St. Geroge 70.3

My triathlon season started the first weekend of May, in St. George, Utah. Cheryl and I flew out to Salt Lake, then rented a car and drove down to nearly the Arizona border, “Utah’s Dixie”. We’d been through this area back in the  70’s a number of times on the way to Colorado, when we lived in Southern California, and then in SLC. The area is now nearly unrecognizable, with maybe 20 times as many people, and the red rock desert canyon country filled seemingly rim-to-rim with new houses, malls, and all the accoutrements of Utah’s famous growth industry, families.

I have at raced at this distance (half ironman) very much, and I have a very poor track record, seeming to get flat tires in half of the ones I do. I was, however, in good shape and tapered specifically for this race, so I felt good, and was enjoying the sun and warmth

Although I was less successful than I’d hoped, this race and the subsequent week’s tour  through southern Utah were FUN.

What made it fun, for me?:

• I started in the very last wave. At first I thought this was a distinct disadvantage, waiting an hour after transition closed, having to run the last 6 miles in the heat of early afternoon, and plowing my way through wave after wave of younger, slower people. But, apart from the occasional floundering swimmer in a different colored cap, I enjoyed having an endless stream of people to briefly draft off of and then pass while biking (some of them three or four times), and a similar feeling of running prowess. I can count the number of people who passed me on the bike on one hand, and the number who passed me on the run on one finger (and she sped by in the last mile). Having an infinite number of targets to pick off helped me keep my pace up all day.
• The scenery was as spectacular as advertised.
• The bike course is both challenging and forgiving. Challenging in the progression of hills, ending with a 1200 foot climb from miles 40-44. Forgiving in the 1600′ downhill from that point to the end.
• My run was highly successful. The run course is either going up, or going down, and is a pure out and back (except for one little stub at mile 11-12). So running on pace was not an option. And the heat (temps got up to 88F later in the day, and were in the lower-mid 80 during most of my run). I used the feeling ofperceived exertion (RPE)  supplemented by heart rate (HR), and managed to keep my HR in the range where I wanted it, from mid-point of a marathon pace effort to midpoint of a half marathon pace effort (not speed). My overall run pace was about 1:20 min/mile slower than I had done a week earlier over nine miles in a duathlon in 50F, wetish conditions, presumably my fastest pace possible. But the key thing was, I didn’t slow down. My Normalized Graded Pace (a calculated pace number which “irons out” ups and downs) for the second mile (uphill) was 8:56, and for the similar section on the way home was 8:53.
• No one older than me beat me – this is becoming a key metric for me as I lose speed each year.

I had my usual quota of drama:

• A flat tire a mile 5 of the bike cost me a total of 12 minutes, what with me forgetting to stash my CO2 cartridge on my bike race day morning, and then stopping at the first aid station to top up my air with a pump. Without any of that, my overall time would have been just about the same as the fifth place finisher; as it was …
• I found myself passing someone in my AG at about mile 12.9 (out of 13.1). I turned on the jets as best I could at that point, but I think he managed to dive over the line ahead of me at the end. Usually I win those sprints, this is second time in ten years I’ve been pipped in the last 100 yards. If I’d had the CO2, I never would have been in that situation. My place was pretty well set after the swim, when I was 7th out of the water. I got passed by two guys while changing my tube/pumping it up, and repassed one of them on the run.

Times: Swim 37 minutes, bike 3:10 rolling/3:23 total, run 2:01, OA 6:10. I’d hoped to go 35/3:00/2:01…5:45. I’ve got two more tries this year to meet my targets.

Afterwards, we toured through southern Utah, a place we’ve often been as we’ve gone back and forth among Southern California, Colorado, and Washington over the yeas. It never fails to excite, though, with it’s red rocks, desolate mountains and canyons, and precipitous weather shifts – on one day, we went from 30F and hail storms to 90+ searing heat.

We toured Bryce

Arches

Zion, and Capitol Reef Nat’l Parks. With the lifetime $10 senior parks pass, it was like getting into Disneyland for free.