SOMA 1/2 ironman and El Tour de Tucson Century-November 2007

Race Updates:
SOMA Half-Ironman 10/28/07-finished!
El Tour de Tucson Century Bike Ride 11/17/07-finished!
On October 28th I completed the SOMA ½ Ironman (aka a 70.3, named for the number of miles covered that day). The race was in Tempe Arizona. The course was flatter than the Vineman 70.3 I completed in July, and was projected to be cooler (although the triathlon gods seem to take pleasure in seeing me suffer; it turned out that Tempe set a record high for the day at 97 degrees). Overall, I beat my Vineman time so I’m pretty pleased with my results overall.
THE LEAD-UP
I signed up for this race because part of the course is shared with where the Arizona Ironman will be in April, so I figured this would be a good way to preview what I will be dealing with next year.
With all the wildfires going on in San Diego, I decided to travel to Tempe a few days early. That would give me a chance to acclimate myself to the weather and also not be breathing in all that soot right before the race. I was able to get a lot of walking in around Tempe. It seemed like a nice town; however the hotel I was staying at was about ¼ mile from the Arizona State University stadium, and as luck would have it they played a football game the night before the race. I was up until 3am trying to sleep as drunken yahoos whooped it up wandering the streets. Then I was up at 5am for the race.
THE SWIM-1.2 miles
I was originally due to start in the 7am wave and be wearing a red swim cap. Those of you who have been reading these race reports will remember that in my 3 prior triathlons, I’ve always had a white swim cap and wanted to wear a different color. Well, they switched the swim waves around a bit, and I was to start at 7:22am wearing…a white swim cap.
The swim was to take place in Tempe Town Lake, a semi-gross manmade lake (river? canal? a quick search on the internet came up with several blogs and articles that referred to it as “Tempe Town Toilet”).
So at 7:22am I’m in the water, the horn sounds, and off we go. I’d been having nausea problems while swimming and I hadn’t been training as much, so I didn’t have a great swim. The water didn’t help, but I avoided swallowing any significant amount.
Unlike my prior tris, I got kicked and punched a decent amount of times. Between that and the fact that I kept stopping (we were swimming straight east, towards the rising sun, so I wasn’t sure I was going the right direction) my swim time wasn’t as good as I hoped. Also, at the end of the swim you had to hoist yourself up onto a platform that was out of the water (instead of just being able to wade out of the water); there were volunteers pulling people up and out of the water but I didn’t want to wait so I just hoisted myself up onto the platform in one swift motion (think Shamu) and ran into the swim-to-bike transition area.
Total swim time = 49:38, 738th out of 881 athletes

TRANSITION 1
I felt pretty good coming out of the swim, probably because I paced myself a bit slower than at Vineman. I stripped off my wetsuit, threw on my bike gear and ran my bike out of T1. T1 time = 4:58, 795th out of 881 athletes

THE BIKE-56 miles
The bike course was 3 loops of 18.6 miles around the city of Tempe. The course was fast and flat; only a few hills to deal with. There were a lot of 90- and 180-degree turns which forced riders to use the brakes a lot. Also, the road was shared with the shorter-distance triathlon so the course was VERY crowded. There was a lot of drafting going on (which is illegal).
It was a typical ride for me, in that I went too hard and didn’t save enough energy for the run and
I didn’t drink enough water. Lessons learned for Ironman…
I was pretty pleased with my bike time at 3:10 (which is a record for me at that distance), however since the course was so fast everyone else did well and my bike ranking wasn’t that great. Still, I shaved 16 minutes off my bike time at Vineman.
Bike time = 3:10:49, 738th out of 881 athletes (same as the swim, what are the odds)
Average speed = 17.6mph

TRANSITION 2
I hop off the bike and run into T2 a little sore but not too bad. The temperature is rising; it’s maybe 85 degrees at this point. I know from the past few days that the hottest part of the day is late afternoon (rather than around noon), so the quicker I finish the run the better.
T2 time = 0:03:56, 710th out of 881 athletes

THE RUN-13.1 miles
The run was 2 loops of 6.55 miles around Tempe Town Lake. As usual I was under trained on the run. Other than my run at Vineman, my longest run to date was around 7 miles. I just hate running, I guess.
Nevertheless, I started off at an optimistic 13 minute/mile pace hoping I could maintain that speed for several miles. I did well for about 7 miles (even though the miles were getting longer and longer) but eventually my quads started to cramp up and I had to walk. Once I started walking, I couldn’t run again for more than a few steps. It was getting hotter so at every aid station I poured a cup of ice in my hat to keep my head cool. Eventually around mile 11 I could run a little bit more, and I just walked/ran for the next couple miles. As I said before, the temperature reached 97 degrees and there were a lot of people suffering out there.

Run time = 3:26:31, 818th out of 881 athletes. 9 minutes faster than my Vineman run, so there was a bit of improvement there (about 40 seconds per mile faster).

Final time: 7:35:50, or 19 minutes faster than my Vineman time.


On November 17th I finished the 25th annual El Tour de Tucson 109-mile bike race. My teammate Duane rode with me this year (as he did last year), and I also talked my buddy Mike into doing the race. We rode at an easy pace and finished in a little over 9 hours. Now Mike is hooked on Century rides and he wants us to break the 7-hour mark next year.
Since I am training for an Ironman I had to go for a run after the bike ride. I ended up going 4 miles before I had to stop.

Vineman 1/2 ironman triathlon-July 2007

Triathlon Update:
Vineman Half-Ironman:finished!
On July 22nd I completed my first ½ Ironman (aka a 70.3, named for the number of miles covered that day). I was told the course wasn’t as tough as the Wildflower Olympic-distance triathlon I completed in May, but the total Vineman distance is more than twice the Wildflower distance so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had no idea about a goal time, although 7.5 hours seemed to be a reasonable guess. Overall, I’d say the race was tougher than I expected.
THE LEAD-UP
When there are a lot of athletes racing, they start the race in waves based on age. As luck would have it, the Men’s 38-39 age group was LAST to go; the 17th wave out of 17 waves. This means I’d be in the Sonoma County heat more than most of the other racers. In the weeks leading up to the event I was praying for a cooling trend (it was expected to be in the 90’s). To prepare for the race, I did a lot of jogging in the San Diego heat (I’d usually do 4 miles in 80-85 degree weather) to acclimate myself to the weather. Also, I employed the services of a nutritionist to develop a nutrition and hydration plan for the race, as well as to develop meal plans to get my weight loss efforts back on track.
THE COURSE
Vineman is a beautiful course. The swim is in the Russian River next to downtown Guerneville. The bike course winds east towards Highway 101, north through Healdsburg and Geyserville, and south again to end at the town of Windsor. The run takes racers from Windsor High School out to the La Crème Winery and back.
Vineman is a bit different than the other triathlons I’ve done; normally, there is one “transition area” where people 1) change out of their wetsuits and into their bike gear, and 2) change out of their bike gear and into their running gear (referred to as “T1” and T2”, respectively). But at Vineman, the T1 area is 15 miles away from the T2 area. So the day before the race, the team headed over to Windsor High School to set up my T2 area. I had shoes, salt tabs, run nutrition, and my secret weapon: a cooler full of ice which I was planning on pouring on myself at the end of the bike to lower my core temperature for the run (hopefully it would be ice-cold water by the time I reached it, and not hot water!).
THE SWIM-1.2 miles
The morning started off cool and foggy. I thought I had lucked out on the heat factor, but about an hour before my swim wave the clouds burned off and the temperature started rising. Oh well...
Swim wave 17 was in white swim caps. So far I’ve participated in 3 triathlons, and all 3 times I’ve been in the wave that has worn white caps. I’m ready for another color.
So at 8:38am I’m in the water, the horn sounds, and off we go. So far today I’ve seen a LOT of people coming out of the water with black and purple eyes from getting hit or kicked in the face, but this age group seems pretty mellow. There’s a few times where I bump into people but overall I avoid the usual “human blender”.
This section of the Russian River was VERY shallow; occasionally I’d stop to look around and see people wading instead of swimming. The 1.2 mile swim seemed to take longer than usual, but it turned out I got out of the water in a decent amount of time (and 2 minutes ahead of my mentor Derrick, who was in the same wave as me).
TRANSITION 1
I was a bit loopy getting out of the water, more so than usual. I stripped off my wetsuit, threw on my bike gear and ran my bike out of T1. Derrick speeds off ahead of me, as he’s faster on the bike than me.
The company in charge of keeping track of our split times wasn’t very good; they combined my times for the swim and T1. I consider myself lucky however, I know a couple people who finished the entire race and didn’t get any times at all. Anyways, swim time + T1 time = 0:49:16.
THE BIKE-56 miles
This was probably the best bike ride I’ve ever done. The scenery was beautiful, and the course consisted of rolling hills through many different vineyards. The course was technically challenging, requiring a lot of shifting and hill-timing. Another cool thing about this ride is the Highway Patrol had traffic stopped for us, so when I clipped into my petals at the beginning of the ride I didn’t have to clip out or stop until I reached the end (stopping for stop signs and red lights is one of my pet peeves). 56 miles without stopping or clipping out, my new record.
The first 10 miles or so I was keeping track of the time so I could follow my nutrition and hydration plan. This gave my brain something to focus on instead of the miles ahead of me, which was a huge help. I had to keep holding my speed down a bit so I’d be able to complete the half marathon later in the day.
Sometime around mile 40 I see my mom and my niece Rachelle standing by the side of the road, cheering me on and holding up a sign (I was too out of it to remember what it said). But I’m glad they were there, because I was starting to lose motivation at that point, and having them there gave me the energy to push on.
I finally reach Windsor High School and run an unusually long distance from the bike dismount line to the T2 area. As I’m running in, I see Derrick running out. I yell to him and he’s genuinely surprised to see me done with the bike. Bike time = 3:26:26 (16.2 mph average).
TRANSITION 2
At this point it is around 1 o’clock and about 90 degrees out. I figure “oh well, at least it can’t get any hotter” (I was so wrong). I grab my cooler and pour the ice-cold water (it worked!) over myself and stuffed a few ice cubes down my shirt. T2 time = 0:05:20.
THE RUN-13.1 miles
This was truly an experience. So far to date my longest training run was 6.75 miles (still battling injuries): here I just biked 56 miles and now need to run a half-marathon. And it was getting hotter…
So I take off at a slow pace to get my legs used to running. I have the usual cramping in my quads that I seem to have every time I get off the bike. There are aid stations at every mile with water, cookies, bananas, etc. but I am under strict orders from my nutritionist to follow her plan, so I am only stopping to drink water and dump water over my head.
Around Mile 4 I catch up with my Team in Training teammate Holly. I slow down to run with her for awhile. Around mile 5 or 6 we see Mentor Derrick, who already reached the halfway point and is headed back. He’s already a couple miles ahead of us, which is a testament to how slow I am on the run.
Finally we reach the La Crème Winery, which is the turnaround point. Later reports say that the temperature at the turnaround ranged from 101 to 107 degrees. At this point the heat is finally starting to affect me, so I slow down (in hindsight I’m glad I slowed down to run with Holly, because if I kept up my faster pace I would have been in trouble). Soon I am walking about 9 out of every 10 minutes. Holly drops me like a bad habit and is soon out of sight. The bottom of my feet feels like hamburger from Mile 10 until the end. After what seems like an eternity, I get back to the school and run through the finish chute. Run time = 3:33:56 (a 16.3 mile/minute pace…I didn’t think it was possible to run that slow!)
Final time: 7:55:00! A little slower than I anticipated, but overall I am happy I finished.
(The clock says 10:08 because my wave started 2 hours 13 minutes after the first wave started)
Fun facts:
Calories burned: 6175
Average Heart Rate: 132 beats per minute
Here are my official times: (out of 1,823 finishers, I’m not sure how many people raced but didn’t finish)
EVENT TIME RANKING
Swim 1.2 miles + T1 0:49:17 1,431 out of 1,823
Bike 3:26:26 1,642 out of 1,823
T2 0:05:21 1,323 out of 1,823
Run 3:33:56 1,812 out of 1,823

OVERALL 7:55:00 1,765 out of 1,823

Wildflower olympic distance triathlon-May 2007

Triathlon Update:
Wildflower-finished! Read the epic story below about one man’s battle vs. his bum legs in a quest to understand his own unhealthy obsession with time!
For weeks I had been hearing about how tough the course was, so I gave myself a finish goal of under 5 hours. It was very hot that day (85-90 degrees), so I knew I would be having a tough time.
The 2,701 athletes were split into 25 waves, each wave starting the swim at 5-minute intervals. I was in Wave 11 (white swim caps). The water was about 65 degrees, so we were allowed to wear wet suits.
The swim was enjoyable, as Lake San Antonio is a fresh water lake and I didn’t have to inhale sea water (inhaling regular water is much better). However, I had a fairly new wetsuit and I was feeling slow and sluggish in the water. Also it seemed like I was getting kicked/hit more than usual, so I attempted to pick up my pace and get ahead of the “human blender” that was creating so much chaos around me. When I ran out of the water I was shocked to see that I swam the 1500 meters in under 34 minutes…an improvement of almost 5 minutes over my 0:38:40 Lavaman time. Official swim time: 0:33:54.
Once out of the water, there was a 200-yard (or so) run to the transition area (aka T1) where my bike/bike clothes were. As I’m running, I realize the zipper on my new wetsuit won’t budge. I was getting close to my bike when I realized I would have to rip it, but one of the race volunteers saw my problems and came over to help. I stripped off the suit, threw on my race singlet/bike shoes/socks, and ran the bike out of the T1 area. Official T1 time: 0:03:34.
The Wildflower bike course is very hilly and challenging. In fact, as soon as bikers run out of the T1 area and start riding there is a very steep hill (“Lynch Hill”) about a mile long (not fun to do after a hard swim). Also, I recently got rid of my small chain ring (aka the “granny gears”) to make my shifting smoother; unfortunately this makes hills more difficult. I stood up and hammered up the hill as best I could (which turned out to be about 5mph).
So I’m riding through hills, hills, and more hills…I am going hard, but at times it seems like I’ve been passed by most of the other 2,700 riders. At the 12.5 mile turnaround point I realize my time will be much better than 5 hours. This cheers me a bit and I chug down some Gatorade and head back.
I finally get to the end of the bike course (I hit 40mph going down Lynch Hill). I was hoping for a slightly quicker bike time, but that was before I realized how difficult the course was. Official bike time: 1:45:19.
At this point my trusty watch tells me I’ve been on the course for about 2:18:00…I realize that not only will I blow away my original estimate of 5 hours, but that all I need to do is to run the last 6.2 miles at a 15-minute-mile pace and I will break the 4-hour mark! A 15-minute mile is nothing! This will be easy! I happily hopped off my bike to enter the T2 area…and both my quadriceps cramped up as soon as I hit the ground.
Ok, maybe this won’t be so easy…
I gingerly trotted my bike to my transition area (aka T2) and changed into my running shoes. I grabbed my trusty water bottle and racewalked as fast as I could onto the run course. Official T2 time: 0:02:31.
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The run course was very hilly, like the bike course. I started off walking; I had planned on walking at first anyway to make sure my running muscles were warmed up, but now I was just limping along. I had drunk about 60 ounces of water on the bike so I didn’t think I was dehydrated. I stopped along the way to stretch


occasionally but that wasn’t helping. I figured my only hope of breaking the 4-hour mark was to drink so much water that I could flush out any lactic acid in my legs. I started drinking 20-25 ounces of water at each mile aid station and racewalked whenever I could. The cramping started going away by the time I hit the steep 2-mile hill at Mile 4 and I was able to start running. I sprinted through the finish chute (and passed 3 people…woo hoo!) with a run time of 1:25:06. Total time: 3:50:24.
FUN FACTS:
Here are my official times:
EVENT TIME RANKING COMMENTS
Swim 1500m 0:33:54 1,409 out of 2,701
1st Transition 0:03:34 1,389 out of 2,701
Bike 1:45:19 1,887 out of 2,701
2nd Transition 0:02:31 1,418 out of 2,701
Run 1:25:06 2,514 out of 2,701 Definitely need to improve on the run!
OVERALL 3:50:24 1,894 out of 2,701
Heart rate average: 137 beats per minute
Heart rate max: 176 beats per minute
Calories burned: 3,050

Lavaman-April 2007

Lavaman Update:
Well if you haven’t heard yet, my bike broke down at mile 6 during the race, so I was unable to finish. I stood out there for a couple hours waiting for someone to pick me up, and when they finally did and brought me back to the start line, I did the run portion anyway. Thing is, my timing chip was still recording my movements and none of the officials registered me as not completing the race, so I was still recorded as finishing.
Here is my “official” (but highly inaccurate) time:

EVENT TIME RANKING COMMENTS
Swim 1500m 0:38:40 499 out of 632 I beat my swim goal of 40 minutes
1st Transition 0:03:56 326 out of 632 Transitions are important, I passed up 34 people here!
Bike 2:00:39 626 out of 632 Break down
2nd Transition 0:04:44 609 out of 632 Didn’t realize I was being timed so I wasn’t trying
Run 1:30:47 610 out of 632 Didn’t realize I was being timed so I wasn’t trying

I had a great time anyway, and the important thing is you all helped me raise another $1,900 for cancer research! Counting the Tucson ride last November, we have raised $5,200 over the last 9 months!
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