Bartlett Lake Tri

I was at a Tri clinic hosted by Durapulse this last weekend at Lake Pleasant.  The water temps were 59-60F.  I wore a full wetsuit, ear plugs, neoprene swim cap topped with my regular swim cap, and once my feet and hands acclimated, the water was almost refreshing.  It was not as bad as I had feared.

Just doing the OWS, and it's my first. Don't feel bad, I'm pretty intimidated as well. Trying to get some experience before Tempe Intrnl in May...Think I'm just gonna try and double up my swim cap and I've got some scuba shoes. E-mail was a little bit like... yikes!!!!!

Does anyone know how the seperate OWS works?  Do we go seperately after the racers or do we swim with OLY folks? 

I think you swim with the oly folks, though I'm not sure. 

For some reason, I thought the OWS was just before the Oly...I have a vague memory of seeing them start while we were on the shore LY... I've managed to block out the rest of that experience though.

If enough people pee in the lake, it will be plenty warm.

Good luck to everyone who is doing Bartlett tomorrow.

Congrats to everyone who competed, finished, and placed!

BT'ers kicked butt in the Olympic distance:

Dean - 3:00:11 3rd AG, 15th overall men
WillP - 3:09:33 3rd AG, 19th overall men
Dustin - 3:10:58 7th AG, 23rd overall men
Elliot - 3:16:42 2nd AG, 31st overall men
Adela - 3:55:51 4th AG, 15th overall women
Kim - 4:08:54 2nd AG, 20th overall women

Sorry if I missed anyone, and I didn't know any BT'ers doing the Sprint. 






More photos at: http://gallery.me.com/rotordean#100235&view=grid&bgcolor=black&sel=0
 

Congratulations, everyone!

Those are impressive times. Congrats to all!!

Those are nice times for the cold water and hills. Congrats to all who competed.

I forgot to give a "Thank you" shout out to JoeP38 who came out to Bartlett to volunteer in the transition area, and took some great photos. Thanks Joe, and to anyone else who volunteered!

It was also nice to see CactusTriathlete Steve and his photography crew out there. Can't wait to see those photos!  

Wow. This thing was no fun at all. Congrats to the others that finished.

The only good thing to come out of the race from my perspective is that my time was so bad, I feel I have to do another tri to prove to myself it was the tough course and not my lack of ability that resulted in a time that bad. I have never had an emotional low so deep in a race as I did going up the 'hill' on the bike the second time.  Right now I feel like I just wasted five months training. ugg.

Anyway, again, congrats to everyone who did it. There were so many super-nice and encouraging people in the race. Your ecouragement was appreciated.

Your training wasn't wasted if you survived that hill. Surviving that emotional low is what you train for. Congrats! 

Don't be so hard on yourself. I had a tough race as well and it was the hardest oly I've done.  Tempe International will help boost your confidence back up

I'll second what Chad said.  That course is a bi-tch! When I did the OLY last year, I came out of the water in good shape, but then preceded to have the slowest ride of any race I have ever done (including IMAZ). Then you get to that run...

Just surviving this event is a victory.

Survival is right!  The wife and I were there as well in the Olympic. Our second tri, first was Blue Water, and it went ok.  I had missed two weeks of running over the past month due to injury, so my run time was better than I was expecting.  I had 33rd overall in the mens (4th in 30-34), the wife was 18th overall (3rd in 30-34).  Time to train for our first half ironman in May- in a warm lake, on flat roads in Florida.

Mike - Bartlett is a very tough course. Don't feel like you wasted five months of training. You did great just being out there and tackling the course.  Look at it this way -- on both the bike and the run, Bartlett is about half the climbing of IM St. George in a quarter of the distance, and IMSG is expected to be about the toughest IM in the U.S. So to survive Bartlett any which way you can is a testament to endurance! Be proud, and now you have an OLY time to beat on your next race!

Good job guys! You'll enjoy Florida after Bartlett!

Thanks, everyone. Just feels like a kick in the nuts missing my goal time by 45 minutes. lol.  The only part of the race I was pretty happy with was the run. I was surprised I was only 5 minutes off my goal there despite walking thes first mile.

Actually, a question on the climb; I asked around and nobody I talked to had the number, what is the elevation change for the course?

Bike: 2,850 feet
Run: 900 feet

While working the transition I saw:
* 1 guy quit after swimming for 100m. He made the first right turn, then swam back to shore.
* 2 people quit after the 2nd buoy.
* 2 people (that I saw might be more) were "fished" out by the kayaks during swim.
* 1 guy pulled a groin on the bike and quit.
* 6+ men/women decided not to run after the bike ride
* 1 guy got "blown" off his bike going at 40mph downhill. Bloodied and his Argon 18 E114 with disc rear and deep front was in worse shape than his body.
* Not sure if anyone quit during the run, but I figured if someone's made it that far, they'd have finished

I also saw:
* 1 duathlete with a broken hand finish
* 2 very young gals (I'm guessing early teens) finishing the race
* 2 gals swim without wetsuit (I'm not sure if I would categorize this under brave or ....)
* 65 year old gentleman finishing the race

FWIW you did pretty good just making it to the start and finish line. Congrats to all again!

Wow, Joe.  Nice recap.

"1 guy got "blown" off his bike going at 40mph downhill. Bloodied and his Argon 18 E114 with disc rear and deep front was in worse shape than his body"

I might know this guy. I must call him.

Thanks for the race report Joe...that was a crazy day for sure! Also, thanks for being out there giving lots of words of encouragement. You definitely helped me keep going when I was in T1, falling over into the parked car behind me, trying to get my wetsuit off