winner in my AG was in the 3rd pack and used a fantastic run to take the win. looking at the results it looks like the officials did a good job of breaking up the 35 year olds and 40 year olds, each of whom were split into two waves. Not so much with the guys in their twenties, or my AG which got a huge boost from the younger AG behind us.

The ride at Clearwater is a bit cartoonish due to the large packs. The suburban nature of the course makes it tough for the race marshals to get around, the ride is pretty flat, and there are a lot of good athletes pumped onto the course in a fairly short period of time. I think it is kind of unavoidable. This race has a bad reputation for drafting, and I knew that coming into the event. I figured that the race would be won in the run and I focused my training to be able to come off the bike and run well. I had been doing a steady volume of tempo brick runs all late summer, where I would go down to the track, which is right behind my house, after long rides and basically pound out 5k-8k tempo runs. My goal was to run 4min/k which would give me a sub 1:25 run....a time that I thought would be competitive.

I hit transition-2, they had volunteers grab your bike for you so you could run straight to the red run bag, go to the change tent and put your shoes and hit the run. As I exited T2 my time was 2:45, I was well within my goal. Kind of amazing, but I had no feeling of the bike in my legs to start the run, nothing. I felt really good and settled into a pace that felt easy and sustainable. I like to be feeling like the run is easy-going early on, because the last 30-40 minutes of the 1/2 iron run can get pretty gruesome.

I was moving well and mostly passing folks, stopped at every water station and gurgled a throat full of water, pouring cold water on my head to try to stay cool. I was passed by a few young blazers and one guy in my age group at about mile 2 or 3. That guy ended up winning my age group by running a 1:19 or so.

I turned the first loop in around 42 minutes, and I was under 3:30 total time. I was beginning to believe that I was going to have a pretty special day. I thought the 4:15 goal was pretty solid, and maybe I could break 4:10. On the outbound leg of the second loop I started to feel a little crappy. Somewhere between mile 9 and 10 I really started concentrating on bearing down and maintaining my pace. right past mile 11 I passed a guy (Peter Kain) in my age group that I know is very good, and I figured that I must be in pretty good posistion in my age group. I put the hammer down as hard as I could go the last two miles and finished in 4:10:22, and as it turned out I was 3rd in my AG, 2 min behind second and 3.5 minutes behind 1st. I was very happy with my race.

Dan ended up going 4:41, setting a PR in the middle of a very impressive run of three ironman races (including Hawaii and two sub 10:30 performances) and this half ironman race. Amy had a great race, finishing fourth and breaking 5:00 for the first time (I think) She ended up at 4:51. They give awards to the top five, so both Amy and I got to go on this pretty big stage to collect a fairly cheesy Lucite M-dot shaped award. After the award ceremony, we drank beer and everyone except Dan said whew, glad this season is over.

That's it. My primary competitive goal for 2009 is to win my age group at Buffalo Springs again, and go to Hawaii. If I go to Kona I will try to break 10 hours and place in the top 10 in my age group. My secondary goal, if I don't qualify for Kona at BSLT is to go to the World Duathlon Championships in North Carolina and place in the top 3 in my AG.

TriSports.com blog link

Since it is mid-winter but spring is right around the corner, and people are starting to think about racing and training again, I thought I'd point everyone to another tri-related website. And since they are one of our club sponsors, I don't feel like this is out of line. TriSports.com has started their own blog at http://blog.tri-sports.com/ It's actually not bad and nice to see that the people you shop from actually do know what they're talking about.

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: