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.
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.
