Results are at the following site: http://www.ccrtiming.com/races/results/2005/05lasvegas.htm
The Rolling Stones are on tour again. On my way to this race, I heard on the radio that Dolly Parton is going on tour this year too. In keeping with these other old geezers, I am embarking on an "Eight Races in Eight Weeks" tour of my own. The first race was this weekend.
The Las Vegas Tri is another race that I really enjoy. I like the ("Olympic") distance, the swim is in a nice lake, it's fun coming downhill at 30-40 mph on the 2nd half of the bike, and the run course throws in some hills and some trails. Having said that, last year's race was a real bummer. On the drive there, my Jeep's "check engine" light came on (which I ignored and luckily it turned out it wasn't a big deal), the weather was cold and raining, and I had two punctures (I feel like Phil Liggett when I use that term) on the bike leg. I knew that things would have to be better this year, and they were.
This year's Las Vegas Tri was the "Rocky Mountain Regional Intermediate Championship" race. For whatever reason (possibly including the previous day's Roadrunner Tri at WSMR), there weren't too many of the usual New Mexico/West Texas SWCS athletes there. However, there were quite a few athletes from Colorado, and they were pretty good too. It was kind of cool, because they really raised the bar for everyone at the race.
I met up with Sharkbait and Roger Senn ("Stitch ver 2.0") before the race. Sharkbait was fresh off his first place finish in his age group at the Roadrunner Tri, with his new Litespeed Saber. (How many bikes does he own?) We headed over to the swim start under blue skies, with a slight breeze from the south, air temperature in the 70s, and water temperature in the lake at 72 degrees. In short....a perfect day for a race. There were 136 swimmers divided into four waves, and the Outlaws were all in the third wave. The gun went off, and I never saw Sharkbait or ver 2.0 again until they passed me coming back from the run turn-around. I thought I had a really good race, but I knew it was bad when this guy from Colorado who was in my age group passed me at the 3-mile point on the run. I felt like Jan Ulrich when Lance Armstrong starts pulling away......."Mein Gott, Ich must keep up mit him, but das ist nicht possible!!!!!" Maybe I also need to eat fewer pastries (while working on my German grammar).
Clay Mosely finished 2nd overall, behind Tim Hola (from Colorado). Shanna Armstrong was the second woman overall, behind Tamsen Schurman from El Prado, NM. Sharkbait was the Top Outlaw, finishing 28th overall in 2:34:24, and 2nd in his age group, behind Ted Freedman from Santa Fe. Ver 2.0 was 33rd overall, finishing in 2:36:39. I was the last Outlaw, 44th overall, but I set a PR for an "Olympic Distance" race of 2:39:13. Ver 2.0 and I both just missed the podium for our age groups, which was not too bad considering the level of competition this year.
Next week......."Tall City Tri" in Midland, TX.................Muffinman
On a big weekend in the region's triathlon scene, about 100 solo and team athletes took to the Roadrunner
Triathlon at WSMR. The field was a bit light due to the USAT regional championship at the Las Vegas Tri on Sunday. The weather was great..........a but humid at the start but light winds and warm temps made for a fast day.
The Outlaws fielded 3 members on the course.........Trech, Sharkbait and yours truly. Some commented that the 7K run course was measured short.........I don't know about that.......but the first mile sure as hell was.......as I ran it in 6:35 at an easy pace. The bike course was a modified out and back on good roads with some gentle rollers. The winds didn't play much of a factor as Trech rolled past the turn in the top 5 and Sharkbait (on his new "tit-an-ee-ummm" Litespeed) followed a few spots back. I had what felt like a solid 40K ride holding a slightly better than 20mph average.
To the pool we went to finish off the last WSMR tri of the 2005 season. Trech actually passed someone in the pool to finish 2nd in the 30-34's and 3rd overall in a time of 1:44:05. Sharkbait landed the first half of his weekend (he's racing the LV Tri on Sunday) by winning the 55-59's in 1:46:36 and grabbing 5th overall. Cover Boy scored his first hardware of the season with a maniacal final 25 meters to push into 2nd in the 40-44's by 2 seconds. CB finished in 1:56:07 and was 25th overall.
A perfect 3 for 3 in the medals for the Outlaws...........not a bad way to kick off a big tri weekend. Now to see if Sharkbait can win another AG medal in Las Vegas.....
I really like this race. It's only two hours from
Clovis and they don't start the race until 8:30, so I can sleep in my own
bed until almost 5:00 and still make it to the race on time. The race
director, Jan Olesinski, puts on a good race, and it's the shortest race I know
of (400 m swim, 13 km bike (listed as 14 km), and a 4 km run). There isn't
much pacing in this race...it's pretty much full throttle the entire time.
It's the only triathlon that I can finish in less than one hour.
Trech, Sharkbait, and Paul Zetocha joined me at the
start along with 112 other racers. It was nice that 23 of the racers were
under 24 years old...new blood for the sport. We had blue sky and
sunshine, very little wind, with temperatures that climbed into the 80's.
The water in Bottomless Lake is about as clear as you get in any of the SWCS
races unless you are in a swimming pool. At least half of us wore wetsuits,
but it wasn't that cold. There is a nice hill coming out of T-1 on the
bike to get your heart rate up, and the you get a nice downhill at the
half-way point as some payback. The run is pancake flat, which is a good
thing by the time you get to it. Perry Toles was the overall winner, and
Caroline Colonna was the top female. Quite a few of us were using our tired legs
from Buffalo Springs as the reason we didn't go faster, but Shannon Armstrong
was the 2nd place female in this race two weeks after her winning ride
in RAAM, and she was in the top 20 in this race overall! Trech was the top
Outlaw, 11th overall, and 3rd in his age group. Sharkbait and I both
finished 2nd in our age groups, and Paul was 5th in a pretty competitive
M40-44 group.
Viva Las Vegas!!! (in two weeks)
Muffinman
Clovis, NM
Sharkbait and I drove out to Lubbock on Saturday morning. There's nothing like having Miguel in the car on a long trip.........he's the ultimate co-pilot...giving directions, buying snacks, pointing out areas of interest....or...maybe he just slept the whole damn time.
In any event we hit the expo at 3pm after bagging an inside room just off the atrium. A few of the El Paso ladies looked my way and giggled...........I soon found out why.........I was featured on the Aquis brochure...not only on the cover.........but also full size on the inside. I dropped a few autographs and moved on thru.
We gathered up a team of taste testers for Aquis including Laura, Lucy and Sugar Clay Moseley. After commiting our rankings to print we slogged down some mushy pasta and hit the hay.
Race was predicted to be hot and didn't dissapoint. The lake water was quite warm and I went with the DeSoto bottoms only...........even in that I was heating up pretty good. Swim was fine.....slower than last year (probably due to the course being measured correctly this year) and off on the bike we went. I looked for Sharkbait as I was sure he passed me in the swim from a wave 10 minutes back. Finally on the second out and back I saw him a half mile ahead. We raged down the Spiral Staircase and up the next climb as I pulled close. At the bottom I decided to pee, since I'd been holding it since the lake. Lo and behold as I get off the bike...........Sharkbait's GT is sitting right there.........great minds think alike? I doubt we were thinking with our minds at that point. After a world record 2 minute pee I worked to get back to Miguel and caught him about mile 48. We worked together the final 8 miles...........each taking turns at the front and barely avoiding drafting. Sharkbait got a wonderful present on the last climb..............a golden shower from a pretty young lady as she blazed down the previous hill.............then quad killing cramps on the climb that forced him to bail and walk it up the final 20 meters.
Once in T2 I lathered up with sunscreen and hit the run. In contrast to Muffin's assessment I thought it was damn hot and was roasting after mile 2. Not able to cool my body I could not absorb anything and gator-water-salt sloshed around as I iced down at every aid station. By the turnaround I had slammed 3 cups of Gatorade and 2 salt pills in the previous 1.5 miles and things were starting to cut loose. Sharkbait came up on me with a bag full of Morton's salt that he jacked from some bbq'er's. He was feeling a bit better after walking the first 4 miles with killer cramps 'Bait ran away as I started the slow process of running and icing to keep the floodgates open. I was able to run much of the last half (slowly) and was firm that my 6:20 day was gone but a PR must fall. In the final mile I sucked it up and passed a few MG clones to score a 6:53....not great....but a few minutes better than I've ever done.
Preztel said it best...........he was planning on running his race so he'd never have to come back............neither of us made that goal. Friggin Lubbock.
The evening was capped off with some apertif's at the room of Butch and Nancy in honor of Ironman Reimond Heep who heads back to Germany and has raced his last "lower 48" race for awhile. We told stories and lies, took pictures and remembered the day.
Lubock.............I hate you.............you sonofabitch.........and no...........I won't see you next year (due to IM AZ in April)..........but yes......you hooked me......and one day I'm going to kick your freaking ass....so keep the wind blowing, the heat on and humidity up.....cause when I punch your damn lights out.....I want you to go down swinging.
BTW.....Muffin scored a 5:57.........Pretzel a 5:58......and Sharkbait a 6:29.........well done on a tough day.
Wiz..........out...
Roger Senn, Deputy Dawg, Sharkbait, and I raced at the Milkman Tri yesterday. I wasn't sure I was going to make it there when I woke up at 3 AM on Thursday with stomach flu/food poisoning. I hoped I would get over it in 24 hours, and sure enough I felt good enough on Friday to pack the Jeep to head off to the Best Western in Roswell. By the time I went to dinner at Farley's on Friday night, my appetite had returned. In addition to my pre-race dinner of a burger and a beer, I ordered "Rabbit Droppings" (deep fried breaded cheese with bell peppers stuck in the
cheese.) Would this be appropriate nutrition for a race....hmmmm???
When I arrived at the lake on Saturday morning, the sky was blue, the temperature was in the 70s, and the wind was maybe 10 mph from the NE. I stood around the transition area with the other Outlaws while everyone else envied our jerseys and shorts. I think USAT has a new policy for races with Outlaws, because both Danny Fisher (from the LV tri) and "Iron Mike" Baker were there to officiate. After two trips to the porta potties (remember the "Rabbit Droppings") I headed off to the beach for the swim start. 188 individuals and 12 teams were racing, divided into seven waves. There were
almost 40 people in my wave, and when they told us to
line up in numerical order, it was 5 minutes of chaos and carnage. Eventually, everyone got themselves into place, and we marched past the "NO SWIMMING!" sign and jumped into the water. The water was pretty warm andquite a few people went without wetsuits. However, the time and effort I save swimming in a wetsuit is well worth the time it costs me when I have to take the wetsuit off in T-1. I had my fastest swim for the Milkman yet, a pretty slow T-1, then it was off on the bike.
The highlight of the bike ride was passing the 12 foot long western diamondback rattlesnake that was stretched out (dead) in the middle of the road at about the 3 mile point. (It might have just been a 3 foot bull snake, but I didn't stop to check.) I thought I was going pretty well on
the bike, but my average speed never quite made it to 20 mph, so I knew I was a little slower than last year. At least I felt pretty fresh when I started the run, and I went through the first half of the run pretty
quickly. At that point, something caught up with me ("Rabbit Droppings"?) and I pretty much coasted to the finish. It was my fastest run for the Milkman, and my overall time (1:12:27) was a PR for
this race.
Clay Moseley was the overall male winner. Clay, Shaun Burns, and Bobby Gonzales all finished in less that one hour. Mary Uhl took the honors for the women in 1:04:55. The second place woman was Shanna Armstrong, who was using this race as part of her taper for her ride in RAAM later this month! Roger was the top Outlaw in 1:09:02, with Sharkbait about a minute in front of me. Deputy Dawg was making his return to racing after dealing with a medical issue last year, and he coasted in with a comfortable finish. Roger was 2nd (behind Bobby Gonzales) in the 40-44 age group, and Sharkbait was 2nd (behind Mark Balsiger) in the 55-59 age group. I was first in the 50-54 age group, thanks to Thom Turbett picking up two penalties somewhere on the course. The Outlaws managed to get through this race without a single
penalty!
MuffinMan
I didn't really get all of the results for today's race. They should be available on the following site sometime soon.
http://www.buffalospringslaketriathlon.com
I started out the race weekend by pulling a "No Show" on "Pretzel". We were supposed to get together yesterday to do some training, but I had some domestic issues on the home front and I didn't get to
Lubbock until late in the afternoon. When I did arrive, I went to packet pick-up, and they didn't
have my name listed. Luckily, I'd brought along the copy of the cancelled check that they'd cashed, so it wasn't a big problem. However, I am trying to get things sorted out for the BS 1/2 IM before I
show up for that race.
Met "Pretzel" during body marking this morning, and he'd gotten over me missing yesterday's workout. We looked good in our "Outlaw" kit, but the black color sure soaks up lots of thermal energy on a day like today (not a cloud in the sky, temperatures that started in the 70's and ended in the 90's). 125 racers pulled on neoprene and went to the beach for a single wave mass start. Last week's nosh pit in the Kirtland
pool was a picnic compared to the first 100 meters of today's swim, with everyone trying to
make it between the first buoy on the left and the log on the right. The only thing missing was "Sharkbait" screaming like a girl because someone was pulling him under the water. I finished the swim in 31 minutes, and "Pretzel" was just in front of me. I think last year the swim at the "M&M" tri was a little short, since I finished that one in 26 minutes, but this year it seemed about right.
"Pretzel" took off on his bike in front of me, and I never saw him again until after the run turn-around. The wind was blowing from the southwest at 15-20 mph, which left me looking for "Wiz", my partner
in drafting crime, when I was on any leg going into the wind. No such luck with that. It sure
was neat coming down "Yellow House Canyon" with a tailwind and hitting 46 mph, though! Finished the bike without getting any penalties or flat tires, so I was happy with that.
I'd been going at a "hard training pace" up until this point, trying to gauge the level of effort I should use for the BS 1/2 IM. I kept going easy on the run until I hit the turn-around. I picked up the pace on the run
back to the finish, and I finally passed a few people. I finished in just under 2:45, about 10 minutes behind "Pretzel". "Pretzel" was in a pretty stacked group in the M 35-39 age group, but he still finished in the top 30 even though he was cruising through the race. I just snuck in to the top 40, but I did finish 2nd in the M 50-54 age group.
As always, Mike and Marti Greer put on a great race. If you are looking to do an Olympic Distance race, and you want to get a partial preview of the BS 1/2 IM, this is a great race to do.
Muffinman
Clovis, NM