BSLT Race Report

Well we made it back home safely. We sure had one great trip, and a great race!! We drove the run and the bike course on Saturday so that we could look at all the hills that we were hearing so much about. After seeing them I realized that they were nothing that we were not use to from riding in Kingman. The hills on the run that would be another story since we have not run up steep hills, only gentle rollers. After checking out the course we headed to the lake to get in a 400m swim. The water was very warm, almost too warm for a wetsuit. After a short swim we took off to do the first and last 3 miles of the bike course to help find our bike legs for the race. Then we returned to the minivan for a short run.

Race Day:
As we packed up and headed out to the lake we could see storms north and south of the lake, which added another element to the race, rain! We parked at the top of the hill and walked our bikes down to the transition area. Set up everything in our areas and we were ready to go. Walked over to the lake for the start, an odd start if that. At the start of the pros about half of them took off for the water the rest of them took off to the right , running and followed the shoreline of the lake for about 400 yards till they had to jump in the water. I was up and took off running about half way on the shoreline before diving in, all i could think about was the stingray and another episode with a rock or beer bottle.

SWIM: 32:22, avg HR: 154, 162 Max
I felt good on the swim sighting was easy as I could see very well since there was no glare from the sun which was stuck behind the clouds. I felt better about half way through the swim as my arms warmed up. Got out of the swim in 32 min right where i had planned. Made it through transition without any problems, and jumped on the bike.

BIKE: 2:36:15 avg HR: 147, max 177
Within the first 200 yards of the bike you hit the first hill and start to climb. I tried to relax and not race up the hill as my HR was still high from getting onto the bike. I passed a lot of people on the first two hills as they were still trying to get moving. Once i got to the flats, i had to relax and slow down to let my HR come down as I want to ride the bike not race it. I gave myself 10 min to get settled in before I was going to be concerned about my HR. I also focused on fluids as the swim was very warm and I knew I had to lose a lot of fluids. Then at about 10 miles it started to rain, it rained the rest of the way and it was very windy, 15-20 mph winds and gusts to 40 is what was reported. I started to second guess my decision to ride with a disc, but I had no issues at all. Made it up and down all the hills without a problem as none of them seemed to be too difficult, coming down in the rain seemed harder as the tires were pumped up to 160 psi and with wet roads that can be nasty. So i took it easy coming down to keep the rubber on the road. Felt good on the entire bike as I kept moving past people and watching my HR, never felt as if I pushed it at all, just another ride. Came into the transition area and looked at my time 2:36, slower then I wanted but I figured with the wind and rain would slow everyone down a bit.

RUN: 1:30:57 avg HR 163, max 175
Ran out of the transition area, ran a mile to 2 then I had to use the restroom facilities. After a brief stop I was off and running again. Felt great and I was passing people right away on the run, ran up the first hill and thought to myself 2 more hills left. I was taking in water or Gatorade and a gu every 3 miles. One mistake that I made was wearing my HR monitor on the run. I was looking at my HR and thinking I was moving pretty good. What I should have done was ran without it and ran how I felt. If I would have done this I think I would have ran faster and pushed myself more rather then concerning myself with the HR and time. The whole race I was passing people as only 1 guy was able to pass me. Made it up the last 2 remaining hills without any problems and headed to the finish line. I crossed the line at 4:43 (avg HR 154) about 20 min off of where I wanted to be, I just don't think that I raced hard enough, I felt good the whole race and was not dead when I finished.

Kim kicked butt!!! The girl was able to finish in 5:26 and she looked great!! She nailed the swim and was right behind me, crushed the bike in under 3 hours, and was able to run 8 min miles for the run. And to think she was going to be happy if she was able to run the whole thing!!

We headed back to the Hotel and cleaned up and got some food and beer to celebrate!! At the awards ceremony we both placed 8th in our age groups. I was offered a slot for the 70.3 World Championships, but passed as I want a KONA slot! I even got an award for 8th as there were so many in my category.

Overall we had a great trip, we made it there and back safe and we each learned somethings that will help us to succeed in future races to come.