Showdown @ Sundown Triathlon

Got to Lake Las Vegas around 1:15 pm found a good parking spot, and then wandered over towards transition which opened at 1:30. Start time for the race wasn't for 2 hrs. Found a happy home for my bike and other race necessities, picked up timing chip, got body marked then ran into some friends and chatted over the possibility of not wearing a wetsuit. End decision....WEAR WETSUIT. (thanks Leslie) 59-60 degrees just seemed a little cold.

Wandered a bit still mulling over the fact that I was probably an idiot for racing but you know us competitive types.....my thought process..I paid to play, so lets do this thing! Talked to a very good friend of mine and he reminded me, to just relax and not race it if my knee hurt. (to which of course we both acknowledge that....YEAH RT, that's going to happen) Hubby, Bro in Law,and Puppy went and grabbed some grub at the Irish Pub in the Lake Las Vegas Village and I went up to get my wetsuit on.

Transition was on the Ritz Carlton bridge which is sorta like one of the entrance into the Village area and its covered which seemed like a cool idea until you realize you're walking over stamped concrete. Ooopps! If anyone has ever tried to move quickly across this type of surface when it wet you now exactly what I mean....SLIPPERY!!!!! You need to baby step just to make sure you don't eat s**t. So anyhow....trislide trislide trislide.....Greased up like a stuck pig (oink oink) and on the suit went. Then I found the boys and we walked down to the waters end. Also ran into my buddy Andrea which was great..we to chat a little bit before race.

Said my "see ya in few's" and made my way to the dock. Decided to test the water temp so I got in....OMG..hands and feet were burning until they either got use to the temp of froze. ( still not sure which )I hopped back out and walked over to wave to family and friends. Then sat on the dock for a few mins next to a lady doing back bends etc...not sure what that was all about. Then started giving some of the guys standing next to me heck because they were wearing the pink caps. PINK IS MY COLOR....not yellow. Why the heck would they give the males the pink. *shrug* (one of many "whys" I have for the RD) Over the loud speaker I hear 5 mins till Women's Sprint start so I jump back in water. I swam around and then made my way to the front on the pack of ladies in water.

Horn goes off..and away we go....three words can sum up the swim...FELT LIKE ARSE! I got kicked by some crazy chick freaking out in the next to me, started way to fast so at the first buoy my arms felt like about 500 lbs and then as I'm getting out at the dock (you had to haul your body about 6 ft up out of water - with a ladder) I grab ladder, my body except for feet is just about out of water so I look up....there is a guy with his hand out....I figure...gee thanks...take my hand off ladder as I stand on the next rung and extend it towards him....he grabs my arm and then PROMPTLY DROPS ME.....WTF! Ok ouch that hurt, slamming into the side of the dock and slipping down the ladder. yanking my hand down and yelling at him to let me go, I proceeded to climb out. He apologizes and I try not to be too b****y but think as I'm running away....DOOODDD next time, don't extend your hand unless your ready to hold me. I mean I get it...probably felt heavy..at that angle 138 lbs probably feels like a ton but you can hurt someone that way. Ok enough of my rant.....I know he was just trying to help and I appreciate ALL THE VOLUNTEERS at the race! (regardless if they were trying to kill me ) I hoofed it up dock, past the fam & friends gang and then hit the wet grass.Ok, rant bk on....Why in the name of all things sensible would you have athletes running up a steep hill with wet grass? Gezzzz..I'm glad I have monkey toes cuz they were gripping into the grass like crazy. Into T1 I go, off with wet suit...on with bike stuff and I'm gone.

Bike felt good..started passing people right away because you start to climb almost immediately and well that's good becuz like to climb. Its up, around and screaming back down and then up a baby hill. Had to watch for traffic and some of the slower Olympic riders but all was pretty good...turned left out toward Lake Mead, then into the National Park...down hill , down hill, down hill......so you know what that means for the way back...heee hee That's right sports fans..UP HILL UP HILL UP HILL. (it actually wasn't too bad) As I was climbing back out I was please because I had not been passed by any females only guys, but I also glanced down at my powertap and thought..."It sure feels like this is longer that 11 miles". As it turns out it was, almost 15 miles. Heck 11...15, they're close RIGHT? They measure these course right?? D'OH!!!!!

Back to transition and time to hit the run. Now mind you on the bike I contemplated the merits of stopping at T2 becuz my knee was killing me, but by the time I reached T2 there was no way I was gong to quit. It was only a 5k..hell...I can suck it up for a 3.1 miles. As I entered athletes were slipping and sliding all over coming in to T2 and a guy three bikes down completely slid (imagine a home-plate slide) into our rack, luckily I hadn't dropped my bike into the box yet, so I quickly picked it up as the whole box set up slid about a foot to the right. Got my bike settled in...sat down and put my shoes on...figured it was safer than trying to stand on the wet concrete , plus I had to tie my shoes becuz I broke my yankz earlier. (oops) Up I popped grabbed race belt and visor and away I went. Run went by fast, felt pretty good considering I wanted to amputate my left leg from the thigh down.. heee heee. Turned around and came home.

When I found family all I could mutter was UUUGGHHH, that sucked, I felt so slow and how long was I out there on my bike?? My dh and bro in law agreed said they had both though OMG she's been out there awhile but then actually noticed I was the 2nd female in from my wave. *shrug* Go figure.

We hung out, I got my medal, drank a bunch of water and chatted with fellow racers that I knew. As time progress we wander up towards where they were handing out awards and found a table. I ran off to transition and picked up all my stuff with my friend Andrea and then we wandered back. Were sitting there for a bit , ate some yummy raw food my very fast friend Leslie( overall OLY female winner) had brought and then my dh saunter up to me. Grinning he said "Well??" I answered "Well, what?" "How do you think you did?" he replied....."Like arse" I said. To which he got an ever bigger grin.... WHAT WHAT WHAT I laughingly yelled at him.....UHHHHHH 2nd in your AG he answered. HUH??

Well slap me silly and call me Susie. Hardware , Hardware, Hardware.....YIPPEEEEEEE. What knee problem? ha ha Oh don't worry knee was still hurting like hell and I'm convinced I either bruised something or pulled a chest muscle when I slammed into the dock BECAUSE sneezing or a deep breath really hurts but I'm sure it will be fine in a few days. I'm still not completely sure what my time was as the results aren't up yet but my dh said it was 1:30 something.

Here's some pics: ( last two are my friend and excellent triathlete Randy Paar ( Leslie's hubby and yeah they are both AWESOME athletes) and then my friend Andrea who will be doing her first tri in May and her hubby Adam)

IM St. George :P

Holy Crapola....I just signed up for IMSG! WHAT THE HECK DID I JUST DO??????? I'm so excited, and yet I'm quite sure the terror will set in soon. Looking forward to Boise even more now!!!!

The best part about it is I will be able to train ALOT on the actual course, so I suspect when race day comes around I will be A LITTLE...notice I say A LITTLE less psychotic. Ok, who am I kidding? I'm a bundle of crazy on race day.

Now I'm just looking forward to seeing the course profiles.

Things That The "Normals" (non-athlete ppl) Just Don't Get...

I have come to realize that there are some things that the "normals" will just never appreciate and or understand. They are the things that endurance athletes in particular just treat as everyday topics, occurrences and or things. What are they? Well lets see:

How about any occurrence involving bodily fluids - Spit, Snot, Urine, Poop, Sweat, etc are ALL things that people in general deal with but as endurance athletes we deal with them on a daily basis. Whether we're spitting on our friend that ride up next to us when we thought they were on the other side, possibly witnessing a runner at mile 40 oakie blow because they don't have a Kleenex or even in the worst situation have to figure out how to use a lone t-shirt shirt laying out on the road for TP. Do all these things phase us? Nope....just part of the life. If you told any of the non-endurance athlete ppl in your life, their response would be a varietal of EEWWWW's and YUCK's whereas if you bring it up around a fellow endurance athlete most likely you will either get a "Hey no problem" ( to the being spit on ) or a "Yeah, well you know last year when I was training........" story that tops whatever you were just going to talk about.

What about body aliments? - blk toe nails, heat rash, chaffing, GI distress, blisters, saddle sores/pinches. These are all like a "no fly zone" to the public in general. Whether you're married or single consider yourself lucky if your spouse/bf/gf is an endurance athlete or even better .. they aren't an athlete but still love you when you turn your body into a petri dish of cultures to be cured by some combination of NSAIDS/baby powder/ice/Vaseline/Bodyglide/scissors/zinc oxide/spit/urine and towel. Generally, if you're married your SO will tolerate most self imposed body aliments(but after while will begin to care less when you return home missing a toe :p) and if you're single you hope to god your BF/GF doesn't mind that fact that after a run in 120 degree weather you have blisters the size of a .50 cent pieces on the bottom of your feet, that they wont care that after forgetting your body glide you realize on mile 50 of your 100 mile run that the inside of your thighs now look like tomorrow butchers special or that after running a PR at your latest half marathon you feel like your intestines are being pulled out of your abdomen by some unseen forces apparently only the Aliens and Mr. Wizard can see.

The silly things! - Like......getting excited that you get to eat your body weight in food after your long brick workout, that you scour the internet for the cheapest place to purchase technical clothing, triathlon stuff or swimsuits! Like...the fact that you are still amused every time you say "fartlek run" , that you do laundry enough to provide water for a small country, that you have shoes for every phase of training but can barely find time to put your dress shoes on or that you now consider chlorine to be a cologne fragrance :)

All of the above listed things are commonplace in your typical endurance athletes world and yet are usually stumbling block when brought into conversations with people OTHER than fellow endurance athlete. The general and overwhelming response from the "normals"..."Why the heck would you do that to yourself ?" Or "Wow....*insert cricket noises*..that sounds like fun"..... and my personal favorite......."Have you done Kona?" :P

Awww...yes all the things that seperate us from the rest of the "normals" but you know what......I WOULDN'T TRADE ANY OF IT FOR A MILLON DOLLARS. I love being an endurance athlete and I will handle my saddle pinches after a 100 mile ride like a big girl. *thinking* Now if I could just find those Big Girl panties I have. :PP hee hee

And on a side note: HOLY CRAPOLA...less than 90 days till Boise!!! :)

Bike Gets A Facelift. :)

Doesn't everyone like new toys!! And as a triathlete there is a veritable "buffet" of choices for new toys. AKA....NOT A CHEAP SPORT!! ;) One new toy that I have been thinking about for awhile is a new bike. The million dollar question being, which bike? I've tried a few and so far haven't found one that I really liked and wanted to spend the $$ on...so instead with the expert guidance of my coachy coacherton and my LBS www.lasvegascyclery.com I transformed the old Tessie into an "integrated, as close to tri set up /position as I'm going to get with a road bike frame" machine. Might I just say.........bike looks good and feels good! Next step will be to get her/him(need a new name..come on BFF) painted. Not sure that will happen this year, as I believe it takes a few weeks and I can't be without bike while I'm trying to get ready for Boise.(oopss that might be bad!)

I've had a few friends ask me why I didn't just get a tri bike and my response to them was.....because I haven't found one I like. Why the "H" would I just spend that kind of money on something I don't even like. Plus, there's not a huge selection of bikes to test drive here. I wanna go someplace that has a BUNCH of different bikes so I can try them all at the same time(like TRISPORTS), because I can GUARANTEE you that when I try them out at a few different stores I will forget the little nuances that make the bikes different and makes them feel different. I would probably have to take pictures and write comments on the backs. hee hee

(you know like you do when buying a house..I mean,really after the 2nd house, don't they all look the same).

AND NOW....one other thing. WHAT'S UP WITH EVERYONE BAGGING ON MY TRIPLE??? Ok, well not everyone but just about everyone tells me to get rid of it. Why? Am I a tool, a capital "L" for loser for having it? It came with the bike, so I imagine Trek had some reason for putting it on as a component. I get the fact that TT bikes don't come with them, and that a triple weighs more that a double. BUT DOES IT REALLY MATTER??? It just means I have extra gears right?? Do I ever use them, practically never but I have a few times, so isn't that reason enough to keep it? Is it perhaps perception....like other athletes will see it and think I'm a weaker cyclist? AWESOME!!!! Assume away.....we all know what that does! Maybe if you're lucky, while I'm passing you on the bike course I might even be obliged to discuss the merits of triple vs double that is, if you can keep up. tthhrrrpppttt. Truth be told I am going to purchased a double, bottom bracket and front derailleur from a friend to have , so when I do decided to change it I have it.....but I was just throwing the question out there into blog land.

What's the big deal, because just about everyone seems to have a strong opinion about it!