Eagle in the Sun 2011 Race Report

The race report for the race I've been shooting for all year! So the goal in my head was to significantly redeem myself from last year's piss poor effort. I wanted to do well last year but laid an egg with no excuse other than psyching myself out.  My times last year were 400 meter swim 10:52, 20K bike 39:35 and 5K run 29:37.  The first two times include transitions as they didn't break that out from the splits last year.  The bike wasn't bad for my conditioning level last year but I had swam closer to 9 minutes and had run a 5K in 22 minutes not long before the tri, so I was disappointed.  Due to that, and that I know a lot of the entrants, and that its my hometown, I felt like all my training this year and the good results I had earlier in the year would be a waste if I didn't do as well as I wanted in this race.  Enough melodramatic head drama Rob! On to the race report.

I had mucho trepidation going in because Gabriella enlarged the number of entrants to 550 - that's a lot of people for a sprint, especially with a staggered swim start. I was actually surprised at how well it went. Everything was very smooth.  Fellow Gretchen acolyte/trainee Art Sanchez and I rode out together and got there right at 5:30 for the 7:30 beginning of swim starts.  They had volunteers checking helmets and bikes for race numbers, bar inserts, etc. My word of advice to newbies - get there freaking early because Art and I snagged perfect spots for our bikes and got set up and ready to go before the multitudes hit. Saw Gretchen for a brief second and she was focused like a laser.  Saw Bobby, John Gardea, Trey Hancock and lots of fellow "veterans" from last year's race.  I can never get over what a great group of people triathletes are.

We all lined up and swim started rather smoothly. Just met fellow blogger Juan E. at Socorro Chile Harvest Tri and now he's stalking me! Actually might have something to do with the fact that he was number 190 and I was 188 and we have similar abilities and were within sight of each other all day. My swim was solid although I got a little discombobulated right off the bat when I jumped in the pool. We jumped in on the deep end and I can never quite position myself right - do I jump in headfirst, sit on the edge and slide in, or hop in? I've never committed to anyone one approach and invariably flop in as an adrenaline-ridden contorted mess.  One of the results of the uncoordinated water entry is water in the goggles and water up the nose. I ignored the suffocating feeling and continued swimming but for some reason I never felt like I was breathing properly.  I freaked out my wife a little bit because my unease finally got to be too much and I stopped in the middle of the 4th or 5th lane for just a second and stood up to clear my head.  Hadn't done that in a while. After that, I was cool and finished in 8:55.

Got on my bike super fast and was gone quickly.  I was very excited about the bike because of my new toy for the back wheel.  That's a Zipp 9 Disk baby! I've always hesitated to buy stuff like that because I don't want to be the jackass with all the fancy toys that puts his nose in the air (hate that guy).  But a little discussion I had with fellow clysdesdale Jason McClure included the advise "don't be ashamed to pay for speed." Took his advise and got this baby and LOVE it! Improved my bike split from last year by 6 minutes to 33:18 for the flat out-and-back 20k.  I was hoping to be at 35 or under but when I made the turn and started back I really picked up the speed and ended up with an average speed of 22.5 mph.

I passed a jillion people on the bike and only got passed by one - Mr. Escobar.  Worked out well because we took turns passing each other (draft legally, mind you) for the entire 20K.  I was happy with my flying dismount as I finally figured out how to get my feet out of my shoes while riding.  The only problem with the bike route is you have a lot of little twists and turns as you're coming in the last little bit which kills your speed but maybe that's the idea?

Had a really fast T2 of 45 seconds thanks to the aforementioned dismounting trick and off on the run.  Here's the only part that didn't go to plan.  In my restless nights leading up to the race, I imagined a "perfect" race of 8:30-9 on the swim, 35 on the bike with 1-2 minutes for transitions so I'd be on the run by 45 minutes and lay down a 23-24 minute 5K so my "perfect" time would be 1:08 or so.  I figured I needed that time to win the Clydesdale division - that is until I saw the Clydes signed up for this race included David Fairbanks.  Haven't heard much from Mr. Fairbanks this year but last year he won Clyde every time he entered, and was usually in top 3 overall.  His best time for a distance like this is in the one hour even range so I knew I had no shot of winning the division.  (Gonna stop the digressions -  I swear!)

Me and John waiting for results

Started the run feeling good but didn't have my usual level of speed.  I did the 5K at Socorro in 24 flat so I figured I'd top that but it wasn't to be.  Ended up at 25:19 with some thanks to Art and Gretchen who saw me finishing up and ran with me a bit to keep the pace up.  Thanks guys!

Overall time of 1:09:24 and 2nd in Clydesdales Master Division of 23.  As a side note, there were 28 under 40 Clydesdales and 1st place in their group would've been in 5th in the "old" clydes. So take that whipper snappers!  My good friend John Gardea told me in the transition area that this race was "just for fun" but he still almost beat me even with a slow T2 because of trouble with his knee brace.  That just makes me shake my head because there is no way John should be as fast as he is with a bad knee and weighing 400 pounds not that long ago.  He just amazes me.


So for those of you keeping track at home, I improved my time from last year by 11 minutes and went from 79th overall to 30th. I'm happy with that and now just got to figure out the pacing on the bike so I don't lose strength on the run.

 On a related note, do you think this photo means Nora's ready to start swimming and become a triathlete? I think so!

Next race will be the Elephant Man Olympic triathlon (my first non-sprint distance). I signed up for the Yucca triathlon this coming Saturday but it's probably going to get cancelled for non-participation.  Wish me luck for the 1 mile swim at Elephant Butte!