Last week I strung together one of the most hectic travelling days of my short swim-bike-run career. I had always wanted to go check out Interbike, the cycling industry’s premier expo in Las Vegas, and this year I was able to attend with the mission of scouting some potential team sponsors (cycling/tri companies out there, take notice!). On a last minute notice, I was able to enter the Vegas Super Sprint Triathlon which this year featured a $70,000 prize purse, 30 male and 30 female super-fast triathletes from across the nation and the world, and which counted as the US Super Sprint National Championship. I had no expectations whatsoever on this fast-paced race style, but was eager to race after some big training and long time away from racing due to plantar fasciitis.
So Wednesday evening I land in Vegas, get settled, eat a good old 16inch pizza, and Thursday morning I race the qualifying heat of this crazy triathlon format happening at the Vegas Convention Center parking lot.
So Wednesday evening I land in Vegas, get settled, eat a good old 16inch pizza, and Thursday morning I race the qualifying heat of this crazy triathlon format happening at the Vegas Convention Center parking lot.
The format (two times thru the following: 200m swim, 3k bike, 1k run) did not exactly suit my “diesel-engine” strengths, and even with a 10” dismount penalty, I was stoked to advance to the Loosers’ Final happening later that evening.
As soon the heats were over in the morning, I had an exciting/frightening/exhausting bike ride across Vegas headed south to make it to Interbike heaven in order to approach a few companies as potential sponsors. Time on your feet is the best recovery, right?! After a few hours in bike porn heaven, I was off riding across Vegas headed north back at the race site, where the Looser’s Final was starting at 7pm.
Back in my racing suit, and off we went: 10 hungry (and tired? I was tired. And hungry.) triathletes battling for the last 5 spots of prize money in a twice-thru 300m swim-5k bike-2k run race format this time. I had a good time breaking up the field a bit on the crit-style bike course, on which I was able to make up the time I was losing (sigh) on the run. Those guys just run so damn fast. At the end of the day (which saw us at the race site till 11pm) I finished 15th overall, of which I can’t complain, since I went into it with zero expectation and zero specific training to such a fast format. Big celebration in Vegas, with a 16inch pizza dinner.
