Arizona

Transition at IMAZ

A few weekends back, I left my family at home and headed to Arizona for glory. The timing was terrible for my wife. Nolan was just diagnosed with Asthma, had a virus and Colin had a rash and a fever. So being the great dad that I am I left on my trip and left the problems at home (Note: Nolan got diagnosed while I was gone and the rash/fever appeared while I was gone. Nolan did have a cough before I left).

Why go to the desert when Houston was becoming one? Well it wasn't to learn about desert life, but to ride 111 miles at the Tour de Tucson as part of raising more than $3,000 for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society via Team-in-Training. As a side motive, Tucson is only 2 hours from Tempe, host to Ironman Arizona which was taking place the same weekend.

So I was off to Tucson to meet my team, and by meet I mean get to meet them. I was a bad participant this event and only participated in one team ride. This was not because I did not like them, but because I was training for other events (Nation's Tri and Oilman 70.3). It was great to meet finally meet the team. Everyone was very nice and supportive of each other. In addition to skipping team training, I didn't really prepare for a century ride. My longest ride before the race was 66 miles and that was on my carbon triathlon bike, not my old aluminum road bike that I hadn't ridden in 7 months. I did get the old bike fitted the night before shipping it to AZ, so I wasn't doing things the way TNT prefers. I couldn't ride my Tri bike since Aerobars are not allowed in the race.

TNT was cool about letting me ride even though I did not train with them and had not prepared on the bike I was riding. They took my word for it that I was good to go. I was aerobically speaking good to go, but boy did I suffer on that bike. My body was not happy about the bike or the amount of time I spent on it. My left hand went numb in the first 9 miles (not a good sign). My lower back was killing me for the last 40 miles. I had to stand up and do a kind of hip thrust to the handle bars every few minutes to relieve my back. Not a good sign.

Lisa said not to wear these bike shorts (since it looks terrible) but they are the most comfortable I own.

I did finish in 5:43 which was good enough for Gold level (Platinum was sub 5, Gold sub 6, Silver sub 9, rest bronze). I think I was the 4th or 5th TNTer from our chapter to get gold since they started doing this event. I was the only one from our chapter this year. Towards the end I was just aiming for being sub-6 and not really pushing it hard.

We had to cross two drive rivers that really killed my average mph.

Note my name at the top and that other name at the bottom. Yes that is The Barry Bonds, Home run king and 7x NL MVP. I road with him for the last 10-15 miles and beat him to the finish. This might be the high point in my cycling career. (The time says 5:46, because it is based on gun time even though my actual time was 5:43)

The rest of the day was spent chilling at the TNT tent waiting for the rest of my team to finish (and getting adjusted by a Chiro, it was awesome). Almost 6 hours later our last 4 came in (2 participants and 2 coaches). Unfortunately it was after 6pm, so the race was officially over. Even though it was over, they did not quit and continued to the finish. It was impressive that they did not give up. I don't think I would have liked being on the bike for over 11 hours.

The next day was Ironman Arizona. The 2 hour drive was faster than I expected since the speed limit is 75 mph on I-10 in AZ. It was pretty much at the limit of what my rented Toyota Yaris could handle. I watched the some of the race. I watched Leanda Cave win it for the women.

Cave as she is making her final turn to her 2011 IMAZ Win

I talked to a few of the spectators to get an idea how the sign up the next day would go. They said that people get there between 6:30-7am to get in line. That was not the news I wanted to hear since I had to drive from Tucson and would have liked to sleep in.

They next morning I get there and get in the general line. The volunteer line is a mile long. I wait 4 hours to finally sign up for the 2012 IMAZ. The people in line with me were getting really frustrated with WTC because they are supposed to check for volunteer shirts and wristbands to make sure that volunteers in line are actual volunteers, but they did not check for wristbands or check volunteer lists. So people that should be in the general line were in the volunteer line making us wait. A few people in line had friends that did this just by borrowing a t-shirt. It was very annoying. Luckily I was able to sign up despite the volunteer line continuing to grow. The online sold out in less than 10 minutes. Luckily a few friends were able to sign up (Thanks super fast corporate internet). Even the foundation slots sold out the next day.

On the way back to Tucson for my flight, I saw a few dirt devils (dirt funnel clouds).

Mark your calendars, 11/18/2012 Ironman Arizona 2012.