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!

Countdown to Eagle in the Sun

I don't know why but the Eagle in the Sun triathlon next Sunday has taken up an inordinate amount of my mental focus all year. Maybe its because I laid an egg last year en route to a miserable finish and need to redeem myself. It's a great race with over 450 competitors, flat as a pancake, and well-organized. I personally know a large percentage of the athletes, El Paso being such a small big town. I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well in this race and last year was the first year it was held and I cracked. I had only been training about 10 months when I raced it and the swim completely freaked me  out. I had only swam (swum?) in a 50 meter pool one time before and didn't cope so well. The swim was simple -8 laps in a 50 meter lane for 400 meters, 8 lanes in the pool so no up and back in the same lane. Like I said, I freaked and about half way down the first lap, I popped up gasping, out of air, and stood up. I recovered okay but still took me 10:52 including the swim to bike transition, which was just awful. By comparison, I just did the same swim at Soccoro in 8:40. The swim threw me off for the rest of the race and I took 39:35, again including transition, to do the 20K bike, and 29:37 for the 5K (no transition excuse this time) for a total time of 1:20:04.

I was an age grouper last year and came in firmly in the middle of the pack. Hanging on my refrigerator for the last couple of months is a piece of paper with those times written out along with the winner's time for the Clydes last year - Mr. Jason McClure in 1:10:56.

This year I fully intend to redeem myself. My training has been really good the last month. In the last 7 days, I've covered 143 miles in about 11 hours of training. I've picked up my swimming volume quite a bit and my runs off the bike have been crisp.  My goal will be 8:30 or under for the 400 meters, 35 or under for the 20K, and 23 for the 5K. Put that together with good transitions and I'm shooting for under 1:10, hopefully 1:08.

Southwest Challenge Series

Guys that have been doing triathlons a LOT longer than me came up with an idea to keep track of results for a series of triathlons in the surrounding areas. They dubbed it the southwest challenge series and currently this year, there were approximately 35 races ranging as far north and east as Amarillo and Lubbock and west to places like Roswell, Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Farmington. Whoever took up this task of keeping track of the results of all these races and the athletes is to be commended. I can't quite figure it out but I know it's been around quite a while and they do a wonderful job.

And what do they get out of it? Well, that's a head scratcher. As far as I can tell, they get nada from anybody for going to all that trouble and they give out pretty nifty awards to the series winners at the end of the year. Like monogrammed fleece vests - cool, huh? The only thing I've seen similar in concept (at least as far as funding goes) is AA. I've been sober for almost 8 years and went to lots of meetings. I could never figure out how they kept the lights on when nobody pays any dues or membership fees. But they do and it's an incredible program helping to keep people sober for over 70 years. I'm not comparing AA to a tri challenge series in effect on world peace and families, but it is cool how selfless people believe strongly in something and sacrifice to share their love of sport with others. We that follow the Series thank you for sharing with us.

Im in the old big boy division, otherwise known as Masters Clydesdale. I just started tri's last year and didn't race Clydesdale because of ego and because I wasn't sure if I would stay above 200 all year. Well, this year I competed in Clydesdale and have stayed about 203-207 all year. I had pretty much given up on winning my category because John Gardea was a machine and seemingly did every flipping race for the first 6 months! After the Milkman Tri on June 4, he had done 9 races with 5 1sts and 4 2nds. I thought I stood no shot catching him. In the Series, you get 10 points for 1st, 9 for second, etc., etc. By the time we did Ruidoso the following week John had 74 points and I had 55 points Having done 6 races - no shot right?

Well, John did a couple more tri's after Ruidoso but then stopped because he was doing a half Iron in Boulder. He also sustained a knee injury (although he was able to gut out the half Iron with it). I've done 4 more races since then and the point standings now are dead even with 78 point each! We've both got 6 firsts and 2 seconds for our best 8 races. Technically, John has a quarter point lead on me because he's done 11 races and I've done 10 and you get a quarter point for each race past 8.

I've still got the Eagle in the Sun on sept 4, Yucca tri on sept 10, and Elephant Man on sept 25. John will be doing two of those with me and it sounds like an exciting finish in the fat boy division! I'm just glad I'm still in it because John is one heck of a competitor.

Holloman Duathlon

The race gets a negative for hassle with registration. As the name suggests, held on Holloman AFB.  The registration form was harder to find than the Loch Ness monster. I think these military installations stage these races as activities for the good men and women of their respective military services. My guess is that if you serve at HAFB registration would be simple but for those of us who track down these events, they are less than inviting. I only found the registration after triathlete extraordinaire Cody Hansen posted it on his blog. Multiple voice messages and emails to the RD went unanswered. When we showed up, at least 10 people were there who had registered, some of which even had fax confirmations, and were rebuffed with "sorry, you're not on the list." I think everybody that wanted to race got to race, but still you don't want to drive hundreds of miles at the ass crack of dawn only to be told "you're not on the list." Boo for registration.

That being said, the race itself was excellent.  No swim which made me happy. I would promise to quit griping about the swim portion of these triathlons, but hey, it's my blog and I'll complain all I want. Stupid swim (grumble). The parking lot was muy intimidating. Only about 50 people there for event but no newbies to be seen - only little skinny athletic looking-bastards.

Run and bike were flat, flat, flat. Road was 85% smooth and the bumpy part wasn't that bad. Car pooled with world's nicest guy John Gardea. We left my house at 5 a.m. and arrived plenty early. Started out strong on the race and clocked 6:56 for first mile. Felt some hunger pangs right from the start so should've ate a little more. Went out with the pack of the pack with the fast guys and hung on til turn around. Time started to slip away and 2nd mile was 7:35. 3rd mile was tough and couldn't seem to step on the accelerator. Watched the fast guys (fast to me) slip away and struggled to 8:15 3rd mile. (Excuse alert!). Sick this week for first time in a long time and took it easy for 3 days to recover. Don't know if I had trained through it if that would've made a difference but I suspect it would - and I know Gretchen would say it would, so there's that.

Pretty quick transition for me at :55 seconds. Out on bike maintaining 20-22 pretty evenly. Got passed by one guy and I passed 3 on the way out. Bike was an out and back which I love because you get a good idea of where everybody is at the turnaround. I put 3 minutes on my erstwhile nemesis/good friend John Gardea and I was pushing hard on the bike for the first half so I figured I wouldn't see him for 3-4 minutes after the turnaround - wrong! Much to my surprise and chagrin, I saw John not 100-200 meters after the turn. Crap! I really, really pushed coming back in because I expected to see John whiz past me any second. I pushed so hard I passed another 4 people coming back in including super stud Cody Hansen with a little less than a mile to go. Cody looked like he was struggling a bit but, like the true competitor he is, he didn't take me passing him so well and immediately passed me back. The bike ends with a sharp right turn back into the transition area and after the nasty fall I took at MVT, I babied that last turn but sprinted to the finish after that with a bad case of John Gardea-itis. I finished ahead of John by 1:09.

Bike time was 52:23 for 18.8 miles average speed 21.6. The proof - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/79915393. John's bike split including transition was 51:25 so he made up 2 minutes on me on the bike which I barely held with my 3 minutes on him on the run. He told me afterwards that he was really busting it trying to catch me the whole way in so I'm extremely satisfied with my effort!

Got 1st place in Clydesdale with John a close second. The next Clyde was over 17 minutes behind me so I guess you could say John and I were in a class of our own in the fat boy division.

My boy Brooks Vandivort killed it and came in 3rd overall in a very, very fast field. Very impressive Brooks!

I've got no chance of catching John in the Southwest Challenge Series. Head to head, we're 2 and 2. I might could catch him if we did the same number of races the rest of the year but he has a head start b/c he did the Polar Bear and Jingle Bell Tris in December and took 1st in both so has a 20 point head start on me. Gretchen is telling me I need to be an age-grouper next year so I might not get me a fancy jacket for this year (award to the season winner). We'll see.

Next race is the Dog House Sprint in Lubbock on May 15th. My precious daughter's 9 year old birthday party is that day so I won't be leaving El Paso til late but race doesn't start until 9:50 so I should be able to get some rest. I'd give up the rest, however, to start a little earlier b/c it's going to be flipping hot! Swim is in Buffalo Springs Lake which means open water which means gulp! Funny thing is I went to law school for 3 years in Lubbock and never even knew they had a lake - guess I'm going to find out now. I'll post the race report to reflect on the carnage.