BAM X off road duathlon

I raced the BAM-X off road duathlon this past weekend. It's the first year they've held this event, which runs in conjuntion with the BAM Triathlon. The race consisted of a 5k trail run leg, an 11 mile mtb leg, then another lap around the 5k run course to the finish. I thought it would be a good early season primer for the Xterra race in August. The race is held at the Soldier Hollow Olympic Park which is a fantastic venue.

We rented a condo in Midway for Friday and Saturday night. We really like Midway so had looked forward to a little getaway up there. Some friends joined us Friday night, we grabbed some grub at the Dairy Keen, played a little tennis, and hung out playing cards at the condo until calling it a night around 1:00 am (kids hung on till about midnight). Brandon and I went for a mtb ride the next morning around 9:30 and rode the dutch trail system for about an hour and a half or so. Relatively mellow 7 mile ride with a few short climbs that required a good effort. Just about perfect for a day before the race ride in which I was coming off a week of only one ride day and one run day.

Spent the afternoon/evening with the family relaxing, watching Tiger continue adding to his legend on the golf course, and going to my mission president's ranch for his son's wedding reception where we saw a lot of friends.

The race started at 7:00 Sunday morning. I had Annie drop me off around 6:30, checked the bike into the transition area, then took a light jog for a warm up. I wasn't sure what to expect in regards to hills/climbing so was pleased to find it reasonable, with some short, steep sections, but nothing so severe that it threatened to blow me up early in the race. Ran an ok run for me, I need to get a lot faster (gave up 4 minutes on the first leg), but this was ok for me at my current fitness level. I rode as aggressive as I dared not knowing the course, we started climbing right away, and while I had an idea where we'd turn back downhill, I was cautious to make sure I didn't blow up prior to getting to the top. The downhill was fast, down a dirt road towards the resevoir. I'd picked off a few people on the climb and managed to get a couple more down this section. The course was marked somewhat weak in a few areas and I went off course twice, but was lucky to catch it early and limit the damage. There was one guy who added several miles to his race. Once at the bottom it leveled off on another dirt road that ran along side the lake back towards the olympic park. I gave up one spot to a guy that came by at a really strong pace, I let him go, more concerned at this point about how my legs would hold up to run another 3 miles than jockeying for position.

I exited transition in 3rd, but was run down by one of the guys I'd passed on the bike leg. Mentally maybe I should have pushed a little harder and gave chase, but at the moment I gave myself no chance of keeping up with or running him back down. I finished in 4th, stopping near the end to grab Chesney who finished the race with me. 2:00 hours 29 seconds. I am sore today.

Salem Spring Soaker

The excitement for the years first triathlon wore off quickly when we woke up Saturday morning. It was raining lightly here at home when we pulled out of the driveway. We left around 6:30, thinking we'd have about 50 minutes to unload the bikes, set up T1 and get checked in by the 8:00 deadline. Timing became an issue when half way there Annie asked me if I'd remembered my license, I had the wrong answer. I turned around and flew back to the house, grabbed the license, and then had to stop for gas before getting back on the freeway. Nothing annoys me more than being rushed on the morning of a race - especially when it's my fault. The rain got heavier the further south we got, and by the time we arrived at the race it was ugly. We made it to the check in line in time and it wasn't long before we got word that the bike leg would be cancelled due to the wet roads. By the time the race started it had been whittled down to a 500 meter swim and the 5k. I felt good and thought I could fly through the race.

This picture is a pretty revealing look at my swim leg. I came into this more prepared for the swim than I've been in previous races, or so I thought. Within the first hundred or so yards, I had managed to take in enough water/air that I was desperately trying to release the biggest burp I've ever packed. I remember thinking in elementary school that the kids who could manufacture burps had picked up on a pretty cool skill - one I was seriously trying to figure out until the last 100 yards of my swim when I finally unloaded. Here was my dilema: I could not exhale with my face in the water - which completely sabatoged any rythym I was trying to settle into. Not sure if that can be attributed to the burp, but after flailing my way around Salem pond, I finally got into a good crawl stroke after unloading all that air that had caused such misery most of the swim. Chalk it up to experience - although I'm not positive I know how I got into the mess. You'll notice I'm walking out of the water in the photo, I wanted to make sure they got a good photo, and I felt like I'd just held my breath for 450 meters of the 500 meter swim.

Compare with the rookie:

Yep - she's coming out of the water running, and after the realization of how brutal the first open water swim is and surviving the panick attack that came with it, she flipped over on her back and put in a faster swim than I did (12+ minutes vs. my 14+ minutes), and still had the juice to come out running. Way to go Annie! Also important is the fact that she still has her timing chip at this point in the race, it would remain with her for approximately 2 more minutes from the time the above photo was taken - more on that later. This is my arrival at the finish line, somewhere between 39 and 43 minutes from the start. It's a guess as a large number of the timing chips malfunctioned - my watch showed 39 minutes and some change, the guy behind me in this phot had a time of 43 minutes and some change. I ran well, meaning I didn't stop to walk as I'd planned and explained in the pre race post. The run is where I've probably got the room to shave the most time, so will spend some time working on it this summer.
Back to the saga of the rookie's timing chip:

See it? If your looking for it on her ankle where you find most timing chips, your mistaken. It's not in her right hand? That hand is busy holding her number belt, and in case your wondering, yes, that item is usually worn around the waist. You've no doubt noticed by now that the timing chip is in her left hand, here are two possible scenarios:

1 - I didn't make it clear to Annie how the number belt worked and she ran the whole way waving her number like a flag, pretending to be in a parade. She thought the timing chip was a meal ticket, to be exchanged for a gel and water at the support station half way through the run.

2 - While you can't tell in her swim exit photo - her extremely strong first race swim pace did manage to get a little water in her brain. And for a short period it the transition area, it made sense to take off her timing chip and leave it in transition with her race number.

After finishing, I went back out on the course to cheer her on and run the end of her race with her. This photo was taken just previous to the revelation of the missing timing chip and an inpromptu strategy pow wow to best remedy the situation. So, just before heading up the grassy knoll to the finish, we split up. I stepped off the course, and Annie rerouted her run to make another visit to T1 where she could retrieve her race number and timing chip prior to finishing the race - she found it napping quietly, ran back to the course, and hoped to pull a fast one on the computer by finishing with a chip that never checked out of T1.

So, at the end of the day, neither of us had an official time due to two different misadventures with the timing chips. While we were disappointed in the race itself with no bike leg, weather, etc... we did have a strong reason to celebrate with Annie's strong showing in her first race - I think I'm at risk of being beat down by my wife throughout this summers races.

Gear pile

Here's my gear for tomorrow's race along with a few clues and conclusions that can be drawn from this photo:

• Socks tucked into my right running shoe = dead giveaway that this guys not a hardcore triathlete and is willing to spot the hardcore guys at least 10-15 seconds in T1 while he puts his comfy foot cushions on prior to his next T1 (transition 1 aka swim to bike transition) sin.
• Road bike shoes = T1 sin #2. The fast guys will have their shoes already attached to their pedals when they arrive at their transition area, stop long enough to throw on their helmet and sunglasses, wipe their feet on a towel and off they'll go. You can't get on your bike inside the transition area, so they'll be running barefoot at a pretty good pace and jump on the bike midstride once they've exited T1, then pedal with their feet on top of their premounted shoes until they're at a reasonable speed, then reach down and get their feet inside their shoes and velcro up/buckle in. My T1 will include the following features not found in the process just described: 1 - Those comfy socks mentioned in the last bullet need to be put on my feet (my road shoes were made for feet with socks, I think) 2 - Good chance I'll be putting my bike shoes on in T1 vs. the running start method. This will be somewhat dependent on what kind of location I can land to set up my T1. I'll get as close to the exit which will limit the distance I have to run in the road bike clogs. If I don't get a good spot, there will be some spectators in for a treat watching some clown trying run his bike out of transition with half inch risers on the bottom of his stiff shoes - maybe even a T1 crash. Can always try the running steed mount but have bad dreams about snagging stuff on the seat and not being able to get my feet in my shoes for the entire bike leg - listed in order of concern/fear factor.
• T2 should be fast as I've already put the socks on in T1. Swap hats, shoes and take off. Hope to get a good mile in here before stopping to 1 - thank the neighborhood kids cooling us down with hoses and 2 - recover from the first mile of running. Will walk as long as needed to make sure I have a strong kick when I come around the last turn and head to the finish line - that's where the most people are so it's important to look real fast there. Not a lot of triathletes coming into the finish line in a full out sprint kick, so am thinking that the chicks might dig it and think I ran the full run leg like that.

Will post a full report on the race sometime this weekend unless Annie beats me on her first attempt, in which case there will be no mention of it.

Spring Training is over

We make the first plunge into the water this Saturday at the Salem Spring Triathlon. Our first triathlon of the year and Annie's first ever. We decided back in December that we'd try to have an active race calendar this year to keep ourselves honest about getting back into good form. While training has been far removed from structured, we've been doing conditioning work whenever we can, and for the most part, have made good progress to this point. I've taken on Mtn biking as my new guilty pleasure for the year so have been doing some races on weekends for the past couple of months. Don't want to be misleading with the term "race". While they are races and there are racers, I'm slow, and use these events for threshold workouts moreso than pretending to be competitive. Only a little shame here in admitting that my sloth pace on a Mtn Bike can get me to threshold and provide an intense workout. I can hang with the fast guys for approximately 200-500 yards before blowing up and being worthless the rest of the race. I'd like to get competitive someday, but have lots of work to do to get there. There are lots of good cyclists here where I live so plenty of folks to learn from.

Annie has prepared well. She's a little nervous about the swim, standard procedure for your first triathlon unless you were on the swimteam in high school (she was not). We've had few friends provide some coaching and she's more ready than I was for my first race. She'll be surprised at how brutal that first open water swim is, but also surprised at how capable she is. I think there's a dang good chance she'll post a better run than I will. It's awesome having a wife who get's excited about this stuff with me.