Race Report: AMICA Lake Las Vegas Triathlon

A note from JB: While suffering through my rolling 23-miler on Saturday, I was welcoming the fact that my cycling season was coming to a close and that I wouldn't "have" to get on the bike again for awhile. Well, I ran 3 miles last night with Chasqui Dray. After being jostled around for nearly 30 minutes, the aches and pains that I associate with running returned and I am now looking forward to my next bike ride.

The day before the triathlon, Morgan, Tristan and I went out to Lake Las Vegas to drop off our gear at the transition area and to check in for the race. Morgan was going to do the sprint-distance triathlon ( .46 mile swim; 16.22 mile bike; 3.13 mile run) on his own, and Tristan, myself and Warren were going to relay the Olympic distance ( .96 mile swim; 25.25 mile bike; Warren 6.01 mile run). As we were leaving, I was excited and tempted to tweet, "I'd be lying if I said we not racing to win tomorrow." I didn't end up doing it and I'm glad I didn't. But now I have disclosed it, so now know what our intentions were heading into the triathlon.

I actually had a good night sleep before the race. And by good, I mean I finally fell asleep around midnight and then woke up at 4:30 a.m. to get out to Lake Las Vegas in time. I had my normal race day meal of two eggs and a bowl of oatmeal and I was off.

Start time was 6:30. I got there at about 5:45 and Morgan and Tristan were already there. It was super nice being there so early. It gave us all a chance to get our gear set up and it gave me time to poop before the race even started. Normally, I wouldn't mention a grotesque detail such as this, but if you remember the experience I relayed after this same triathlon last year, you will realize its significance. I should also note that this, combined with not being in great shape and getting a flat tire during my ride, resulted in me finishing in about 1 hour 40 minutes last year. The fastest relay cyclist finished in 1:20:00, so I thought that would be a good goal this time around.

So I took care of business and was good to go. I headed down to the swim start to see Morgan take off in the first heat at 6:30 and Tristan take off in the fifth heat about 15 minutes later. Morgan got in the water and the air horn blew. Morgan will have to provide some in-the-water details; there's not much I can say about a bunch of white caps bobbing in and out of the water surrounded by small splashes. All I can say is that at the half-way buoy where the swimmers turned around to come back to shore, there was one white cap that was way, and I mean WAY ahead of the others.

It was Morgan, and his lead in the water only increased from there

I started my stopwatch when he got out of the water and the next-place guy didn't get out of the water until 1 minute 2 seconds later. I know NOTHING about swimming pace, but a 1:20 gap in a half-mile seems pretty substantial to me.

Less than 5 minutes after Morgan - clad in a black Speedo for the entire race, Tristan - also clad in a black Speedo - took off for his mile-long swim.

The minute he took off, I hurried my way up to the transition area, which by the way, is probably just less than a quarter-mile from the edge of the water. As I approached, I noticed another cyclist that was obviously on a relay team, because he had brought his own stationary trainer to warm up his legs before going all out on the bike course. "Hmmm....that's smart," I thought to myself, "I'd be embarrassed to show up at a tri with my stationary trainer. But next year maybe I'll do it."

Well, not only was this cyclist smart; this cyclist was Danny Kam, a Category 1 cyclist that is probably the best in Las Vegas. He also owns his own bike shop in town and teaches spin at LVAC. Details.

So anyway, I was going to be racing against him. All of a sudden, I was grateful I had not tweeted that we were racing to win, cause it just wasn't going to happen. So, after I suited up, strapped on my shoes and helmet, the wait began for Tristan to exit the water and pass the timing chip off to me.

As Warren and I waited in the transition area, a runner from one of the relay teams approached us and asked us if we were relaying and if we were fast. I told him that I wasn't fast, but that Warren was. That's just how I roll. He proceeded to tell us that he was also a slow runner, but then pointed to Danny and clarified that, "he's the fast one." I said, "Yeah, ya' think?" He went on to talk about how incredibly fast his swimmer was. I think his description of his swimmer was something like this: "Our swimmer's really good to. He's like 16, and like thee world record hold-, well not the world record, but national record, well, not, but he's really fast and always the first out of the water."

Well obviously this kid didn't race last year, 'cause Tristan was the first one out of the water. And you know what? Maybe he won't race again next year either, because once again, TRISTAN was the first one out of the water, a good 15-20 seconds ahead of this "record holder" of some sort.

So Tristan hands me the timing chip and I strap it to my right ankle. As I run over the timing mat, the volunteers inform me that the chip needs to be on my left ankle. I should have known. So I prop up my bike against a barrier, bend down and change my timing chip to the other ankle.
This was just enough time for Danny to catch up to me before we crossed the line indicating that we were allowed to mount our bikes and start riding.

We started together. Within a half mile, he was gone. The dude was. flying. Fun. I was glad he dropped me like a bad habit though; it allowed me to ride my own race.

Right out of the gate, the bike course goes into about a 4-5% climb that goes on for about a half-mile. Not a good way to get the legs warmed up. Shock them, yes. Warm them up, no. After the initial climb, there is a steep, sweeping downhill where I was able to shake my legs out, give them a breather and coast, all at about 38 mph. I LOVE that part of the course - it's still within Lake Las Vegas, so it is landscaped and cool. And fast.

At the bottom, you start climbing again and continue climbing as you exit Lake Las Vegas and head toward Lake Mead National Recreation area. After that, it's up and down the entire way. There is not a flat spot. Seriously.

At about mile 6, I was at the bottom of a downill and really cooking at 39.5 mph, when one of the sprint cyclists heading back towards the transition area clipped a road side and went down. Hard. This happened about a hundred yards ahead of me and on the other side of the street, so I had ample time to think, "Do I stop and make sure he's okay? Or do I keep going and try to hit my goal? If he gets up and seems okay, I'll keep going." Well, as I approached the guy, he was squirming in pain on the side of the road, so, being a Chasqui, I stopped to help him out, 'cause that's what Chasquis do. Apparently there are other good people in the world as well, because another guy stopped a lady pedaled on ahead to get help. The said his hip was killing him. I asked if it was because he was scraped up or if it was something inside. He said it was something inside. Speechless, and extremely helpful and funny at the same time, I said, "Well, at least your sweet yellow bike is okay," as I picked up his sweet yellow bike and moved it to the side of the road. Nobody laughed. Fail. The other guy and I were content to wait there until help arrived, but the guy on the ground insisted that he wasn't going anywhere and that we go on, so we put the street sign in front of him so nobody would hit him and took off.

The rest of the race was normal. And hard. I know I pushed myself hard because even though this was a relatively short distance, I was completely spent and useless for the rest of the day. Also, I had only ridden twice in between the century ride and this race. Totally lame, and my bad. Oh well.

According to my Garmin, I ended up finishing in 1:26:05 with an average moving speed of 16.2 mph and a top speed of 42 mph. Had I not done the right thing and not helped the guy out, I may have finished in about 1:22:00. Had I not done the right thing and trained properly, I would have met my goal. Such is life. In comparison, Danny Kam finished the bike course in 44 minutes 51 seconds, an average of about 30 mph. That's fast.

I pedaled hard and felt pain, so I knew I gave it my all.

I made my way back to the transition area and handed off to Warren for the run. I did a quick clothes change and headed to the finish line with Tristan and Tutu. Morgan had already finished, (4th overall, 1st in his age group). He did great.

When Warren finished, our time was good enough for third place out of six relay teams.

Total time - 2:45:26