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 Swim
Comments: They timed the race perfectly with the tide. When we arrived earlier it was well out there, exposing the coral and making it such that you could pretty much walk out to the first bouy, but by the time the horn went off the tide was in, and it was on. The Oly Males went first, out to the Northwest past the sprint bouy and out to a second. A left turn and we made the long trek accross the center to the far bouy. That was the long part. I think I went more or less straight. Drafting was decent. I have no complaints. It felt a little longer than the posted distance, which was short for an Oly anyway. When we came back in towards the start point we crossed paths with the sprinters. That was mass chaos. I ended up in the flailing mass of bodies, and just headed to the inside to get out. The water was crystal clear, and even though you coud stand at the sprint bouy it was fast to swim it almost all the way in. Also the vector they had us set on took us through a cutout in the coral, so it was best to swim in to the end and stand up there. I got to do the dolphin move for the beach entry, which I haven't done for a while. Nice swim. Too Short. What would you do differently?: Swim faster. That's about it.  Transition 1
Comments: No wetsuit = fast T1 Steve was in just before me and Micah right after. They headed off before me, but I hung around to add an extra layer of sunscreen. Otherwise it was a pretty good T1. What would you do differently?: I think next time I'll try no socks and shoes on the bike.  Bike
Comments: I made up the gap between Micah, Steve and I pretty quick. I passed them both on the first lap. There was a headwind coming off the ocean, so that only hit us for about 1/3 of the course. I remembered people talking about speed bumps. There were 2, one of which was a bit tough, and since we were doing out-and-backs that meant 4 bumps per lap. Not too big of a deal. There were enough water bottles strewn about to say that it was a big issue forsome people though. My biggest issue was the rough stretch after the top of the one hill on the course. My first time through I held onto my bars and could hardly feel my fingers when it was done. I was thankful my tires held. The road we were on was the main access road for all the new resorts along that beach strip. Many of them are still under construction, so I imagine this road gets a lot of heavy equipment traffic. In future years this should be better. Again though, thre were others that weren't so lucky. I counted at least 3 sprinters who flatted without the needed accesories to change. They walked it all the way in. One guy in particular, apporox 350lbs wearing just a speedo and a camelback walked a good 4 miles. I got to see him on all 3 laps and on the run, lucky me :) On the last lap and a half I caught up with Csparks and we chatted a bit. I passed him on the last hill though. It was a good comfortable pace, not too much to burn out the legs. What would you do differently?: If I could have any confidence in my running ability, I could push harder for this distance. Transition 2
Comments: One of those quick, "Shouldn't I have something else to do here?" transitions. Nothing else to do, so off I went.  Run
Comments: I started out reasonably well. I knew it was 2 laps though, so I didn't get my hopes up. The underpass was interesting. I didn't bother trying to run up that. Csparks passed me by in short order, and I saw Travis and Jeff on their return trip as I started my first lap. I took the walk-the-steep-hills aproach. I also didn't bring any personal nutrition, so I hit the Gatorade at the aid stations. That bit me hard on the second loop. The first station ran out of nutrition and just had water. Apparently I wasn't alone in suffering from this conundrum as I actually witnessed a woman in desperation picking up a random Gu packet off the sidewalk to eat. I wasn't quite that desperate, so I struggled through the 3rd quarter and had a powergel and gatorade both at the last aid station. It was a little too late, but it got me in. Steve stayed about the same distance behind me and dropped back a bit on the last loop with some leg cramps. Micah didn't run...nope, didn't see him right behind Steve on the first loop, definitely didn't see him pass Steve on the sesond loop, and MOST Definitely didn't run along side him for the last half mile into the finish. He had a bad soleus, and his GF would kill him if he had run. He made the right choice to bag that leg of the race. What would you do differently?: Keep running! Must keep running! Post race
Warm down: Through the finish line and straight into the REAL finish line, the beer line. Bottomless Coronas for all who would have them. This is definitely not the race to bring the kids to. One athlete couple was staggering off with 2 little ones between them; not a good scene. The band was good too, after you've had about 5 pints. Before that, not so good. What limited your ability to perform faster: I can't run if my life depended on it. Event comments: I rate this as race #2 in my top 3 Oly distances of all time. Red Rock really pulled it together, and fixed all the stuff that detracted from the first attempt last year. The only feedback I'd have for the race director for next year is extend the swim to the proper distance, make sure both aid stations have enough gatorade, and ditch the band in favor of better food. All that beer requires something more than chips and salsa. We know of this great taco stand that wold be great to cater... Last updated: 2008-02-15 12:00 AM
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Mexico
Red Rock Company
85F / 29C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 149/271
Age Group = 30-34
Age Group Rank = 21/37
We left work early on Friday and headed for the border. Micah and Steve have apparently been going to RP since elementary school (explains a lot). They had the trip down to a science. We got in, put the bikes in the hotel room, and went over for the race meeting, which was over already. Las Palomas is a huge resort. We walked around the transition area and got some Coronas at the bar which taught us never to buy anything at the resort. $14 for 3 beers in Mexico. There's something painfully wrong about that. We promptly left, went into town and had some taco stand grub.
The first nice thing about this race is that it starts at 9:30. Sure, that makes it a little hotter, but everything else falls into place better that way. People had the choice to get in later on Friday, and the tide had a chance to come in and cover the coral. But, being the triathletes that we are we still got up at 6:30 and got over there before transition officially opened. That ended up being a long wait, but we got good rack spots.
The debate was to wetsuit or not to wetsuit. We went down to the water to check it out. Pretty cool water, that's one for the wetsuit. Short course, one for no wetsuit. Coral reef, one for wetsuit. Later race/higher tide, one for no wetsuit. It finally came down to a flip of the body glide stick. No Wetsuit.
In the 2 hours wait for the race to start I walked up and down the transition and to the beach several times. Then we found shade for a while and waited. At about 20mins to start we went down to the water, swam a bit, and chatted with he AZ Tri guys. Stayed in the water for a while to keep the body adjusted to what was coming.