Harvest Moon HIM/Aquabike/Duathlon

I'm doing the Harvest moon HIM! It will be my first HIM. I'm not sure when they mail them out...I've been wondering that too. But, I have emailed Lance several times w/ questions about the course and he always gets back to me in a day or two, so I bet if you were to email him he would send a speedy response. If you do email, let me know what he says!

Aimee
p.s. are you doing the HIM? Have you ridden the bike course yet? He said that the course is marked in blue at the turnaround point, so I'm thinking about riding it this weekend or next.

I'll email him since I'm a little nervous about making sure I'm signed up.  I signed up back in January and started training specifically for this race before then.. Hate to have something go wrong this close to the race.

Yes, I'm doing the HIM, it'll be my first HIM as well.

I rode the course around a month or two ago, I'm thinking of getting out there on Sunday to ride it on last time before the race.  You'll see "HM" spray painted in blue with arrows pointing in which direction to go periodically throughout the course, and with the basic idea of how the course is laid out you can't miss them.  The last 1/3 of the course is the most difficult, the first 1/3 between it being a rolling downhill going to a flat 2/3rd portion mixed with adrenaline I'm worried I might go TOO fast/hard.  But I want to ride it again to know what I think of it now that I'm in much better shape for that kind of distance.

Thanks for the info. on the bike course!! I will definitely be riding it either this weekend or next!

Yeah, the markings are great.  I normally skip the overlap section on Quincy when I ride it.  I figure it will be well marked with a giant cone/police during the race itself.

Good to know about the water temp.  I did the 'my way or the tri way' the other month and the water was great, but kind of assumed it would be colder based on previous years race reports.  I'm more worried that we'll end up with one really windy day out there. 

Hi everyone! I rode the bike course on Sunday, and I'm so glad I did it! I think it will really help me be prepared mentally (and physically..Wow, those rollers on Quincy can be tough) for the race itself!! The wind...oh the wind...I really hope it is not windy on race day b/c wind just sucks!! After the turn around on Quincy, the wind was brutal and riding West on Quincy was a bear. But, during the final stretch on Quincy the wind wasn't that bad and it made those hills up Quincy so much better. I also thought the course was well marked, but I'm not sure if the course or my Garmin was off. I parked in the lot right off of Quincy and Powhattan (sp?) and started from there. I was a mile ahead of every mileage marker they had. For example, they had a marker for mile 25 and my Garmin read almost 26miles. Did anyone else experience this? I think I'm going to ride it again next Sunday. I can't believe the race is only 3 weeks away..YIKES!

Oh..a couple of you mentioned the water temp. Did you swim with a wetsuit? On the race site it says wetsuits are recommended, but I'm just curious what the water temp is. I think I'll wear mine either way b/c of the speed/bouncy factor. I can use all the help I can get...my swim sucks!

I did the 'My Way or the Tri Way' race there a month ago.  I wore my wetsuit for that and I believe most people did as well.  I've been assuming it would be a little colder for our race, but even if it's not.  I'm with you on wearing it no matter what if it's legal.  My OWS isn't the strongest and that extra buoyancy just makes me feel so much safer out there.  Feeling safer leads to me swimming better since I'm not worried about needing 'reserve' energy to tread water if I freak out or something.

I'm unfortunately not going to get to ride the course again before the race though.  If you saw my post in the Tri Talk area you know my bike is now out of commission.  I've been offered a bike to race with from the organizer of the cycling group I ride with, but I'm looking for a cheaper bike to ride.  She offered to lend me her $9k Orbea Orca for the race, but god forbid something happened to that bike I'd have to take a second mortgage to buy her a new one/fix it.  My fallback plan is to steal my brothers bike.  I ride a 54", he's got a 60", but it's a lot cheaper than $9k and it beats showing up on my mountain bike with my clip-on aerobars.  But I could get lucky and have my bike fixed by then... but it will take a real stroke of luck with insurance being involved.

I'll be making a sacrifice to wind god the night before the race though in hopes that (s)he gives us a couple hour window of calm air for the bike portion.  I don't mind if there's a nice breeze during the run.  What kind of sacrifice do you think a wind god would like? Maybe this in my front yard to play with... while we are safely on the other side of town?

Zionvier...sorry about your accident..that just sucks! I hope you're recovering quickly! I like your idea of the windmill offering. I already have two in my garden so maybe the wind god will blow at my house and not out at the res.! Ha ha!

The accident could have been much worse, but thank you.  I am fine and should be good to go for the race.  Just lost the last hard week I could have done some serious training in before tapering... and of course lost the bike.  But Luckily the insurance company is being really considerate and are going to get me a check to replace my gear sometime in the next week.  That rule about nothing new for race day is out the window for me... at least I'll have about a week to try to get everything adjusted relatively well... It could be worse, I could not be able to compete.

I just got the email about packet pickup/mailing it to you.  I'm getting all anxious now, those last minute thoughts of "did I train enough" are there... mixed with the "I hope this past week didn't screw me" thought.  But like everyone says... trust your training right?

I might even get to do an easy ride on the course the week before the race on the new bike!

I just signed up! I couldn't believe there were still open spots. I waited so long because I just moved to CO yesterday and wanted to make sure I would be able to race. Handling the altitude pretty well so far too, so I should be good to go. My first HIM ever! woooohooo

I guess most people end up doing the 5430 long course or something.  I've heard good things about the race from others though.  I've done other Racing Underground races and they did a good job of organizing, so I'm sure this will be a fun event.

Welcome to CO by the way.

Thanks!

I'm gonna head over to the Reservoir today and ride the Quincy and Watkins portions of the bike course. If anyone sees this in time feel free to join me.

I'm still in the process of moving in so my wetsuit isn't here yet, but if it arrives in time for me to take a swim over there I may do that as well. It would probably be Friday if anyone is interested.

I'm sure if you send an email you can change   I know they'll let anyone doing the long course switch to the Aquabike during body marking the morning of the event, they probably would let you change to the tri since there's still a few days to go and apparently still open.

O-kay everyone...so I watched the weather tonight and now they're saying a high of 68 on Saturday. But, I went to weather.com and they say only a high of 56 with rain! Yikes!!! It is going to be COLD during our race! So...now I'm worried about what to wear!! I've only done tris when it was hot, so usually I just wear my tri top and shorts, but I'm afraid I'll freeze with that. What are you all planning on bringing to wear? Arm warmers? Rain jacket??? Please help! Any advice would be great!
Thanks,
Aimee

I think I might be out there as well... although not to race. Just to do some 'strappin.

What a horrible turn of events in terms of weather. Hopefully it goes back to sunny and mid 70s like they said a day or 2 ago. I just moved to Denver and still don't have all my stuff, so I have no option but to race in my trisuit. Could be interesting, but like the quote goes: "Take comfort in knowing you never had a choice"

Edited by doctorbob18 2009-09-10 11:53 AM

What kind of gear are you missing? Perhaps some of us on here that will be there could help you out and bring some of our extra stuff?  I'm pretty light on winter riding gear myself, but I have extra things like clip on aerobars, wet suit (it's a surfing wet suit, but it's a 4/3 and what I used to wear for races until about a week ago when I got a tri specific one finally), spd pedals/shoes, pedals with toe clips, complete road bike...

Thanks for the offer, thats really generous. I have everything I need to race, I was just planning on warm weather, so I have no cold weather gear. Its really not a big deal, I'll just suffer a little bit early on until I dry off on the bike. Thanks again though

Everyone be sure to not only pray and offer a sacrifice to the wind god(dess), but also to the rain... snow... thunder god(dess) as well.

Good luck to everyone at the race tomorrow.  Lets hope we luck out and the weather holds off until the final finisher gets done safely.

Good Luck everybody!
Wishing you good weather!