Patel - Me - Vinod - on the way to Clearlake (At the Golden Gate Bridge)
SWIM 1.86 miles/ BIKE 80 miles/ Run 18.6 miles
PRE-RACE:
When we hit the hills driving into Clearlake - about 2 miles into the narrow road came the sign "Caution Narrow Road" - Patel cracked me up with his deadpan comment -"Thank god we are thin". We got into Lakeport and checked in our bikes - headed out for a few beers. As per Vinod the mandatory athletes meeting was at 5:00pm so into the tent we went - The race organizers were being really nice and when Patel asked if coke was going to be served on the course he was told "sure if you want it we will make arrangements". Now...I've raced many triathlons but never have had such an awesome response from the organizers...something was not right. Then Dan Empfield who was covering the race for www.slowtwitch.com said he did not recognize some of the athletes and would like to set up a few one on ones!! Hmmm the bells started ringing in my head (I thought it was from the beer). The next speaker was the USAT official who said that the decision on wetsuits will be made in the morning as the water temp was just below 72F! Patel looked at me in shock and with a few whispered "bleeps bleeps" said "Holy bleeping bleep bleep no wetsuits!" - that's when I realized we were sitting at the professional athletes meeting...Hilarious!! So we slid out of there - and then had a few laughs with Dan Empfield about it...(They did indeed serve coke on the course - and this race has a superb race management team)
Race Morning: Beautiful day.
"Like putting toothpaste back into the tube" Yea! That was what one thought of when Rajeev Patel came to the swim start putting on his wetsuit! When Kelly helped zip him up she said that his shoulder blades almost snapped together :-) He was all set -no sign of open water jitters.
SWIM 1.86 miles
It was an uneventful swim and I crawled out in about an hour. Struggled out of my wetsuit and into the bike gear.
BIKE: 80 miles
The bike was a relatively flat course - bumpy roads - If not for the care I took some of those potholes could clearly have altered my voice...if my wife is reading this (she is out of town) - honey, the boys survived...
It was great to see Rajeev Patel on the bike - which meant he not only survived the swim but also made the cutoff (he was worried about not making the 1:45:00 cutoff - he came in with plenty of time to spare) I saw Vinod & Kelly going great guns and we passed each other on all the three loops. I was doing fine - sticking with my plan to ride relatively conservatively and I did come off the bike feeling pretty strong.
RUN 18.6 miles - HILLY
The 2 loop run was really hilly - the hilliest run I've had to do in a triathlon. I chugged along and met up with Vinod at mile 7 and we ran together for the next 3 miles - mile 10-13 is when I normally start unravelling (it has happened on all my previous races) - strangely I was feeling good at mile 10 so I upped the pace a bit and continued on with some sub 10 min/miles. The total finish time 9:23:49 (9 hrs 23 mins 49 secs).
Swim: 1:01:20
Bike: 5:00:31
Run: 3:14:08
Vinod had a monster 3 weeks leading up to the race which included, three back to back 100 mile rides (Memorial Day weekend) and the Alcatraz triathlon a week before this race. The cumulative fatigue started to slow him down. The fact that I caught him at mile 7 should tell him that he needs rest - else there is no way a guy like me can catch and pass an athlete like him.
Rajeev Patel (his race report www.rajeevtherunner.blogspot.com) finished his first official triathlon and it was an ultra distance triathlon to boot. Amazing guy with an amazing attitude, he brought his sense of fun and his energy to the race...triathlon is richer for that.
Great race - very well organized and everyone in the town of Lakeport was so friendly and supportive - lovely place. This race is on my list for 2008.
For the inspirational Lakeport stories of Mellanie Irvine & Ashley and for photographs of the race please read Rajeev Patel's blog.
