Race Report #2 2006: Scottsdale Tri

It was around 40 degrees and cloudy in the normally cloudless Valley Of The Sun at 0510 when I woke up 20 minutes late. The forcaster’s called a 40% chance of rain but when I looked out my window I didn’t see any storm clouds so I decided to leave my old bike at home and take the PHX with me. I mean really its rained once in 150 days what are the chances?

It pou-orrrrrrrrrrrrrd. Not just rain but lightening, thunder and hail. I would say it rained a solid ¼ inch, which is actually considerable in such a short period of time. Nothing was left untouched by the downpour.

About 20 people were able to make it through the swim before the lifeguards called the swim off due to thunder and lightening. They kept it going as long as they could but they did what had to be done in the name of safety and I commend them for it. In the 15 minutes it took before the race director could be notified and address the triathletes huddled in just swimming attire in two small rooms off the pool about 25% of the racers called it quits and went home. I can’t blame them I was riding a new bike and didn’t want to lay it down in a turn during a downpour. It didn’t help that the 4 loop 12 mile course has eight turns per loop. The race director came in and announced that after 30 minutes of no thunder and lightening the pool would be reopened. Those that left called us crazy and my response was, “If it ain’t rainin’, it ain’t trainin’. By the way, your leaving, what’s your age group?”

I had been shivering since my 0600 bike check in and my lower back was seizing up pretty bad, it was very tight and painful. I finally was able to get in the pool at 0930 and swim my 300 yard, 12 length serpentine, which took 7 minutes and couple seconds. I really wanted to be less than 7 minutes but I was just happy to get out of the water and get things going. I felt good the whole swim but my lane tacking needed some help as I got caught under a couple of lane lines.

I had a 2 minute T1 which consisted of not drying off, no sense in the rain, and turning my bike shoes upside down to drain the water out of them. I started to squeeze a sock out but thought, why do that and just put those on.

The bike took 37 minutes to travel 12 miles in 4 loops. On the few straight-away’s I was able to maintain a good 22 mph but I downshifted and applied brakes about 30 yards from each of the 8 turns on the loop so I kept losing speed which I normally would not have. The good news was that I passed about two dozen cyclists and only got past by 2 guys who are both amateur triathletes and not a ‘Middle of the Packer’ like me. I felt really good and the PHX is quite responsive. I was really leery about using the TT handlebars, especially in the downpour, since I am not used to shifting off the aero bar’s but they were great and the front end on this bike is so much lighter than my Giant. I had wanted to keep my ride at 36 minutes and finished in 37 minutes.

T1 was one minute. No messing around, just dumped my gear, turned over my running shoes to drain the water, punched the foot pod to get pace data on the Polar S625X and I was gone.

The first third of a mile I was running really stiff, my lower back was killing me. I was sitting around an 8:08 pace and then it finally loosened up and I was able to stay in the low 7’s. My heart rate was soaring in the mid to high 170’s but the rain and cold weather allowed me to push that redline all the way through the 5k course. It’s not totally flat and not totally straight but I was passing a lot of people, a dozen I would guess. I got past by 2 guys, one who I believe will place in the top 3 overall and the other in another age group, so I didn’t feel too bad about that. In the last third of a mile I sprinted at a 5:35 pace to finish at 1:11 on my watch. In my pre-race visualization I looked at 1:10 as being the absolute happiest I could hope for and 1:15 being a solid, more realistic time. So all in all, I am really happy about this event considering the weather conditions.

Unfortunately, because of the rain they didn’t post the placing’s at the event. They told everyone to go home, so I have to wait for them so show up online. I jammed home and jumped in the Jacuzzi for 30 minutes with a cup of coffee and just relaxed.

If you want a good laugh read this HERE my race report from this course last year.