Deschutes Dash - TriathlonSprint

Yeah, I still suck at the swim. I was back-of-the-pack as usual. (Don't be fooled by the fast time. This is a down-current swim in a river.) I did feel much more comfortable this time, though. I managed to catch a draft off of a few people but decided that they were going to slow so I ended up by myself for most of the swim. I did a combination of freestyle and backstroke. The current wasn't any faster than any other year I've done this race and I was 2 minutes faster than last year. I must be doing something right.

Get better at open water swimming dammit!!!!!!

My transition area was about 150 yards from the swim exit. I ran the whole way. I got my cap and goggles off and got almost all the way out of my suit while running.

I decided to go without socks for the entire race. At my bike, I sat on the ground and yanked the wetsuit off my feet, donned the bike shoes, put my helmet on, put my jersey on, and struggled to get wet hands into my gloves. I grabbed my bike and ran to the line to get on my bike. I was out of there in a flash. My bike was in the perfect gear to climb the initial little hill.

I ended up being 19 of 53 in my age group for T1.

Well, can't do much about my rack location. I would like to be able to jump on my bike with the shoes already attached to the pedals. Need to practice that. I should have put my gloves in my teeth and put them on while riding so the breeze can dry them out a bit. Putting gloves on wet hands is just to much of a struggle.

I nailed the bike ride! I went out hard and kept my cadence up around 90 for the 6.25 mile and 500 foot climb to the turnaround. I passed tons of people heading up the hill. At one point, I could hear someone coming up behind me with one of those fancy fabric wheels. I heard him breathing really hard too. I gave my bike a little more gas just to make this guy work hard to pass me. He was gonna have to earn the pass! (This was not a draft legal race.) He did indeed pass me, but not without a struggle! I never saw him again. At the turnaround, my average speed was 16.3 mph. I was happy with this. Downhill was fun! I was never able to get my speed above 35 but I was averaging over 20mph the whole way back. Yep, even through the round-abouts! I won't bother mentioning how scary that was!

The best part was as I was coming into the transition zone. I reached down, undid my shoe and slipped my foot out of the shoe and on top of it....barefoot! Then I reached, carefully, down to the other foot and did the same thing! I was so proud of myself!!!!

Nothing. I am super pleased with my performance. I guess I could work on hills a little more for next year.

I was smoking coming into the transition zone. At the line, I jumped off my bike, picked it up to keep my shoes from dragging on the ground, and ran the short distance to my rack and threw my bike on it! I plopped myself on the ground and slipped my shoes on my bare feet. I was using Yankz and they are AWESOME!!!! I peeled my gloves off, threw my running cap on and took off on the run. I was pretty much a transition nazi! I heard a couple of spectators say "whoa, did you see that!" That made me smile!

Brett was taking pictures of me as I was coming down on the bike. He was hoping to get a picture at the transition but I was already 1/10 of a mile down the trail on the run by the time he got there. Oh well. Maybe next time. I ended up being 7th of 53 in my age group for T2.

Nothing. It was perfect.

I felt like I was running really slow. About a quarter way through the run, my mouth was completely dry. I couldn't even swallow a little spit. I just put up with it until the aid station at the halfway point. I took a little water and that seemed to help till the finish line. The run was nothing special. I probably could have pushed a little harder. My legs were burning from the lack of oxygen. I think that is why I didn't want to push harder. I was afraid of blowing up so close to the end.

Nothing. I'm pretty happy with my performance.

Walked around with a cup of Gatorade and talked to friends that I used to train with in Klamath Falls.

On the way to Mount Shasta on Sunday afternoon, I started getting a wicked headache. It was hurting so bad that I was crying. Brett felt my face and my head and found that I was burning up. He stopped and gave me a bandana full of ice and turned on the air conditioner really high. (He was shivering.) He put me in a cold bath at the cabin to bring my core temp down and then put me to bed. I woke up about two hours later with absolutely no headache and I was feeling fine. Now that I think about that run portion of the race, I never did sweat even though I was really hot. That might be why my mouth got so dry, too. It was weird and scary. I think I really need to be careful when the temp gets above 80 degrees. (Yeah, I know that's pretty sad.)


The elevation. Can't do anything about that, though!


Deschutes Dash is a fun race. It is perfect for the first-timer. The Olympic is the day before the Sprint. People that do both races get a special award! Very cool. This is a must-do race for any Northwesterner!