Mountain Man Triathlon

This a little late, but here is my report on my Mountain Main Olympic distance race.

Saturday, July, 19

We drove up to Flagstaff Saturday
morning, leaving around 8am. Renee and Miles took six of us in her
parent's suburban with four bikes on a bike rack. We got into
Flagstaff around noon, dropped our stuff off at Nick's house and
drove into town for lunch. After lunch we headed out to the packet
pick-up at Lake Mary. There were a lot of people at the packet
pick-up, apparently over 700 registered for the race. After that we
drove a part of the bike course and up the hill of the run, then went
back to Nick's for a pasta dinner. I went to bed a little after 9pm
but didn't manage to get to sleep until after midnight (I think) and
didn't sleep all that well.

Sunday, July 20

We woke up at 3am, I managed to stay in
bed until 3:15 or so. I had a bagel with cream cheese and a banana
for breakfast. We left a little after 4am and got to the transition
area before the sun was up, but we all got good transition places –
Ashley, Casey, and I had spots next to each other in the Olympic/sprint
section. After I got my body-marking and put on sunscreen (I think I
need to reverse the order) Casey and I went for a brief warm-up run.
After that Casey and I headed over to the swim start in time to see
Nick, Matt, and Andy start the half-ironman. Then I put on my
wetsuit, had a gel, and went for a warm-up swim. We had to cross a
sensor pad to activate our chips before getting in the water, and
then wait a couple minutes for the start. The weather was overcast,
and it remained that way for the entire race (for me anyway).

Swim

I felt like I struggled on the swim,
but I never had to stop or get on my back this time (I think the
warm-up really helped). I did breast-stroke a few times to get my
bearings. When I was feeling a little out-of-breath I stopped kicking
and that helped a lot (actually I probably kicked less than half the
time). I felt good about my sighting and don't think I strayed too
far from the course as I did in past open-water swims. I got out of
the water with some other swimmers, and jogged into the transition
area, hearing the cheers of teammates as I got out. I felt good about
my T1, but I thought I heard an unexplained pop as I took my wetsuit
off (it gets explained later).

Bike

I followed some others out of T1,
hopped on my bike and headed out. The scenery was great and I felt
comfortable knowing the first part of the bike-course was light
hills. I tried to focus on my cadence (my computer wasn't showing
cadence for some reason) and set a good pace – pushing myself on
the downhills and, while not going easy uphill also not pushing
myself so as to exhaust myself for the run. I definitely got passed
on the bike, but also managed to pass a few people.

At one point someone (a rather hot guy
wearing only short tri-shorts) asked me if this was like Mt. Lemmon
as he passed me heading up a hill. I managed to reply that Lemmon was
longer and steeper, which seemed to surprise him (going from 2,500'
to 8,000' in 24 miles, hello? - unless he meant that short segment
but even then it wasn't as steep as most of Lemmon).

I spent about 5 minutes trying to tear
open my first gel around 8 miles into the race, which was frustrating
but I figured if that was the worst then I was fine. The turn around
was on a flat after a nice downhill leg, but the return uphill wasn't
as bad as I thought it would be. One thing I was pleased with was
that frequently I passed people on uphill segments, so I think our
hill training has been worthwhile. I had my second gel after about 18
miles.

Toward the end of the bike course I
could tell I was catching some of the slower sprint-distance racers,
but couldn't tell who was doing what distance race. There was one
woman, Olympic-distance I'm pretty sure, who I couldn't quite pass
and who I followed into T2. As I crossed the sensor after the bike it
didn't beep and someone said something about not having a chip. I
looked down and sure enough, mine wasn't on my ankle. I found it on
the ground at my transition area, apparently that was the mysterious
pop in T1. The funny part is we had just talked about chips coming
off with wetsuits the day before and I had commented on how I make
sure mine is under the wetsuit – which is not enough I guess to
guarantee it won't come off. I put it back on, was thankful I was
using my watch, switched my gear, and headed off.

Run

Some TriCats cheered me on as I set
off on the run. I started off with a good pace but reminding myself
to go a little easy to adjust after the bike. Shortly after I crossed
onto the main road Alan, one of my teammates who was not racing, ran
with me for a little and said I was running at a good pace. It was
nice of him to join me briefly and felt good to have that support. I
settled into the run, feeling good about my pace and exertion but
remembering the hill to come. I saw Ashley, my teammate doing the
sprint-distance, on the run and caught up to her (she had slowed or
stopped a couple times).

I had a little water when I first
started the run, and got a cup of Gatorade at the aid station at the
base of the hill. On the hill I took it easy at first, and even
walked a little (maybe a minute) when I felt like cramps might come
on. I walked a little again (maybe 30 seconds; otherwise I only
walked at the aid stations) after the first switchback, but then as
we neared the top I picked it up a little knowing the hill would end.
At one point I think I saw Gabi (from NAU) as she was heading down
the hill. The course was a little deceptive because there was an aid
station at the top of the hill, but we had to keep going down a dirt
road for a bit before actually turning around. On the downhill I made
sure to push myself a little more. Also a woman caught up to me and
said her father would want her to “rub elbows with” me because he
had gone to the U of A as she passed me (a few people said go tricats
on the bike leg, and maybe one or two more on the run).

It felt good to get to the relatively
flat stretch of road after the hill, and better when I saw the one
mile left sign. At some point, maybe with ½ - ¼ mile to
go I started to hear someone catching up to me, and shortly after saw
some TriCats who were cheering me and telling me to sprint. So I had
to pick-it up a bit to avoid getting passed on the home stretch,
which I managed to do – the downhill just before the finish line
helped. The last stretch hurt, but it felt good that I could do that.
I was definitely out-of-it after I crossed the finish line but it
felt wonderful to be done.

Conclusion

As I crossed the finish line I noticed
the sign that said somewhere around 3:27 and thought that wasn't too
bad. A little after I stopped I remembered my watch and stopped it
(less than two minutes after I stopped the race) and it said 2:58 –
then I remembered that we had started 30 minutes after the
half-ironman racers. I couldn't believe that I had done it in less
than three hours and still wasn't quite sure until I saw my official
time was 2:56:57 (because I had put my chip back on they had my swim
split and my total time, but no splits after the swim). According to
my watch my swim was 30:19, my bike (including T1 and T2 because I
did forget to hit it to get those) was 1:24:33 and my run was
1:03:19. My bike computer said 1:19:44 for the bike, so my total
transition time was around 4-5 minutes.

I finished the race in 144 place out of 264, overall, and 21 out of 30 in my age group.

Overall it was a great race and a
great experience. It was especially rewarding and inspiring to be
able to see Andy Wyatt, Matt Ward, and Nick Tanner finish their
half-ironman race. The weather was perfect, overcast and cool made
the race easier, except for the rain while Nick was still out on the
run. I and some other TriCats also reported on our races on the TriCats website.