Saturday marked my last race of what seems like an awfully long season. My training started on December 1 with the 100/100 run streak and concluded Saturday with the sprint at Pumpkinman in Boulder City just outside of Las Vegas. I’m a bit fried and ready for a couple of weeks of sleeping in, yoga, and lifting.
Pumpkinman stood as the National Championships for triathlon clubs and two years ago we (the LA Tri Club) walked into the same National Champs at the same location and had our asses handed to us by Columbia Multisport. This year we went back with a wiser approach and won the event. There were three races on the day: a sprint, an Olympic and a Long Course with the oxymoronic title of Half Max - which carried extra weight as it was a qualifier for long course worlds.
The 750m swim was in Lake Mead and it was beautiful - super clean and clear and while I wore a wetsuit for speed I was roasting mid way through. At the start I saw Michael Collins a former pro triathlete and phenom swimmer who runs the NOVA swim program in Orange County California. I think I have beaten Michael once in our many meetings and that was when he was carring sympathy weight from the birth of his child. I knew right away this was likely gonna be a day to shoot for second place. Mike took off, another guy was on his feet and I slipped on the stranger’s toes. The first mark was at ~300m and I was already slipping away. Around buoy two we got into a sea of blue caps from the early wave and I lost contact in the dodging of some swimmers.
T1 was rugged - it’s all up hill on a long boat ramp. The one and only hallway is pretty narrow with a line of fencing on one side and the end of the racks on the other. The flow up the asile was chaos with some athletes flailing arms trying to get out of the suits and others trying to merge into the flow with thier bikes. The race has a point to point bike so after you strip you have to put wettie cap and goggs in a bag and cinch it up for the voleenteers to bring up to the finish later that adds a couple of seconds but when you know everyone has to do it the stress comes down.
The 20k bike course is supper hilly right from the mount line. I saw a short flat spot ~500m into the ride and elected to put my shoes in the pedals to make the faster transition work. It seemed to pay off - even with my feet atop the shoes I still caught a few folks who were clipped in. No matter what race you do here the bike course can be considered hilly - perhaps even extremely hilly and - again, all distances - conclude with 10k up hill - 6 miles steady, not extremely steep but no repreives. For a guy like me (6’1" 180) it’s a bitch. I ran a compact 50x34 with a SRAM 11x26 and was so greatful to have a 90rpm spin going in the 34x26 most of the way up. One guy passed me on the final climb but he wasn’t in my group and I was thankfull as there was no way I could have gone with him and still had an run to offer.
T2 was fairly smooth and I found the bag I placed in transition the day before at registration. The bow I tied melted away quickly and the shoes and number belt came out easily.
The 5k was fairly falt with a slight downhill on the way out and a slight uphill on the way back. As a result of the brutal up hill on the last half of the bike it took me far longer to find my legs and ran a weak 5k but still held the chasers at bay.
Michael beat me by a rather large margin and I figured I finished 3rd - but I must have passed the guy who was out of the water second in T1 and wound up 2nd in AG. The results aren’t posted so I don’t have splits or over all. I hand’t really been paying attention but upon reflection I only raced 7 triathlons this year and that’s the fewest since I began the sport in '96. I’m racing more single sport stuff now - road, cross, open water swims, etc. There were a couple of seasons in there where I did 22 and that’s just too much. I feel now like I’d rather race fewer than 10 triathlons a year and attempt to improve the quality of those races (Regionals, Nationals, qualifiers), but still throw in some local, smaller races for fun. The expense now - entry fees, travel, etc it makes me more selective about the races I do.
There were some athletes of interest there: I met a tri coach named Jo Garuccio who is a six time AG World Champion - she’s got a great spirit and clearly loves both this sport and skiing. There’s no money there but Macca raced as well as Tim Sheeper and Andrew Lockton. I had a Sister Madonna Bruder sighting. Former aquathon World Champion Erika Aklufi. There’s a youg guy named Drew Haberkorn who’s pretty much in his first year of triathlon and he was the 4th fastest finisher in the Olympic behind Macca and another pro (from Brazil perhaps? raced in an Herbalife kit?). Haberkorn was 9th in the 20-24AG at Nationals this year and was coming off an injury. I saw an athelte brave the 5k in her socks after no being able to find their bag in transition.
Saturday night was all about tequila at the “pink taco” bar in the Hard Rock Hotel - wonder if that name has another meaning? Sunday I played golf for the second time in 20 years and maybe the fifth time ever - that’s a fun game. I pray to god I don’t get hooked.
Ian