5430 Long Course Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Sort of swam all over the place, for some reason. Really swung way wide on all buoys. This is the first race that I've had a kick to the face that took off one of the goggle eyes, so that sort of sucked. At one point, a hot air balloon dude seemed to want to turn his balloon into a boat, as he was buzzing just above the lake surface. That made for excellent sighting, but it looked to me like he must have had his butt cheeks puckered tight on that one.

Swimming in the two weeks before a race probably wouldn't hurt. Also, getting Barry a better ruler for measuring his course might take some time off this bad boy.

Came in and did the usual Safety Dance with the wetsuit. Decided to wear biking gloves for some reason, and that added time. Had a dreadful experience trying to mount the bike, because the rubber bands that I bought to hold my shoe were too tough and wouldn't snap. So, I started pedaling, and the bike stopped. Then the rubber band attacked my chain. After three attempts, I won out over the thing and headed off. Probably still saved time, but it was awkward. Still, 6th fastest T1 in age group.

Sort of interesting to head out of T1 to see that crazy hot air balloon dude strafing the spectators. He made it out of the lake and was basically buzzing about six feet over the ground at the start of the bike. Cool!

Train to be stronger than a rubber band.

This turned out to be an excellent ride, just under 22mph. Nothing really freaky happened on the ride other than a big guy stopping for a three point turn at a very tight turnaround that made me clip out and gave me a quick calf cramp. That turnaround was supposed to be more safe than going back to the res, but the road there was more narrow and I think it had the opposite result.

Didn't really bring much nutrition with me this year and decided to live off the land/aid stations. This worked, but I was a bit concerned about the number of calories I was taking in. Worked out fine.

Managed a maximum speed of 48.1 mph...!

Stopped racing entirely to camp out at the aid station with the bikini girls.

Stepped off the rolling bike well and racked it pretty fast. Unfortunately had a ham string cramp trying to put on the left Zoot shoe. Managed to get race belt on without tearing number...that's a first. 12th fastest T2 in age group.

Need to practice sliding into running shoes, I guess.

Great little run. Felt solid and ran the full course, including aid stations. Just basically plugged along with 8:15 min/miles, although I new that a couple were slower, primarily due to some good little hills. Managed to piss myself twice on the run -- oh the skills one learns in triathlon! I used to only do this when I was drunk in college, and now I can do it perfectly sober and running.

This was the second time that I wore my Zoot trainers (they only had 10 miles on them), and I'm such a hard heel striker that the right heel tore off the shoe. Also, I blistered very bad, and about half of the ball of my right foot tore off. Other blisters on both feet. Not cool; back to Asics!

I hadn't run for two weeks leading up to this race in order to recover from the calf injury and everything felt incredibly good. However, if I had been able to run train before this race, I'm sure that I could have held a faster pace. Now that parts work, it's time to train again.

Oh, and next time no Zoot shoes over an Olympic distance!

Staggered down to the lake and basically fell in to cool off. Blisters on right foot so bad that I succombed to my first trip to the Med Tent for bandages. After that I just chatted with friends and headed home to Denver.


Mike Ricci called to say, "You're a crappy swimmer," and he's right! So... more pool time, and more run time now that I'm all better (other than the new blisters).


Another PR! Great weather for the race, and faster times than last year in all phases other than the swim (where I gave back about a minute or two).

2006 / 2007 / 2008

Swim - 40:04 / 38:49 / 40:06
T1 - 3:31 / 1:48 / 1:29
Bike - 2:53:53 / 2:38:37 / 2:34:25
T2 - 2:59 / 1:30 / 1:03
Run - 2:01:45 / 1:52:02 / 1:48:39
Overall - 5:42:14 / 5:12:47 / 5:05:40