Whitesides' Deuces’ Wild 2015 Race Report

The best part of racing at Deuces’ Wild Triathlon was racing with my daughter. This race is becoming a fun daddy-daughter tradition for us. This was also a great opportunity to race at altitude in preparation for Ironman Lake Tahoe in September.  This year I set a new swim and bike PR for this course so I was pretty excited.  This is how the day unfolded.

-          Swim: I was able to get a decent warm-up prior to the start of the race. I started conservative out of the channel but soon found myself swimming over and through a bunch of weeds that were in route to the first buoy.  Honestly, I found the weeds un-settling.  It was like swimming through a jungle. After rounding the first buoy, I sighted forward only to see a lot of swimmers well ahead of me.  Doubt in my swim skills started to build.  Fortunately, as the weeds cleared so did my mind which allowed me to begin building speed.  Speed seemed to build upon more speed.  I noticed that the increase in speed didn’t result in death; rather, it was fun to swim fast.  Then an unusual thing started to happen (for me): I started passing people in the swim.  Somehow, I found my groove. I exited the water in 25 minutes.  Two minutes faster than last year.  Even better, I exited the transition area with fellow teammate Branden Turley.

-          Bike: Branden was directly in front of me as we pedaled out of T2.  As we rounded the first corner, still within the park, Brandon lost his water bottle due to a large bump in the road.  I thought I better secure my bottle but before I could do so, my bottle was following Brandon’s bottle onto the pavement.  Brandon was smart, he turned around and picked up his bottle, I decided to continue without.  My race-brain logic was that the first bike-aid station was about 25 minutes away.  I could wait. In retrospect, the bottle also contained nutrition. I should have turned around and picked up my bottle.  I continued on the bike with a specific watt target.  I took the first 10 minutes to ease into bike-mode and then started to hit those watt targets.  Frustratingly, hitting those targets was a real push at elevation and after a good effort in the swim.  I backed off slightly.  Despite backing off, I still finished the bike in just over 60 minutes which was a three minute PR from last year.  

-          Run: Off the bike, I again eased into the run feeling pretty good.  I soon passed a couple more competitors.  The last two miles were a blur.  I’m pretty sure the effects of not drinking water /nutrition on the first half of the bike were impacting me at this point.  My speed was still good but it sure hurt.  My run pace was about the same as last year.

In the end, I finished 4^th overall, 3^rd amateur, 1^st in my age group plus a nice PR for this course. This race was also helpful in providing insight into how elevation impacts me. But, the best part of the day was watching my daughter race.  She was smiling from start to finish.  It reminded me of why we do this crazy triathlon thing.  It’s completely fun to splash in the water, ride around on a bike, and run through a beautiful park.  It’s a childhood dream. Special thanks to my amazing coach, Elizabeth Waterstraat, who makes PR’s at age 43 a reality. Also, I couldn’t do this sport without the great support of my amazing wife and our One Multisport sponsors: Destination Kona, Pei Wei, M Drive, MyOatmeal.com, Realty One Group, Lifetime Fitness, Biotech Wellness, and OHSO.  Thank you!