Hey guys, just a shout out to all of you who finished quite possibly one of the hardest races. ever. Combination of an incredibly tough bike followed by an increadibly tough run with extremely hot temperatures made for a great day out there... haha
Special recognition to Lee, Rachel, Renee, Matt Grabau, Jimmy, Jared, Jessi, and Zach. Either first time (Xterra or Triathlon), or an incredibly fast race, considering the conditions. Awesome job guys!
Makko
Probably more details than you want ;-) but my story can be found at http://www.athleteinyou.com/blog/saguaro-lake-triathlon.
I'll try to make this as short as possible...
We headed to the race site on Friday afternoon, picked up packets, and drove the bike course. It was pretty unique to race point-to-point for both the swim and bike. None of us could really figure out exactly how it was going to work.
Trying to summarize... We parked at one parking lot (not at the start OR finish) and were shuttled to the start (got there 20 mins. before the race start...). Basically, we swam from one cove to another, where T1 was set up. You get your bike stuff on, then shove all your swim and T1 stuff into a bag that you get back at the finish line. Bike to the resort, throw your bike to one of the volunteers. Take your running stuff out of your T2 bag and throw your helmet in (also get this bag back at the finish). Run the loop from hell and finish at the ranch. It was crazy and complicated, but I think it added to the adventure.
So, the actual race. I felt great on the swim, which was very nice compared to the whitecaps at Havasu. Swam next to Kathy and Zach for pretty much the whole swim. I had no idea what my swim time was (forgot to start my watch...again), but prob. swam around 22 1/2, so I am VERY happy with that.
Bike also felt really good. I knew it was going to be tough until Usery Pass was done, so I didn't push too hard on the way out. Traded places with two or three other guys on the way up the hill, then I pushed really hard for the second half and passed 6-10 people. Going into T2, I pushed hard to get past one guy in my age group. T2 went awesome (flying dismount was great!) and I made up prob 20 seconds on him.
The run was ridiculous...and not in a good way. Like doing the Phoneline trail at the end of a brick. I had hoped to catch one more 26 year-old, but didn't quite have it. I got a really bad side cramp about two miles in, and couldn't make myself push on the downhill. I was really struggling until the last aid station. They said "a mile to go" and then my energy was back.
Pushed pretty hard into the finish. Was happy (and disappointed) to get 4th in my AG, but hey, that's motivation to work harder!
Quick observations:
I also give probs to the people that made this their first race and/or ended up in the med tent for a bit. It can only get easier after this one...
Huge Congrats to all you guys. I hear The TriCats were represented well in the med tent...
Nice work!!!
Wow guys,
great job this weekend. it was so awesome to see you guys coming out of the water and stripping off the wesuit superman style to the tricat logo. the team looked great out there. here are some of my highlights from the sidelines:
Yann coming out of the water an easy first with a nonchalant walk onto the shore
Andrew being the first one to actually exit the water like he was racing a triathlon...blew by about eight people right there
Makko flexing everytime he saw the "tricat cheering section"
Cameron coming up over the last hill with the finish line only ten yards away looking confused as hell as to where he should go
The announcer saying "Wooaa! Someone is finishing with style!!" as he saw Petter near the finish line
Greg saying to me (after he finished) "Is there a tool to fix this" pointing at his shin full of cactus
the general bad-ass ness that you guys were...blood, cactus, cramps, torn uniforms, and sunburn from the insane 90+ heat
fun time...amazing job everyone!
Alright-- here's my juciy tidbits of the weekend!!!
Friday--the whole day, i was just freaking out. I had the worst butterflies and could not stop thinking about everything over and over again, That is until dinner, we went to Bepo's and it was soooo Delicious, I was in the greatest mood after that, that the snoring that night didn't bother me.
Race day, just a bit nervous that morning, not realy knowing what to expect, and dealing with all the point to point trasition confusion, I managed to be ready, with Renee next to me just floating around in my wet suit waiting for them to tell me to go...swim was just so great, really the best part of the race!
the bike...i could say a lot of good thing and bad things, but overall the good things win out. It was so hard, my body hurts more from walking the bike of the mosterously steep hills than crashing down them at least 3 times...every other part of the course= such a thrill, if only i could have trained a bit before, I might have looked like I knew what I was doing
Lastly the Run...if there was ever a time in my life where I truly hated something, truly whole heartedly HATED anything--it was during the 40 min or so that was the run...So hot out, sun is fring my skin, not enough water, and I still managed to pass the many people walking, that made me feel only kinda good! I ran up that last hill, dipping blood, mentally and physically exahsted, but I knew I had the time of my life.
I was so glad to reach that finish line. That was the most psychologically demanding race ever for me. The soft sand was really nice to run on, but it was hard to move fast over. I felt lucky to avoid getting cactus in my shins. The trail was very pretty but HOT and HILLY. HOT!! HILLY!! In T2, everyone around me got off the bike and started up the trail in a run or at least a trot, but the heat and incline broke us all within a few dozen yards. I had this uncomfortable feeling that if we were all trying to at least jog forwards, we could have done it, though it seemed and felt impossible at the time. Walking just feels so defeating, and being surrounded by walkers seems to make running impossible. At every slight decline I would try to start going again, at least at a jog, but making that switch (walk to run or run to walk) takes so much mental torque. Eh ... so the run was very hard.
The bike felt good. Near the start a few people on snazzy rides buzzed by me, and I thought to myself, "Wow, someone that fit manages to swim slower than I do." Heh. One benefit of being an ectomorph is that it's easier to pass people on the uphill, which we had plenty of on this course. So I pwned a Cervelo and some other nice bikes. Some of them stayed close enough to pass me then on the downhills, and some didn't. Can't wait for the new bike. I agree with Matt G., it was very helpful to drive the course first, and see how long the Usery Pass climb was. By the end of the bike I was getting tired, and glad to see the ranch -- then whoops! Like others, I almost lost it on a sharp bend in the ranch driveway. Kristine and Phalyn helped me bag up my bike stuff in T2, thanks!
The swim was fun and picturesque, although I couldn't see the buoys well, and wondered at times where I was supposed to be going. I feel like a slacker on the swim; I just tried to motor through it steadily, no blowing up, while visualizing a good glide, a nice catch, a coordinated pull/rotation, and world harmony. I really do enjoy the swim and suspect that I am not working hard enough -- and 34:07 looks like proof. Put it on the to-do list. Saguaro Lake is really scenic; the rock cliffs are majestic and stand there like colossal spectators tacitly supporting our short, splashy sojourn.
I'm glad I did it and I might even do it again; but this was a race to remember. I do these things "to have fun" but the fun part is facing and overcoming the physical challenge, racing the clock, and racing myself. The physical challenge of this race was almost too much, and nearly forced me to put aside the clock-racing part. This still qualifies as fun, but it was getting closer to that line, if you know what I mean. I still want to do a 70.3 later this year but I am going to have to get mentally tougher to pull that off.
Kudos to the Tricats who made this their A-race. You worked really hard and you did a great job! Look at the awesome list of all the Tricats who won awards or placed top-3 in your group: Alex L., Cameron, Chad, Erika, Greg, Jared, Jessi, Kathy, Kristine & team, Makko, Rachel, Renee, and Yann. How about that! And большое спасибо to the Tricats who came out to cheer. That really meant a lot to me, and everyone I think. I definitely needed a cheering section to get through this one.
What our esteemed leader did not mention was the fact that he took 2nd for
Xterra Men 20-24.. congrats Mak-Daddy!!!
Here is the Cliff notes version of my Xterra race, posted the bulk on athleteinyou.com
Swim: Awesome
T1: Slow but no screw ups
Bike: First half pretty fun, f-ing mountain, sand not bad at all, last bit lonely, could have been hit by quads and dirt bikes, no crash on downhills
T2: Maybe 15 seconds
Run: Pathetic, dehydrated, near tears, walked uphills, kept going
Crossed the finish line, kicked off shoes, drank water and asked when the next Xterra was. Train me up Coach!
okay so kudos to all of you who did the whole thing because i did just the run and it was the hardest thing ever. i say i'd much rather do the tucson tri over that run course any day. i thought i'd be used to the hills since i'm used to running around there. but boy was i wrong. i think i fell on my butt about 3 times. got attacked by a cactus. and was just hoping i would run into an aide station everytime i turned a corner because no matter how much water i dumped on me i just couldnt get cooled down. i was sad i couldnt run the whole thing..cuz afterall it was all i was doing. but after falling once...i was having a hard time gaining stability. but once i hit mile 3 i was pretty good for the rest of the race.
overall, i thought it was a great learning experience. it cant get much worse than that right? and i think next year the race should have an earlier start time. and thanks to kristine and phalyn for giving me a great head start!
and oh i almost forgot...i LOVE this team!!!
So my race was both awesome and horrible. In one sense I feel very good about the day and on the other hand there's a lot to work on. I guess I'll start on the things I need to improve. I guess this can be summed up as race prep. On Thursday I felt real sick; I don't know if it was a cold or intense allergies but I was incredibly congested and my eyes were more swollen than I can ever remember them being. I went to bed super early (like 8) wondering if I was actually going to do the race if I still felt this way the next morning. When I got up I still felt like crap, but I decided that I didn't care how bad I was feeling the race was going to happen. In my haze, from both nerves and a cold, I ended up forgetting my race belt in Tucson and by the time I was in Phoenix it was too late to get to a multi-sport store to pick up a new one. That night was good, I went through my pre-race ritual of being grumpy and lots of visualization. The morning was when things went from bad to worse. I woke up about 20 minutes late, ate my breakfast too fast for my liking grabbed my stuff for the race, especially making sure I had my wetsuit (like out of my way to make sure I had it). I get in the car and speed off to the race. At some point on the freeway about two-thirds of the way there I look over at my bag and notice that I didn't grab my racing clothes and socks. I have more bike tubes with me than someone would need in a year's worth of cycling, and everything else you can imagine but not the stuff I needed that day. I called my parents who were still at home and tried to get them to hurry the racing clothes and socks out to the race but it was too late and the combination of the limited time and their seemingly non-chalantness about getting out there wrote my clothes out of the picture. Luckily Jimmy had some extra racing clothes and loaned them to me.( Thank you by the way!!) So finally I got on the bus and headed out to the start.
I was pretty happy with my swim. I made sure to get towards the front of the pack so I wouldn't have to battle people once the swim started, and that was a good choice (I only had to kick one person sitting on my heals and swim over another closed fisted who was trying to cut into my path). As I was getting out of the water I felt very dizzy. I think all the congestion in my head was spinning in my sinuses and I didn't transition as fast as I felt that I should have if I had been feeling better. Based on my own split that I took it was just under 3 minutes from edge of the water to the mount line.
The bike was awesome. I really think doing the course over spring break helped a ton on several levels. On the surface I knew the course, and knew what to expect. But knowing that I was going much faster and feeling much more confident and experienced on the bike was even more of a boost. Parts that sucked over spring break were mild and parts that were near-death-inducing over break just sucked this time. I was pretty excited not getting passed by too many people on the bike, and then we hit the Usury Pass portion, 3.5 miles steady up hill, and finally I started hearing some Zipps and disks behind me. I looked down at my computer and it said I was going 12.2 and I decided at that point I would go no slower than that for any point of the biking portion. Keeping that in mind I muscled through the rest of the up hill and it seemed like all the sudden I was like a rocket. I ended up passing about 5 of the 7 or so people who passed me earlier and that was an awesome feeling. I wasn't going to give up or make it easy for people to beat me; I was already out there with a nasty head cold and kicking some butt. I finally got back to T2, my dismount was the exact opposite of graceful but it worked and I felt that it was fairly respectable overall. I left T2 ahead of people who were there before me (so maybe this is a little vindication for my horrible T1). Total bike time and transition was approximately 1:43 and some change.
The run was interesting. That morning I had forgotten my socks and that was the only part of the racing kit that I was not able to improvise. I started off feeling pretty good, but then there was the hill. It seemed like everyone that was in my pack tried to run it but everyone decided "F-this" at about the same point and I made the rest of the hill a power-walk. At the top of the hill I started to realize that it was really hot out and I was sweating like crazy especially my feet. I tried to run as much as I could but seeing other people walk at certain points was a bad influence on me and I followed suit. Once we crossed the road my feet were starting to become a real problem. A good amount of dirt had gotten into my shoes and it felt like the soles of my shoes were made out of sand paper. I was pretty tired by this point too and I was worried about finishing-it was really hot and I hate the heat-so I decided to do 2 minute intervals of running and then walking for the rest of the race. It worked pretty well as far as getting me through the finish. But as I got closer to the end my feet really began to hurt. I knew that I had blisters along the entire in step and when one of them burst I thought my foot was bleeding there was so much fluid coming out of my shoe. We were finally close to the finish, I could hear the crowd and the announcer when a guy with a prothetic leg and 57 marked on his calf passed me and I decided then it was time to go big or go home so I decided to go big and I gave a strong push to the finish. I got up the hill and with some help from the crowd figured out where the finish chute was located. I was so happy to be done and get my shoes off I forgot to get my split for the run.
Overall, Saguaroman was an awesome race. I was super happy with almost every part of the race save the run and all the prep, although the run probably would have been much better if I had done better prep work. It was a great feeling crossing the finish line and knowing that I had completed one of the toughest triathlons out there. I look forward to these blisters healing in the short run but in the long run I look forward to doing Saguaroman again next year, remembering socks and my racing clothes, and most of all crushing my times from this year. I would also like to thank everyone that came to cheer us on. It was awesome to have people cheering you on at every stage of the race and it was a great mental boost. I don't think I could have done as well without your support.
Congratulations to everyone who finished, this race sounds epic.
Well for my first Triathlon, I feel like I got most of the bad stuff out of the way, while still having a really good time.
I was completely confused about what to do the whole time, but it worked out in the end.
So the swim was definitely my favorite part...big surprise... I didn't have too many rough encounters with other swimmers, however I did have a pretty rough one with a buoy... not the cute blow up ones, but a cement one... So next time I am going to bring some anti-fog for my goggles...haha.
So pretty much all the new mexicans got out of the water within 5 seconds of each other, big surprise again. T1 was really quick for me, and I was out of there in a flash, only to be passed by all the pro guys on there $6,000 bikes on that first hill. All was well until about half way through bike, when my handlebars slipped and rotted all the way down on the stem... Very scary when that happens and you are going as fast as you can, I still don't know how I didn't wreck. Luckily I had my tool so I fixed it the best I could real quick and kept going. Then rest goes, I tried way to fast after my pull over and didn't drink enough water, so when I got to the run it hit me pretty hard.
T2 was blazing fast again, I had no idea what was going on as some random person grabbed my bike from under me, as I watched him take my water bottles away from me, still full... :(
You've all heard how ridiculous the run was, and I wish I could say it was nothing tough for me, but it was hard. When I asked Yann and he said he even had to walk a little bit, I felt much better about it.
Finally I turned the corner to finish (one final hill, how rude of them lol) and I was finally done.
I can finally appreciate what most everyone else on this team as gone through and am very impressed. It definitely is not easy. Congrats to everyone who raced, especially the xterra, that was insane.
Oh and thanks to everyone that just came to cheer everyone on, that was always really helpful to see almost everyone along the course cheering was a fellow TriCat!
The week leading up to the race it seemed like I was starving 24/7 no matter how much I ate, so I tried to stick to the training plan and ate as much as could while drowning myself with water.
I came into the race not knowing quite what to expect since this was my first tri, but I prepared myself as I would for any big swim meet: rest, set a goal, and visualize reaching/surpassing that goal.
The morning of the race was a little chaotic having a boat load of people getting ready, getting a parking permit, not knowing what I need to do, and a somewhat disorganized event (the race was supposed to start at nine but around 8:40, 3 bus loads of people were still waiting to be taken to the start). The swim was … ok … I find it hard to swim long distances straight on as it is and when you take away all the flip turns its just worse. Also, my wetsuit was not quite fitted properly and I didn’t have a full range of motion in my left arm so it started hurting about halfway through the swim.
T1 transition was fine besides that fact that it really hurt to run up that rock beach barefoot. After seeing the transition area before hand I put an extra water bottle in T1 quick wash the sand off my feet and I’m glad I did. I managed a running leap onto my bike and had a quick take off (those speed play pedals are awesome!) I passed a few people up the first hill as well as being past by many more. I also had an unexpected energy snack when a bug flew in my mouth…
The bike was a lot easier than I expected after hearing people talk about it before hand, or maybe I just wasn’t pushing myself hard enough. Everyone said to “save it for the run” so I might have been overly cautious. The hardest part was that steady climb up Usery Pass. I definitely still need to work on my endurance. The saddle really started hurting around mile ~26 so if this had been a regular distance tri, it would have been perfect.
My T2 was good and bad. I was already out of my shoes so I was able to jump of the bike, throw it to someone else, and head to get my gear. Of course, I was just thinking they would see my number and hand me my bag (like they said they would) so I’m running down the chute only to get to the end where there are no more bags. At this point I was more than a little confused until someone from the sidelines told me to turn around. It seemed like a good idea to trust this complete stranger and run backwards on the course, so I did. The second time through the chute someone gave me my bag and actually apologized! After a quick change of shoes on was up the mountain
I really tried to start out running, but my butt was so sore from the bike (especially running up the hills) that I was soon forced to walk. I felt a little better seeing that EVERYONE else was also walking. I arrive at the first aid station in a group of people so they didn’t have a whole lot of a extra water and Gatorade. Plus they had no gels ☹. I grab a cup of water, drink half, then throw the rest on my head.
By the time I got to the second aide station the people were a little more thinned out and they actually had some extra cups of water. I dumped one on my chest, one on my back, and one on my head as well as drinking one. That felt AMAZING! I was actually cool enough then to start running at a good pace. I passed a handful of people in the last two miles and powered up the last hill across the finish line.
Overall, I was very satisfied with my time/place.
Some things I learned/want to remember for the next race:
• Make sure to do a prerace warm-up. My morning was rushed and disorganized so I didn’t have time for this
• Freeze half a water bottle for the bike. After sitting for hours after I set up T1 the water in my water bottles was nice and warm
• Don’t rely on what the race director says will be provided. Bring any nutrition that you will use.
• Look into better padded shorts
• Stay cool. Its so much easier to work hard if you are comfortable
• Go over the course before hand so you know the turns, hills, and other obstacles (rocky beaches) and how much energy you need to save
There's a report on the race on the Triathlete Mag home page:
Congrats...let's hear some stories
_______________
Club President