Over my 12 years of racing triathlons, the 3^rd Sunday in June that usually is Father’s Day always seems to land on a day that I have raced in a triathlon.  Some of those years consisted of my dad and I racing together and it always brings a special meaning on race day for me.  However, yesterday proved to be significantly more meaningful, as this was my 1^st Father’s Day as a dad, and I was lucky enough to have my parents, wife and two sons with me as we were all in Boulder, CO for the EAS 5430 Sprint Triathlon. 
 

This year, my wife Nikki raced, along with my dad and I.  My mother watched Connor & Spencer while we did our usual pre-race warm-up.  It was a beautiful day and as usual there was a very large turnout of top quality athletes from the area.  We got there early, set up our bikes, watched the sky divers land on the beach, hung out with the boys, and did a quick feeding for them before our waves went off.  This year there were 9 waves.  My dad was in wave #3, Nikki in wave #6, and I was in the 2^nd to last wave #8.  So I was hoping that things would time out so I would catch up to them and see both of them on the run.  After the boys were fed, we headed to the beach and before we knew it we were all on our way.  This was a sprint race, so it goes very quick compared to the races I usually do.  The winners usually come in just over an hour.  I was hoping to have a fun day and celebrate my 1^st Father’s Day with a good result, so I tried to keep the energy level high during the whole race.  My swim was a quick 10 minutes, and hit T1 with speed due to my Helix wetsuit (http://www.blueseventy.com/).  I was out on the bike and found myself losing time to some of the lead guys in my age group.  Luckily I caught up to Nikki at mile 11 and she gave me a little boost of energy.  I headed back into transition after the quick 17 mile ride and went out for the 5K run.  Then I saw my dad at mile one and we exchanged a few quotes from one of our favorite Monty Python movies.  I got some strange looks when my dad my dad asked me for a shrubbery during the race.  It’s an inside joke, but it gave us a good laugh!  I cranked home with at 18:04 run time and finished a minute slower than last year in 1:12, and rounded out for 4^th in the age group.  Within 10 minutes, Nikki and my dad finished and we all reunited with my mom and the boys.  Nikki placed 9^th in her age group, and my dad, 62, placed 5^th.  We all had a great time and I felt so proud and lucky that my family can be included in such a great sport that has given us so many memories over the years.  No one knows what the future holds for little Connor & Spencer in the world of sport, but I’m proud that the example that we set for them is one that they will learn from as they get older.
 

Thanks for reading and enjoy the sport!
 

Tim

The Eagleman ½ IM, excuse me, 70.3, is one of my favorite races. It’s fast – the bike and run course profiles are the same as the swim’s… flat, and it’s fun – gets a big field with big name pros. You’ve probably heard that Natasha Badmann set a world record for the 70.3 distance but you may have missed her calling out cheaters (a.k.a. drafters) in her award acceptance. Now, that’s not your usual dull post race chit chat and always a crowd pleaser away from the ITU events. No names were mentioned, but I think it’s a safe bet that she wasn’t talking about the amateurs who were all riding behind her or the male pros riding ahead of her. You can check which suspects got out of the swim ahead of Natasha here.

I had my “usual” race; slow swim, pretty good bike leaving me behind an unknown number of fellow M50-54 starting off on the run. I like my age group. People in it introduce themselves to one another when we meet during the race. I passed a few people in my AG and chatted, but it wasn’t clear to me how many others in my AG were ahead of me. And since ours was one of the last male waves to start, the run course was crowded. I finished in 4:30 and the results said I was 1st in the M50-54 AG.

Whoo Hoo turned into Boo Hoo when I found out that 52 year old Herb Spicer had turned in a 4:12 and was listed as the 3rd place master (that’s 40+) somehow bumping him out of the age group results. Amazing time for a guy who has been getting mailings from AARP for 3 years.
Bob Vigorito, a first rate race director, gave Herb the award for 3rd place master and me the award for 1st place M50-54. I felt like I had been part of a tomb looting. While I had the trophy, it sure didn’t belong to me. So I gave it to Herb…damn, he is fast and perhaps Natasha wasn’t the only one to set a world record. That’s what I’m telling myself.

Oakes Ames

Many of you might be wondering where I have disappeared to lately???????? Well I am currently in Scottsdale Arizona on a 3 month clinical rotation for school. I know what you are thinking– Arizona in the summer!!! I know I know. I was hoping to be down here in the winter but it just didn’t work out with my rotation schedule. Oh well. With the temp’s consistently over 110 it is great for some heat training (wish I was doing kona). And if one more person tells me its a dry heat, I might go insane and tell them to come down here and do a 5 mile run at 4pm. Let’s just say that back home in Wisconsin I usually don’t take water on a run less than 10 miles. Here I went through my 4 bottle fuelbelt www.fuelbelt.com in 40 minutes– crazy. The only problem is that being an intern I am working close to 50hrs/ week so the training time has taken a serious hit. Right now I am just trying to get into a training routine and get used to the surroundings. But aside from scorching hot temperatures I have enjoyed AZ thus far. When I first got down here I did the Deuceman half-iron Triathlon in Show Low, located in the white mountains. The day started out good as I had the 2nd fastest swim time. The bike was long and lonely until about 5 miles to go when I flatted on a tubular and saw the entire race fly by. 15 minutes later I got it fixed and finished up the bike. Completely unmotivated to do the run now, I decided to give it a go. At mile 1 I was tempted to stop, turn around and walk back. But I ended up finishing the run, a challenge in itself because it was over 90degrees and a hilly course. I had a disappointingly slow run time, but still good enough for 7th best run and 6th overall 1st/age for the race. Last weekend I hit up the Grand Canyon for a serious day hike of 16 miles and over 4000′ of climbing. The day after felt like I just did another race. Anyway thats whats happening in my world lately. Plans for the rest of the year are up in the air as of right now. If anyone wants to visit and get in some heat training come on down and enjoy the “dry” heat with me. Adios

Brian

1^st 20-24 AG, 70.3 World Championship Slot

So Wednesday was an interesting day. I woke up at 3:30am to catch the 4:30am bus from Boulder to the airport. I get on my 7am flight to San Diego which arrives at 8:25am (yes, we acquire an extra hour) and head to the ‘Commuter Terminal’ which is where the bus from Baja is supposed to pick us up at 1:30pm. I know, lots of time on my own (since Ben and Kim bailed on me), but I had a lot of work to do so I figured it wouldn’t be that bad. Well, apparently, that is the terminal with NOTHING in it…there aren’t even jet ways, Internet or even a small snack shop…it was going to be a long day. Luckily I brought a whole bunch of food with me and I was able to have a guy watch my things while I went out for a run along the ocean which was quite nice. After getting back, it was almost 1:30 and time to catch my ride down to Mexico. Well at least that is what I thought and what the email I received last night told me! I waited outside until 2:30 and finally had Ben call to see what was up. Apparently there was some miscommunication and the bus wasn’t coming until tomorrow at 1:30pm. BRILLIANT!!!! Stranded at the San Diego Airport!!! I can’t even rent a car because I’m not 25…what a mess. Hero of the day (Joanna’s mom) came to pick me up around 5pm (8.5hrs later) so I could stay the night over there and catch the bus in the morning with everyone else arriving from Boulder. Best part is that my bike box doesn’t fit in her car!!! Of course it doesn’t, so I went running around the mini terminal I had been at all day looking for some rope so I could bring my bike back with me. I finally found some and headed to the Zeiger household where I was able to enjoy a nice homemade meal!!! Let me say this again…what a day!!!

After being treated like a princess at the Zeiger’s, I was dropped off at the San Diego Airport at 9:30am on Thursday morning. The boys arrived at 10:30am and we all sat around chatting until 1:30pm when we went out to meet the bus. We easily found the bus but were immediately told that we would probably not be leaving until 3:30 or 4pm as we had to wait for the rest to arrive. Not a problem, I’ve only spent the last 2 days there, what’s a few more hours going to do? Naturally, the people we were waiting for had delays and didn’t arrive until later which meant we didn’t even leave San Diego until 5:30pm!!! But we left and we were on our way to Mexico.

Not too bad of a drive…the first part of Mexico was quite interesting though. Very run down and a little frightening. However, the last 45min into Ensenada were absolutely gorgeous with rolling hills and scenic views of the ocean. Once we arrived at the host hotel, everyone was split up into 6 different hotels throughout the city (some 30min away with no transportation) and taken there individually. Luckily, I had arranged a home stay (Dina and Rodolfo) through Luis, a fellow Timex teammate, and they came and picked me up right away. It was a quick drive to their house (which was less than a mile from the race site/host hotel) and when we arrived I was introduced to their two children - Daniella (11) and Isaac (8). They were absolutely adorable and had made a giant welcome sign and put water and chocolate next to the beds. I was staying in Isaac’s room which was probably the coolest room I have ever seen. His cousin had painted all the Mario characters all over his walls and it looked so real!

Unfortunately I was still feeling very under the weather from the travel and being sick in the prior weeks. I was still very congested and coughing quite a bit. Because I wasn’t really ‘in my element’ I wasn’t really able to eat/sleep/train like I normally would. There was not very many places to go riding in the area and the one 45min ride I did do, I was pretty sure it was going to be my last ride ever. The roads were super rough and the people there are not very fond of you riding along side them and don’t mind buzzing right. To make a long story short, I was hardly able to get in any training from Thurs until the race on Sunday which was a little frustrating.

The Race - 60s and overcast (perfect racing weather). Stomach definitely not right in the morning and unfortunately wasn’t able to get anything down. The 1 loop ocean swim was quite intimidating as we all know my current ridiculous issues with salt water and swimming. Although I swam incredibly slowly, I got through it. The 1 loop bike would have been a perfect course for me with all the hills and climbing, however, with horrible nutrition and being sick/dehydrated leading into the race, I cramped up completely at about mile 5 of 56…right as we were starting to climb. Luckily I had a 12/27 cassette and was able to just sit and spin. I would have for sure fallen off my bike had I needed to stand because there was no way my legs were going to do that. The rough roads and numerous people passing me didn’t make it much fun, but after the last big decent, I finally started to loosen up a bit and was looking forward to shake things out even more on the run. As always, the first half mile or so is a bit of a struggle, but this time the struggle didn’t seem to go away as much as it normally does and I remained incredibly tight and cramped going out further on the course. As I got several kilometers into the first loop, I kept seeing people running in all sorts of directions. They were stopping to ask where the course went all while screaming and totally freaking out in Spanish. The course was very confusing and a little mismarked with a smaller loop inside of a larger loop and no one had a clue where to go. Honestly, it was probably the most hysterical thing ever watching all these people getting frazzled. I knew my race wasn’t going to be what I wanted it to be so I just went with it. I’m pretty sure I ran the right course and maybe an extra kilometer or two, but being there watching the madness was priceless. Needless to say, the run splits were not counted in the overall times due to the poorly designed course and slots for Clearwater were given bases solely on swim and run times!!!

At the end of the day, things were alright as I got my slot to the 70.3 World Champs which is what I came there for. Nothing else mattered. Rodolfo (my home stay) also got a slot and he and his wife Dina will hopefully be staying with us in Florida this November!

The trip overall was quite an experience. Mexico is an interesting place and traveling under the conditions I was (and still am) in was a big challenge. I met a lot of really great people and have some really funny stories to share and remember. Even though the madness of everything was a bit tough to handle, I wouldn’t mind returning next year knowing where and how I can help make things easier J

I am realy shocked by my progress lately. I set 2 PRs in the past week! I ran the Lake Placid Half Marathon on Sunday June 10. A beautiful day, nice and cool, sunny with some clouds. It did heat up, but in the Adirondacks, the shade that early in the morning is still great air-conditioning.

So my last Half Marathon was a 2:09. That race was awfully cold and I was under-dressed. My IT bands also kicked in for that race and I was reduced to a hobble for the last 3 miles.

ANYWAY…..I set a big goal. I wanted to run under 2 hours to see if I could do it. I had my Bodylink on and the GPS unit on my arm. So by monitoring my heart rate and my real time pace I was going to go for it, or go at that pace for as long as I could! The first couple of miles I was in a big pack of people. Then it started to thin out. I was never really alone and I was trading spots with a couple of people depending on who stopped at what aid station. I have to say the station volunteers were great and I was out of character and a little rude to one person. VERY SORRY! I am not used to pushing myself like that and I think it really got to me towards mile 9. I also couldn’t understand what he was telling me. Totally my fault. EVERYONE - thank your volunteers!

So, in order to come in under 2 hours I had to maintain a sub 9-minute pace for the whole time. I was doing pretty well and my splits were really great in the beginning. I ran 4 miles in 32 minutes, then 7 miles in 1 hour. For me, thats pretty quick! I knew it would float up towards the end and it did, but by pacing myself this way I was able to buy time for the last mile or so that is mostly uphill. I hit mile 10 at 1:27. So I thought to myself, even if I run 10 minute miles, i will make it under the 2 hour goal! Phew. BUT I didn’t let up, and that was the big lesson I taught myself this weekend. Push yourself, you don’t know how far you can go and what you can withstand.

For those of you who have run the Ironman course there, it is about 85% the same course. A little different for the start and finish (ugh, that finish) but the majority is the same. A lot more pounding downhills in this course that I thought would be the end of my knee! (Big shout out to Cassidy and the TP roller!)

So the finish is this big ugly hill with SWITCHBACKS. When I hear that word, that can only mean one thing. STEEP. Oh man, they were steep. I was reduced to a jog, but i kept running. Then I ran the oval to the finish with very dead legs, trying to hold off anyone from passing me. I had a little over 1 minute when I hit the oval to make my sub 2 hour goal. My husband had finished ahead of me and came back to run the oval with me. He was giving me a countdown as I was trying not to blow up too soon. I paced it very well and had a kick at the last 100 yards. I always like to do that no matter how hard it is or how much it hurts. I made it! 1:59:18. WHOO HOO!

My other PR I did last night was a time trial. The Trek Equinox 7 WSD rode great for me. 10 miles, rolling hills. A month ago I did a 32 minute race. Yesterday was a 29:20! That was the first time I had broken 30 minutes on that course. I am so happy!

We are going up to the Whiteface Uphill Bike race Saturday June 16 and Ironman Coeur d’Alene June 24. Come and join us for some climbing pain! (I have a compact and a 27)