End of Triathlon Season
Oh dear, I was supposed to update this…
My last race of the 2011 Triathlon season was the TBF HIT IV, a half iron distance at the ever familiar Rancho Seco. With one big bike loop and a two loop run, I knew from last year that heat on the run is the most difficult part of this race. I started the day well rested and feeling great. I relaxed on the swim and managed to stay near the front of the fairly small field, running out of Rancho Seco Lake after 38 minutes. My first transition was a little bit slow, I like to make sure I ‘have everything’ for the longer races. The bike ride started out really fast, first on familiar roads out of the park, then onto the newly paved road towards Herald. The bike leg roughly splits into thirds – during the first third, I was just flying. Unfortunately I still had to let Glenn on his “P4 with luggage rack” pass and couldn’t catch him back. The second third is a long gradual climb on really bad pavement, chipseal with potholes, from Rancho Murrietta towards Plymouth. The last third starts out with a downhill&rollers section into Ione, some turns through town and back onto Twin Cities road known from other TBF races. In this section it’s about relaxing your back from the bad roads and shaking the legs loose for the run. I still held on to alright speed, completing the bike leg in 2h53m. Going out on the run, I was already feeling the heat and anticipating the Rancho Seco “firetrail oven”. Then on the first mile, my stomach started cramping up a bit and I felt like I couldn’t get any nutrition down. I tried sticking to water for the first 5k, but that didn’t help either and just started sloshing around in my stomach. After the second aid station I gave @jeepWrang82 a quick hug, but already felt I was bonking hard. It pretty much turned into a run/walk from there, I think the longest I ran continuously was about two minutes. I just didn’t have any fuel left, couldn’t take any in and was also heating up quickly. I managed to force down a gel and some Isostar at the next aid station, that may have helped me through the single-trail lake section. Then it was back to run walk, and on to the second loop. Here it was still the same story, try to run, walk just as long. When I got to the aid station, it turned out my special needs bottle wasn’t there anymore. The girl had collected it after misjudging my progress on the run course. I threw a minor fit (in my head, I managed to get out of hearing range of the volunteers before cursing excessively). When I got back onto the single trail, the (second to last) aid station finally had cola – sugar&caffeine&hydration seriously cheered me up right then. When I finally made it to the finish line, I had salt stains all over. I definitely took a minute with my cool recovery drinks and a hot-dog a few minutes later. I guess the positive take away from this race is, finishing at 6h19m, my worst 70.3 of 2011 was still faster than my ‘best’ 70.3 of 2010. My result put me right in the middle of the pack, both overall and for my AG. I was very happy with my swim and bike, the run just didn’t happen.
Thanks go out to @ThaiChanoko & TBF racing and all the volunteers, this is a well organized race and the course is much tougher (and hotter) than it looks on paper.
On September 11th, I volunteered at the Luna Bar Women’s Triathlon. @JeepWrang82 was racing and I figured if I am the driver and bike mechanic, I may as well help out. Plus I needed to keep an eye on her, as they had fireman handing out the finisher medals for this all-women’s race. I was put in the water safety group and got to paddle a kayak for two hours, making sure nobody drowned. I also had to help some competitors not swim in circles.
At this point I want to give kudos to one of the racers, Suzette. She really fought through the swim and showed some great will power, completing the half mile swim in 56m. She never gave up, although she was the last swimmer out of the water with a gap of 14 minutes. I was even more surprised to learn after the race that she put in very solid bike&run legs, not only catching up, but passing 21 racers.
My girl unfortunately had to drop out of the race after 5 miles on the bike with a flat front tire – better luck next time. You should have taken me up on my offer and borrowed the Zipps.
In other news, I finished setting up my new road bike. Or to be precise, swapping over all my old parts from the Mango Moose to my new Allez frame. I also had a minor fight with the Alligator i-Link cables, but once I figured out their length and how to bend them, the shifting and braking is actually really accurate and smooth.
For the fall, I have finally started to focus on my running again and up the mileage a bit. I am not quite in race shape, so I am not doing Rock&Roll San Jose, although that race is right on some of my lunch run routes. I am instead trying to build up some speed for the Livermore Grapestomp. Their new route is yet to be announced and I will also have to battle @royt1 for the Team Fremont HM title (and possibly the golden bucket?).
