Spring Training Camp & Desert Classic Duathlon

This is a slightly delayed post as the event was two weeks ago; I have been a little busy since.

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

I hitched a ride with Makko, joined by Jessica Boessneck, to the Tricats spring training camp at McDowell Mountain Park. The sky was overcast with a few brief rain showers on the way there and through that night. I had a new tent so I had to figure out how to set it up in the dark, and it rained a little as I was getting the fly on. We had a campsite for our team at the park, where the Desert Classic Duathlon would also be held. In fact, as we found out the next morning, our campsite was near part of the second run. We managed to fit four of us in my tent, Tim, Jann Sean McCormack and myself.

Saturday, February 23rd, 2008

We woke up around 7-8ish, had breakfast and then went for a run. We ran most of the second run for the duathlon, which included a brutal hill overlooking our campsite, in a loop twice. After that we had a short break and then embarked on a bike ride that covered the route for the duathlon and then some for many. Shortly after leaving camp my rear tire went flat, due to a hole in the tire itself that I had neglected. While I had a spare tube, I didn't have a spare tire so I went back to camp and let Jessica Collins continue on the ride, or so I thought. After looking around camp futilely for the tires I knew Adrienne had replaced on her bike, I decided to change, grab my camera and go for a walk.

I headed up the road a bit, taking a few nice scenic shots on the way. As I got up the paved road I noticed some emergency vehicles and a helicopter landing. Being unable to continue I decided to wait for the vehicles to move on, hoping that I wouldn't find that they had been there for a teammate. It turned out that Angela had taken a nasty spill on her bike and the responders decided to airlift her to the hospital. From what we heard, she should be ok (and she turned out to be fine except for her hand, thankfully). Most of the team had gotten back from their ride at that point and had been stopped by the vehicles, so they headed back to camp, as did I. Back at camp, after everyone was back and settled a little our coach, Brian Grasky, described Angela's situation as best he could, gave a brief lecture on the importance of safety and how her helmet had done its job, and some pointers on group riding.

After lunch Coach Grasky gave a lesson on tire repair, and I replaced my rear tire with one of Adrienne's old ones. Then we took our bikes to the transition area for the duathlon and Coach Grasky taught us about transition from bike to run, and vice versa, how to layout our areas, etc. We then set up our transition areas and practiced - running in, biking out and back, running out. We repeated this, I think we did two sets but maybe three, the distances were short. Afterwards Coach Grasky gave some final pointers and we returned to camp.

That evening Coach Grasky and his wife provided dinner for the team, burgers and pasta salad, and we sat/stood around the campfire. Kylie sang for us, sounding good even though her voice was still hurting from a cold. We also heard an amusing song from Andy Suter and Kosuke. We agreed on what time Makko would wake up those of us racing in the duathlon the next morning, and went to bed.

Sunday, March 24th, 2008

Makko woke us up way too early, 5:45ish I think (even though we needed to get up then) and those of us racing got dressed, had breakfast, got our gear ready and headed up to the packet pick-up for the race around 6:30am. After getting my packet, and finding out they only had small shirts left for the men (and large for the women) I headed to the transition area and found that the collegiate division (which consisted of the Tricats and a few Trijacks, some of whom had joined us at our training camp) had our own racks, which was nice. I stopped by the Trisports tent and purchased a race belt, finished setting up my transition and headed toward the start area, with a stop at the restroom on the way. At the start area Kyle took a picture of the group and Makko lead us in a team cheer.

The collegiate wave started after the elite wave, and it was kind of nice to start mostly with just my teammates - even if most of them quickly left me in the dust. ;-) 10-15 minutes into the race the faster members of the waves after us started to pass me. I was definitely pushing myself but making sure I kept energy for the bike and final run. The trail was very nice to run on, enjoyable scenery (to the extent I was able to pay attention). I remember one guy yelling ASU as he passed me (I was wearing my U of A jersey) but I figured he really shouldn't be too excited about passing one of the slowest members of our team. ;-) Kyle also got a picture of me as I was finishing the first run. I felt good about my transition, but I definitely have work to do as I still have that "I'm forgetting something" mentality that slows me down a little. I headed out on the bike and wished that I had been able to do the ride the day before so I could have known what to expect. I pushed myself but I think I may have held back more than I should have at the same time. The ride had us leave the park and ride along the road for a bit before turning back. I saw some teammates on their way back as I headed out. The course was hilly, but the hills were not too steep (compared to, say, A Mountain). I realized on the ride that I had forgotten to mix some Heed in one of my water bottles, but I had two Gu gel packs with me. I had a new "bento box" on the front of my bike that scratched my leg a little. Again, I felt good about my transition after the bike and definitely was slow in getting into my run stride. As I ran along the gravel road toward the trail I realized the gravel was slowing me a bit, remembered Coach Grasky demonstrating the "duck" run on the gravel and managed to pick up my pace a little and pass the guy in front of me. The aid station near our campsite was welcome and it was nice to see the friendly faces of, and get cheered on by, some teammates who were staffing it. The second run was difficult, but having run it the day before made it easier to concentrate and keep going. One of our teammates suggested that we should push ourselves going up the hill knowing we would be slowed on the way down and could catch our breaths, and doing this I managed to pass a couple people heading up the hill. As I approached the finish I could see Jen Meeks ahead of me and heard them call out her name as she finished, so it was neat to finish close to a teammate. Crossing the finish line was great; I was sore and tired but felt like I had accomplished something. I took in some desperately needed water and food, then joined some teammates in a cool down jog.

I packed up my stuff from the transition area and headed back to camp, running into the group of Tricats who were setting up for the Grasky Duathlon (our teams alternative for those who didn't do the Desert Classic). I dropped my stuff there, learned that the awards for the Desert Classic would be soon and headed back to watch those and cheer on teammates who won (we hoped to be back to see some of our teammates finish their duathlon but sadly that didn't happen). The awards ceremony took a while, with the top 3 athletes from each of the Men's and Women's age groups getting recognition as well as the elites, youth and others. Our team received 1st place in the collegiate division and the Trijacks got second place; Kathy Rakel received 1st place in her age group and Gabrielle (a Trijack) came in 3rd in her age group.

My times for the duathlon were: Run #1 31:14; T1 2:00.5; Bike 1:22:10.3; T2 1:41.7; Run #2 24:16.6 for 2:21:22.9 overall.

After the race we all packed up our campsite, and headed home. Jen Meeks needed a jump start to get going (and fortunately that was all she needed). We stopped at Subway with some teammates before driving back to Tucson. It felt good to take a nice warm shower and sleep in my bed that night.

Epilogue

Of course what would any team event be without some good drama. I won't go into details, but we had an interesting forum discussion when we got back that has since been resolved. However, there was also a great thread on memorable events from the weekend.