Please take these observations in proper contex–I’m decidedly BOP at a race like this–I qualified for Clearwater back in 2006 in my AG and made it with a XC slot this year—if you’re a real stud then my comments are probably not that applicable to you. Anyways, here goes:
The Henderson course is significantly more challenging than Clearwater. I’d also offer the opinion, that given the calibre of the triathletes here, it is a way better course for determining a “World Champion”.
The swim is interesting. Navigational skills are important. Obviously the ability to excel without a wetsuit is important. Considerably more so than Kona where the salt water really helps poorer swimmers. The wave start makes it a very different dynamic than Kona–and certainly helps control subsequent drafting on the bike. I found it very easy to always find clear water to swim despite the narrowness of the course. Of course, there was also a large number of great swimmers to draft off of as well.
The bike is fantastic–from the perspective of someone who really enjoys a beautiful, challenging ride. It is not however, a course that favors big, strong flat course aero guys like myself. To excel on this course you need to possess two traits: a very high P/W ratio (you should be able to NP 220+ and weigh about a buck 40) and you should love to spin as hard as you can on the descents. A good descender should be able to hit 50+ mph in places on this course. With 3600-5200 feet of vertical on this course (depending on who you believe) you’d better not be an ex hockey player. As someone who weighs 175 and has no balls on descents, it turned out to be the slowest Half-IM bike course I’ve ever been on (out of 19 races). Still if you love to climb and descend–this course is for you–I think you’ll actually find it pretty fast. And I though drafting was very minimal–much getter than Clearwater.
Did I mention that the bike course is fantastic? A great place for an April training camp–bring the spouse as you can hit Vegas a couple of nights and do great couple treks, etc.
The run was better than I feared. All up and down–though not steep at all. difficult to get your pacing correct (my splits varried by 2 minutes per mile depending on whether it was up or down). But still, a pretty engaging run course. Helps to be small of course.
We were very lucky this weekend in my view. throw in some 20-30 mph wind on the bike and 110+ heat and you’re looking at a real sufferfest. I’d wager that five years from now we look back and say that this year had the most benign conditions.
There were a huge number of incredible performances this weekend starting with Crowie–no way I’d ever think that a human being could break 4 hours on this course. There was an AGer who went 4:14–unbelievable–this course is very tough.
Very humbling for yours truly. while I just approached this as a good high quality brick, the distance between me and the best is staggering–and I’m not talking Crowie here but guys (and gals) in my AG. I almost always (95%+) AG podium in my local races and frequently win, and usually by a nice margin so it is very humbling to be in the race with such superior athletes–they are doing a sport that I am only vaguely familiar with–hats off to them!
Someday I won’t be able to do this anymore but Sunday was not that day.
Agreed on all points, Randy. The first 42 miles of the bike certainly favor light and small. Great observation about the descents. I hit 50 on a few. I’m currently drafting up my race report and make the same observation. I attacked every hill standing out of the saddle and as soon as I spun out my 11/23 I tucked down tight and passed a ton of people. The last 14 miles are so different, riding through commercial and residential sections of Henderson. All in all, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be or could be with more wind and heat. And the run was boring and hard bas it was either up or down, but the spectator support really helped make it better.
You guys are spot on. The swim was easy with the only mild challenge being the lack of wetsuits (on that note, does anybody know if anyone opted for the wetsuit wave after everyone else started?). My wave was 70ish guys and there was lots of room. On the bike course, I only used my little ring a few times and was spun out on the downhills more than a few times. The run is a grind, up or down all the time with about a 1min/mile differential between the uphill and the downhill, but all the spectators helped. The course profile isn’t super-hard, but it has potential for extreme wind and heat which would make make it a very challenging course, much like Kona.
I know there was some mention that Frank Lowery wanted to include the city of Henderson in the race course in some way, hence the run location, but if he could eliminate the separate transitions and create a challenging run course out at Lake Las Vegas, this could turn into a truly fantastic event… like Wildflower with nice, comfortable hotels.
Randy, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Here are some of my thoughts:
Please take these observations in proper contex–I’m decidedly BOP at a race like this–I qualified for Clearwater back in 2006 in my AG and made it with a XC slot this year—if you’re a real stud then my comments are probably not that applicable to you. Anyways, here goes:
The Henderson course is significantly more challenging than Clearwater. I’d also offer the opinion, that given the calibre of the triathletes here, it is a way better course for determining a “World Champion”. **I never went to Clearwater, but I thought Henderson was a fair course - tough, but not too tough. **
The swim is interesting. Navigational skills are important. Obviously the ability to excel without a wetsuit is important. Considerably more so than Kona where the salt water really helps poorer swimmers. The wave start makes it a very different dynamic than Kona–and certainly helps control subsequent drafting on the bike. I found it very easy to always find clear water to swim despite the narrowness of the course. Of course, there was also a large number of great swimmers to draft off of as well. Of the three courses, swim, bike, and run, I think the swim course was the simplest. When my wave went off, we were swimming into the sun during the outward leg, but I was still able to sight the boueys without problems. As you say, you need to be able to swim without a wetsuit. I am not much of a swimmer, even with a wetsuit. It’s not that I have a problem covering the distance, it’s just that I am slow. So you put me out there without a wetsuitand it makes for a long swim. I’m not sure how much, if any, a skinsuit would have helped my swim time, but I don’t see how it would have hurt.
The bike is fantastic–from the perspective of someone who really enjoys a beautiful, challenging ride. It is not however, a course that favors big, strong flat course aero guys like myself. To excel on this course you need to possess two traits: a very high P/W ratio (you should be able to NP 220+ and weigh about a buck 40) and you should love to spin as hard as you can on the descents. A good descender should be able to hit 50+ mph in places on this course. With 3600-5200 feet of vertical on this course (depending on who you believe) you’d better not be an ex hockey player. As someone who weighs 175 and has no balls on descents, it turned out to be the slowest Half-IM bike course I’ve ever been on (out of 19 races). Still if you love to climb and descend–this course is for you–I think you’ll actually find it pretty fast. And I though drafting was very minimal–much getter than Clearwater. **I agree with you about the bike course. I am one of those guys in the 140 lbs. range, although I’m a bit closer to 150 lbs than I am to 140 lbs. I was able to hit close to 50 mph on one of the decents. Even though I didn’t have that great of a ride, the course was still faster than I expected. Under Sunday’s conditions, it had the potential to be even faster. **
Did I mention that the bike course is fantastic? A great place for an April training camp–bring the spouse as you can hit Vegas a couple of nights and do great couple treks, etc.** If you could swing a spring training camp, then it would be a great place to train. Since Vegas isn’t quite my cup of tea, I’d probably stay in Henderson again ;-)**
The run was better than I feared. All up and down–though not steep at all. difficult to get your pacing correct (my splits varried by 2 minutes per mile depending on whether it was up or down). But still, a pretty engaging run course. Helps to be small of course.** Of the three courses, this is the one I disliked the most, mostly because three loop courses wear me out mentally. I also found running up or down nearly the entire time to be draining. The combination of the heat and hills yielded a pretty tough run day for me.**
We were very lucky this weekend in my view. throw in some 20-30 mph wind on the bike and 110+ heat and you’re looking at a real sufferfest. I’d wager that five years from now we look back and say that this year had the most benign conditions. I agree completely.
There were a huge number of incredible performances this weekend starting with Crowie–no way I’d ever think that a human being could break 4 hours on this course. There was an AGer who went 4:14–unbelievable–this course is very tough.
Very humbling for yours truly. while I just approached this as a good high quality brick, the distance between me and the best is staggering–and I’m not talking Crowie here but guys (and gals) in my AG. I almost always (95%+) AG podium in my local races and frequently win, and usually by a nice margin so it is very humbling to be in the race with such superior athletes–they are doing a sport that I am only vaguely familiar with–hats off to them!
Someday I won’t be able to do this anymore but Sunday was not that day.
My thought as well! The run course could be so much better and frankly even more challenging. The whole two transitions thing strikes me as an unnecessary pain. If you just had the one T zone at the lake and ran up the hill and then out onto the bikeway that parallels the main road…would be epic!