The Rage Triathlon in Las Vegas, April 20th, was to prep for Boise 70.3. Goal: Finish strong, don't get too beat up, go the distance.
The course has plenty of elevation change. Meaning very hilly. Zeus and I had made a training trip to Vegas in February. We rode the 56 mile bike course a few days after riding an 80 mile flat ride from North Las Vegas towards Tonapah. The ride allowed us to scope the course out and see how difficult it was going to be.
Race Day:
Chad and I drove down to Boulder City area for the start. Our T1/ T2 position was pretty close to the furthest location from the water. There were 1500 competitors, most of which were Sprint and Oly distances. There were only around 150 total Half Iron Distance competitors.
After we had set our bikes up we were on to get ready to swim. We had tested the water for temperature on Friday. It was pretty warm, well close to 60 degrees that is. We put our wetsuits on and waited for the horn.
The announcer with a loud speaker was calling for elites for quite some time, but there was no response. Finally he called for the remaining half iron distance competitors and started a countdown. And we were off into the 1.2 mile swim.
The first few hundred meters went real fast. Too fast for me. Although this swimming with others seems to be fine, I am not prep'ed to swim that fast. The first buoy was only a few hundred yards out so this came up quick. When swimming beside others I know there is no space to stop and grab my customary breaths of real air. So I swim on through, feeling the pressure to keep on going.
Once past the first buoy, I am with the other slow folks. I begin my stopping sessions. Swim a hundred or so and breath, and so on.... Until I round the far buoy and had on back. I finally make it to the end...
The transion is very long, maybe a few hundred yards on brand new chip seal, so they let us use flip flops. I went to grab mine, and they other 1400 swimmers that started behind us has layer theirs next to mine. Well, I finally located mine and trekked up the hill to T1. Folks were still in the transition setting up bike, a bit chaotic running around them.
As I am riding up the ramp towards the main bike course I ask folks I am passing what the swim clock time reading was. No answers! Humm, no idea how long the swim was. Oh well, nothing I could ave done about it. Maybe I was better off...
I start onto the main road, after a few minutes I am passing sprinters and Oly folks. I hoped that I wasn't going out too fast... I kept the same effort. HR looked fine so I kept things going. I pass the Sprint turnaround.. I tentatively passed folks there on the right so I didn't cut their turnaround off. I head up the hills and continue to pass folks. I passes one fellow iron distance competitor going downhill with a heck of a side wind. He happened to be using a rear Renn Disc, something I decided against due to wind possibility... Glad I never used it now. He looked a bit clenched. That could have been me.
I ended up going over 3 hours for the bike. Legs felt ok, but I had passed a few gals in the last few miles of the bike course. I figured they'd be catching me on the run pretty soon.
In T2, I went ahead and changed socks and left my water belt I was planning to use. I had a few Power Gels in my jersey. The first mile was fairly flat and felt ok. The grade started to change. I passed Zeus, who decided to do the Oly. He was just finishing up as I still had 11-12 miles left to run. I felt the sun beat on me already. I hear the fans tell their significant others to make sure to hydrate and pour water on their head no matter what. I take that in... So I made it to each water station and did as such. I was running pretty slow up that hill, but I was waiting for it to flatten out up top.mof course 2-3 chicks passed me like I was standing still. I start to feel a lack of energy, I decide weather to list or risk gut bomb. I take a gel, although a bit too late. It finally kicks in and I continued to run to the turnaround point near the Hoover Dam. It seemed like forever that last half mile to that halfway point.
I turnaround and head back "down" the hill. Hum, I thought I ran up a hill both ways. I finally made it to the steeper downhill section thinking I'd speed it up. Nope. I was in cruise at slow mo. Anyhow, I made to within the last few miles and caught a guy or three in my sights. I catch one guy and just ran with him at a good clip since he then sped up, we talked a bit. He was from SanDiego and had been doing these for some time now. I then took off. There were two more guys up there, I passed one, then the other within a few hundred yards of the finish. The announcer was awesome. Making stories up about claiming K2 when I was younger. I high five Stevo and finish with a smile. First at the distance!
