Nathan Roll-Call

Just Sprintin'.

Just have a fun time, smile and thank the volunteers. Your experience will be amazing.

Olympic distance here.

What on earth is the 'Hoo Ha Glide'?

Oly for me!!

Fountain Hills M45-49 in the house. Went 2-50ish earlier today, I think... maybe a little faster.

I did not hear about the girl on Mill & Curry.  I did see the guy and Ambulance by the Tempe Center for the Arts, and a guy parked next to me seemed to know him personally.  He said he lost control just after the rain came down as the road was slightly wet and went over the handlebars, at the very least knocking out a bunch of teeth.  I am sure more happened to him as he went to the hospital.  I sincerely hope both recover and are ok.

Just goes to show how dangerous our sport can be, even in a semi-controlled environment.  All the more reason to watch out for others, communicate, and be safe ALWAYS.

Congrats to everyone who raced today, and thanks to all who volunteered.  Had myself an ok race - the swim seemed a bit long (probably due to no wetsuit and less buoyancy), but the bike was fun.  The run was ok but my legs did not perform as I had hoped.  However, crossing the finish line is crossing the finish line, and we cannot PR every time out.  2:47:18 official time.

Prayers and thoughts also to those injured.

As always a great event put on by Red Rock Co.    The last time I swam TTL without a wetsuit was 5 years ago.  It was my very first triathlon and I weighed 25 pounds more than I do now.  My workouts consisted of lifting as much weight as possible and eating as much food as possible.   Cardio to me consisted of walking 10 minutes to warm up.

So after I had my cholesterol check/health scare I started to run, lumbered thru a 1/2 marathin, and decided to give tri's a shot.  1 minute in to that swim and I was kicked in the face and swallowed a bunch of water.  I ended up doing the swim on my back as I could never get comfortable and finished the sprint in just over 2 hours.

5 years later and I was back in TTL without a wetsuit and not feeling nervous at all.  Thru the years I think I have become a pretty decent swimmer and it is my favorite part of the tri's.  During the swim and about 750 meter in I was hit in the face with an elbow and for a second I thought of my first race all over again.  Luckily that second passed and I was back to feeling comfortable in the water.  Finished the swim feeling good, ran to transition, got on the bike and away I went.   I felt great on the bike and used that portion to get some water and sport jelly beans in me for nutrition.  The rain felt great on me but only lasted for 1 minute.   After the bike I got thru transition quick (for me) and started to run.   Let me say this now.....I hate running!!!!    Now that that is out of the way, my last race at TTL was last years Iron Gear Olympic Tri and I bonked on the run due to the heat after less than a mile.    Yesterday I run thru mile 1 and had a great big ol smile on my face knowing that I did better than last year.  I did walk thru a couple of water stations and up the hill around mile 2.5, but other than that I mostly ran a comfortable pace.   Having done nothing but brick training on Sundays for the last 2 months helped tremondously.  Last year I did the Iron gear Olympic in 3:12:45.   My goal yesterday was to break 3 hours.   Although I did not make it (3:01:25) I have to feel good that I set a new PR by over 11 minutes.  All in all a good race and I am looking forwards to Soma as I am the swimmer on a relay team.

Yesterday was my first tri since 1994.  My first real Olympic ever.  I took it way to easy as I was afraid of bonking on the run.  I was the slowest bike out of my age group and didn't drink near enough while on the ride.  With all that said I was not really tired when it was over.  I finished and was 61/64.  I only trained for 10 weeks and just wanted to gauge where I was.  Now I am pretty sure I will do SOMA with only 4 very short weeks to fix some of my bike issues.  Finishing wont be a problem, but speed might!  So if you are doing SOMA and you see a guy going really really slow on the bike, it very well be me.  Red Rock does put on a nice event though and I had a blast.  I am hooked.  So am I nuts for doing a half Ironman after only 14 weeks of training?  Probably, but hey what is life about if not challenging yourself.

And I should probably get some aero bars since I didn't have them for this race and my tires were only at 80psi!  Oh well live and learn

As long as you had fun in your adventure, nothing else matters.  If your stamina and endurance are in place, you should be fine for SOMA next month.  Never worry about placement (not unless you are a pro and need the podium $$$), just run your own race and have a good time.  I would fix your low tire pressure, though.

Aero bars are cool and I would not consider riding in a race without them anymore, but you do not really have to have them.  Although you can still spend a good amount of time in them at SOMA, there are a high number of turns on the urban course, so you definitely will come out of them more often as well.

Congrats on completing your first tri since 1994 - that is quite a lay off!