On Sunday I partook in what is my last planned triathlon for 2008. My season started in June this year and has ended with the most brutal race I have ever experienced or can imagine doing again.
The Las Vegas 2008 triathlon took place at Lake Mead, 23 miles north of the Strip in Las Vegas - just outside of Boulder City, Nevada. I made final preparations for the trip back in June after looking around for a more remote race than I had done up until that point. Prior to this trip, the furthest I had gone for a race was Grand Haven, Michigan - about 150 miles (as the crow flies) from where I live. I'm not really sure what it was that made Las Vegas pop out at me when I was looking through USAT's sanctioned triathlons for 2008. It was probably the simple fact that the idea of being able to go out and party the night after my last triathlon for the year was an inviting thought. While my mind was on the potential for fun afterwards, I had no clue what type of event awaited me.
The website for the triathlon boasts the "flattest course in Las Vegas." HA! This must be a joke... a very funny one directed at those who are clueless about the terrain surrounding Lake Mead. The double HA! comes in when you couple the terrain with the temperature. Sure... many of you runners apparently don't mind 95 degrees. Heck, I didn't think I minded running in 95 degrees. The problem is that 95 deg. in Wisconsin is totally different than the 95 deg. you experience in the desert surrounding Lake Mead. For one, my little corner of Wisconsin is covered in trees - especially along the roads. Sure, we have a lot of farmland, but in most of the areas where one can run, there is intermittent shade provided by the nearby trees. They apparently forgot to plant trees around Lake Mead. Plus, I will never, ever again put any credence in the idea that 95 deg. dry heat is more bearable than 95 deg. humid heat. Bullshit. There are two sides to that coin. The dry heat may make you think it isn't has warm out, but then again, you would be wrong. Plus, the speed at which you dehydrate in the desert heat is much faster than if you run in 95 deg. weather at 40% humidity. The fact is that I train in "our" heat and not theirs. Theirs is different and it made my run miserable. Well, that's not entirely accurate. Couple the constant inclines for the first three miles with the heat, and my run was a miserable one. And that was the crux of my problem: the bike and run involved overcoming 2-5% grades (with a nice mile long 8% grade hill thrown in the bike leg). Whatever the organizers mean by the "flattest course in Las Vegas" is lost on me. Perhaps they meant the swim. Yes. The swim was definitely flat. In fact, the swim was amazing. The water was calm and a balmy 78 deg. I wore my wetsuit because a) I was allowed to per USAT rules and when they measured the water temp. and b) I hadn't been in the water for 7 weeks prior to the event and needed every extra bit of buoyancy I could muster (naturally or not). Frankly, the swim was awesome and even though I struggled, I enjoyed every minute of it.
So, after all that whining above, you must think I hated the course and would never do it again. WRONG. I can say hands down that the Las Vegas Triathlon is one of the best courses I have ever done. The scenery was amazing and despite my personal troubles with the course, it was a ton of fun. And I would do it again next week, if I could. The fact is that I was very poorly prepared for this race. Besides having had a continual decline in my training over the past two months - between work, travel and being sick, I struggled to keep a coherent training schedule together - I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. In the end, I learned a lot.
First, the race was extremely remote; meaning I had to fly with all of my gear and figure my way around that hassle. (Oddly enough, the experience at the airport - both in Milwaukee and Las Vegas - was extremely smooth. Even though the Thule Bike Carrier I used looks huge and awkward, it packs easily and was straight-forward to check in.) It is also expensive to fly with a bike. For domestic flying (i.e. within the US), plan on paying at least $160 round-trip for your bike, on top of the normal ticket cost. In a few weeks, Steph and I will be heading to Germany and I'm taking my other bike with to the tune of $300 for round-trip. We'll see whether or not I ride enough to make it worth the cost...
Second, I had no idea what to expect from the terrain. I really did think the course would be flat. There are courses described as "hilly" around us that would be flat as a board in comparison to this course. Between the lack of training and the never-ending inclines, it made the race very, very difficult for me.
So, how did I do? I have no idea. I really don't know what my final time was. I did ok on the swim and bike, but blew the run. I had to walk at least two of the six miles. I am thoroughly embarrassed to even write that. I know my time was nowhere close to what my first Olympic distance event came out to be. Between the heat and the terrain of the bike leg, I was simply spent when I hit the run. The sun had also come out in full-force about a 1/4 of the way into the bike leg. I had no experience to deal with it physically and mentally and it took its toll on me. After the exposure to that type of course, I know much better what to expect.
The last comment I want to make is that the organizers of the course deserve a huge amount of credit. The packet pickup sessions went very smoothly and they did a great job of trying to explain the course and what we should expect. They did a good job marking the course and controlling things like car traffic. I simply liked the character and personality of the participants, organizers and volunteers. They all deserve a great deal of praise and appreciation. Despite having my worst race ever (yet), I had a great time. I can't wait to do it again.
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