I won a trip to the Mr. Olympia in Vegas at the end of September and naturally looked for a race of some kind.
I found an the Las Vegas Triathlon (sprint, olympic and half ironman) and the Exterra Nevada.
Now what I’m curious about is, what would be my best option? My first choice would be either the olympic or half (has anyone done this race?) but I’d also be interested in doing the Exterra for the hell of it.
The problem is a bike. I could bring either my tri bike or mountain bike on the plane I suppose, but what are the costs on average? And if I do the Exterra, could I rent a mountain bike? Would that even be smart? And beyond the bike, is there any OTHER equipment differences? (keep in mind I’d just be doing it for fun)
Oh, and I don’t have a bike case either? how much of a problem is that?
I’m in Vegas that same weekend for a wedding, so I signed up for LV Half. I looked into bringing my tri bike, but it seemed like airlines could potentially charge you $100 each way (but it depends on carrier). And I didn’t want to cart it down to Hartsfield.
Shipping was expensive too. Seems like FedEx or UPS would do it for $80 each way, but then I’d have to box it up too, and ship it to Vegas LBS. They only wanted $10 or so to receive bike, but they had overnight storage fee, blah, blah. I would also have to buy a good transport box and those could be pricy. In the end I was worried about main tri bike getting damaged for a “B” race when “A” race is in November.
I decided to rent Cannondale Six 13 road bike from Las Vegas Cyclery. Got link for their shop from the LV Tri website. I’m going to pick up bike on Sat morning around 9 a.m. They are supplying helmet, but I am bringing pedals, water bottles and mounting, spare tubes, etc. to put on the bike. I am going to ride 20 miles or so on Sat morning just to get used to the bike, and then return it Sunday after the race. Seems like rental was around $90 for the two days. The shop posted above looks good too in that they rent tri bikes. I didn’t know about them when I booked mine or I may have used them. I got the feeling from talking to the bike shop that they are used to folks coming in for the weekend and renting bikes, so they keep them finely tuned and available.
From what I can tell, the LV Half is very small. Seems like they had less than 100 folks last year. Swim is in Lake Mead about three miles south of Hoover Dam. Race is about 30 miles from strip. Bike course looks hilly (with slow times posted), and run will probably have hills too. Weather could be an issue since Vegas is still hot in Sept, but starts to cool off beginning of Oct. I think the scenery of this race is worth trying out. Never heard any negative comments about race itself. Just a small race compared to Silverman or others. Good luck.
Check out Procyclery. Good people there. Also look into a location called McGhie’s. FYI - none of these locations are very close to Lake Mead.
The race itself is very warm. No wetsuits in the water (the water will be about 80 degrees). Warming up on the ride (can get upwards of 95 degrees) and merciless on the run (no shade and it will usually be hitting 100 degrees in the middle of the run based on about a 5:30 overall 1/2 IM time).
Very little support is available on the 1/2. Only one water stop on the bike which generally also means warm water when you really need something cool.
The RD has what they call the "Eddie " factor. He usually makes a miscalculation on some portion of the race, usually a short distance or running out of cups at an important water stop. Keep this in mind for the 1/2. Also, the Shwag usually sucks (for his Flagstaff Tri he offered wife-beaters and 80’s style sleeveless shirts - both 100% cotton, so you can’t really use them for training) for the massive price you pay.
