Race Reports

RACE REPORT: 2008 Rage in the Sage

Sunrise over Lake Mead as I make my way toward the 2008 Rage in the Sage.

Note: I’ve gone back through to update my times and add a couple of race pics.

My recent success at stepping on the podium didn’t carry over this past Saturday. Partly because, unlike the Splash ‘n Dash, there was actually more than one competitor. And, my training leading up to this race may have set a PR in non-existence. I may have swam close to 2,000 meters since last October, although I think that’s being optimistic.

The Rage in the Sage, held at Lake Mead, is typically one of the best organized and classiest races I’ve done over the past two seasons. BBSC Endurance does a fine job of putting the event together. Yet for all of their great accomplishments, for some inexplicable reason, they didn’t use timing chips this year. They dropped back a decade and had an elderly woman holding some sort of timing device in her hand, calling out race numbers as people went through T1 and T2. Hence, no official results yet.

Anyway, I’ll keep this brief since I have no idea of how I fared except that I know I’m not last in my age group. Maybe second-to-last, but not last. Then again, that’s what is to be expected with 3.9 hours of CV training in the past month.

Exiting the longest swim of my life. Note to self: Get ass in the
pool more than four times before a race.

SWIM (750 m)
All sprint competitors, male and female, did a mass start. As I’ve written here in the past, swimming is my best event of the three and I typically have no qualms about swimming in the blender…until now.

I parked right in the middle of the pack, about four or five rows back from the lead swimmers. The water was 57 degrees, just perfect for my QR Farmer John-style wetsuit (circa 1993). Even though it was designed for a 155-pound me of yesteryear, the 178-pound me of today was able to squeeze in thanks to the help of a few strong triathletes who helped shove my fat ass in the suit. A few piddles later, I was warm and toasty for the swim.

Once the horn signaled the start of the race, I got mauled. I got kicked, clawed, and kept running into people for the next 500 meters. Rather than go with my usual 3-1 breathing ratio, I was sucking in air with every stroke and my wetsuit, of course, felt like it was choking me.

Before I go any farther, I want to apologize for any cockiness I may have displayed here, or in various forums, about my open water swimming skills. While I’ve never claimed to be fast, I have thumped my chest about my efficiency in the water and my lack of fear in open water swims. That was all shoved back in my face on this day.

Although I swam a relaxed 750 meters in the pool in 15-minutes a week before the race, I I barely survived this swim. I side-stroked, breast-stroked, even floated on my back a few times to try and catch my breath and get into a rhythm. I finally got clear and found an outside line after the last turn and was able to make up some time during the last 200 meters.

Time: 27:22.9 (best was in ‘06 at 19:00.0)
AG Winner: 18:01.5

T1
This is why I don’t like to wear wetsuits. Whatever time advantage I get from using them in the water, I lose in T1. For the life of me, I could not get the God-damned suit off of my feet. Even though I had liberally used BodyGlide, the suit was glued to me. I must have spent nearly two minutes trying to get free of that cursed monster.

I had been practicing a bike mount where I run with my shoes on, with my bike on my right. Once I cross the mount line, I would clip my left foot on the left pedal, push off and swing my right leg over, clip in, and ride off to glory.

No go on race day. During practice, I kept getting hung up on the first clip-in. The pedal would keep spinning around when I tried to step on it with my Speedplays. Doh!

So, I used my standard bike straddle and push-off. Not cool looking, but it works.

No T1 times provided.

Exiting the short climb out of T1.

BIKE (20 K)
For once, I may have had a decent time on the bike. Perhaps even a PR. Now, I still got passed left and right, but I may have done quite well relative to my past performances on this course.

Using my Garmin Forerunner 305, I tracked my HR and distance to the first turnaround. At that point, I had a Raspberry Hammer Gel (best tasting hands down) that was pre-mixed in a hydration bottle mounted to my bike stem. This is the way to deal with gels on the bike. Much better than trying to screw around and tear a packet with my teeth and squirting overpriced liquid candy on my top tube.

I was passed by one dude in my age group (see run commentary below for redemption), but I was able to pass a couple of folks near the big-ass hill at the second turn-around. I noticed quite a few people were just grinding big gears with an approximate cadence between 50-60. I kept to my plan of keeping my HR capped at 180 and a cadence of 85-95 and hoped that restraint would pay off on the run.

Time: 53:35.0 (PR by 8:20!)
AG Winner: 39:56.0

T2
Now, bike dismounts, I’ve been practicing those as well. As we rocketed down the hill and were about a quarter-mile from the line, I took my feet out of the shoes and pedaled away. About 50 feet from the line, I swung my right leg behind me (I was amazed to later see people swing their right legs in front of them over the top tube…will have to try that) and did a running dismount while simultaneously ejecting my left shoe from the pedal.

Behind me, I hear people yelling “Shoe! Shoe! He lost his shoe!”

A bike mechanic who looked like Doc Brown with the crazy hair from “Back to the Future,” was managing the dismount line and started yelling at me. “Run! Run!”

I’m thinking, “Dude, that’s a $75 piece of leather and plastic back there. I’m not leaving here without it.”

He grabbed the shoe and was frantically gesturing for me to move while continuing his mantra “Run! Run!”

I ran and he caught up to me and shoved the shoe in my jersey pocket.

Very cool.

Another first, I decided to go without socks for this race so T2 went by fairly quickly.

No T2 times provided.

I’m heading home while some of the half-course athletes (in the red dot) are
still grinding up hills as part of their 56-mile cycling adventure.

RUN (5 K)
My goal was to start out at a 10-min/mile (easily done during practice) and drop it by a minute each mile, ending up with an 8-min/mile for the last mile of the run.

As usual for me, no matter what piece of self-monitoring hardware I have, I had a hell of a time trying to get the Garmin switched over to run mode. After a few starts, stops, resets, anything…I finally got the unit switched over to run mode. (Note: Once I downloaded the data upon my return to Hak Manor, the Forerunner showed I had run 2,300 miles instead of three. WTF?)

On the first little hill where I’ve walked in the past, I ran.

I saw the age group dude who passed me on the bike, and gradually reeled him in. Bye-bye.

I was actually passing some people on the run. A miracle!

I tried to crack the 10-minute pace and couldn’t. I wasn’t exhausted, but the legs just didn’t want to go.

The last mile or so, a young man by the name of Cameron from St. George caught up to me and said I looked like I had some more “go” in me. He paced me to the finish line and held me to a sub-10 pace. He was a Godsend. I was holding a steady 199 HR and didn’t want to push the pace any faster for fear of blowing up too early and doing my traditional lame-ass shuffle. I can hold 199 for about a quarter mile, but not a full mile.

As we saw the finish line, we picked a landmark about 100 meters out and agreed to give it our all from that point forward. Once we crossed that spot, we turned on the afterburners (mine was more like a bottle rocket fizz at that point) and went for it.

Unfortunately, two young kids darted out from the spectators to run with their mom who was in front of us. They blocked most of the chute. Cameron, who must have done the math as I did, figured out we’d be passing her about 10 feet from the finish line. Poor form, ol’ chap. Poor form.

So, we slowed to a jog, and let her and the kids have their moment of glory across the finish line. I have not issues with being polite, unless I find out that I was moved back in the rankings by five seconds. Then, I’ll make sure to carry a crowbar with me at the next race.

Time: 34:44.1 (much to my surprise, my I had 33:22 in 2006 [2007 was a duathlon due to weather])
AG Winner: 22:49.7

Conclusion
Overall time: 1:55:42.1
AG Winner: 1:20:47.3
Overall Male Winner: 1:10:49.7

Overall, I got what I deserved for this one, but came away with the following lessons:

• Even though my CV was non-existent, I was shifting my focus from aerobic-building to anerobic-building work. My two sessions of track work were paying off on the run.
• Going without socks is the way to go. The bike was fine and I only ended up with one blister on my Achille’s tendon. Using the right shoes makes all of the difference. And, making sure they’re snugged up tight.
• I still need to drop about 15-20 pounds of flubber. I appreciated this during the run imagining how much harder it would be if I were to strap on a 20-lb weight vest.
• I need to get my ass in my wetsuit and get some open water swims in this summer. The pool is great for conditioning, but that’s it. Open water swimming with a wetsuit is another beast…and I keep forgetting that.
• I was not nervous at all. No pre-race jitters. No repeated visits to the bathroom. However, once I got in the water, I was looking for any excuse to quit and turn around. If a kayak had been near me, I would have bailed from the race. Honest. Fortunately, one was not there and my Inner Quitter finally decided to give it up and go home the last 200 meters of the swim.
• All HRMs suck when it comes to triathlons. Trying to switch modes between bike and run is a nightmare on game day. Luckily, I didn’t even have to deal with switching between swim and bike because hardly anyone trusts the Garmin to not leak. Sure, it’s OK to 3 meters, but who wants to trust that figure on your $300 piece of hardware? Not me.

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