I wasn't able to do the Tucson Triathlon in spring because I was sick, so I signed up for another triathlon, which got cancelled. Third time being the charm, I finally did a race last weekend in Ft. Huachuca. I knew all Tricats were doing the Mountain Man Triathlon up in Flagstaff, but I was under a little bit of a time constraint, like always, and Ft. Huachuca is close enough where you can just drive there the morning of.
The entire race course is on the Ft. Huachuca military base. The swim was 800 yards in a pool, the bike was 13 miles and the run was 3.1 miles. Bike and run were both out-and-back on asphalt.
I got there around 5am, picked up my packet and set up my transition area. It was a small race, so I knew finding my spot wouldn't be a problem. I then went to the pool to do a few warm-up laps. The water was chilly and I started shivering. Fortunately, I was in the first heat. A few minutes after we warmed up a guy said, "Ready, set...", then a horn sounded and we were off.
The pool had no black line at the bottom, so you had to pay attention to stay on your side of the lane. It wasn't too bad, but it took me a few laps to get used to. On the plus side, the stupid shivering went away after a few laps.The guy I shared the lane with was swimming faster than me. He was out of the water when I still had one lap to go.I came out together with several other people. As we ran towards the bikes, I noticed my race belt and number must have worked their way out of my tri shorts, where I had them tucked in. Wonder how much time I lost by the number flapping around in the water. I guess next time I'll put on the belt and number in T1.
I put on my shoes before getting on the bike because I hadn't really practiced hopping on the bike with the shoes already clipped in. I passed a woman right after transition. The first few miles of the bike were slightly downhill and fun to ride. I was flying at 25 mph, which is fast for me, and passed one guy. Then came about a two-mile climb on a road that felt like it had been carpet-bombed the day before. Two riders were coming down this road, drafting each other. Bad form!On the way back, I got passed by a girl on a tri bike (I only have a road bike). I caught her later on the run, though.I had a bottle of water with me on the bike and managed to drink more than half of it.
They were handing out cups of water after T2, and I grabbed one. I wasn't able to drink any because I was breathing so hard. This might have been because of the higher elevation.The run course was on paved roads and had a number of turns in it. At one point, you had to turn right or left, but it wasn't clear which, because there were no markings. I decided to turn right and came up to a truck. I asked the guy in the truck if I was going the right way, and he said yes. Shortly after that, the same truck pulled up next to me and said, "You are not supposed to be running here! Get in, I'll drive you back to XYZ road!" I declined because I wasn't gonna do no detour, not after this same guy just sent me the wrong way. I knew this road would take me to the finish line, so I kept running.
Not too long after that bit of confusion, I crossed the finish line. I caught my breath and asked one of the officials if I was going to be DQ'd for going the wrong way. They said not to worry, several people had taken the wrong way, and it didn't change the distance much anyway. I checked google maps later and found out that I cut the run short by about half a minute, which wouldn't have changed my placement, so all was good.
At first I was disappointed with my 19-mph average for the bike and because felt kinda slow on the run, but to my surprise I won my age group! I placed 8/88 overall.I had fun at this little triathlon, and I plan on doing it again next year (if I'm still here).
Good luck at Mountain Man to everybody!
Joined: 2007-12-08