Savageman Triathlon 2013

Savageman Triathlon, 2013

Savageman was my favorite triathlon, and my favorite race, of all that I have done.  The organization was superb, the venue perfect, and the challenge/reward ratio excellent.  I signed up for both the Olympic Triathlon on Saturday and the Half-Ironman on Sunday, and I recommend that pairing to anyone.

The main goal of Savageman is to get a brick, and that is not a sure shot by any means.  Dave Scott, the champion of Kona, failed to get up the short section of cobblestone and gravel that decides the issue, and about 30% of the riders overall fail to ascend cleanly.  I was confident that I could do it, but I was traveling east a few months before the race and I stayed in nearby Frostburg so that I could reconnoiter the course.  My practice run was NOT encouraging.

My first try at the Westernport Wall.

My first run up I clipped out at exactly the point where I had seen others fail on YouTube videos.  It happened so fast I was down before I knew it.  I tried a second time and succeeded so I figured I just had bad luck on the first try, but no.  I fell off my bike on the third try, and was one for three.  By the end I had ridden it seven times and ultimately got up four times and fell three times.  I knew that anything could happen on race day, but success was dependent on my legs –shaky – and the nearby riders at the time I hit the hill.  I saw so many videos of people taking down their neighbors with them that I knew it was best to be alone if possible.  My practice session is below:

My son got up three times without much effort and never fell.

This is the section that will do you in.  Go as hard as you can.

The Swim:

I got to do it twice, once at Olympic distance and once at half-Ironman distance.  The second day the water was warm and the air cold, so the lake was incredibly misty and foggy.  No one could see anywhere and we all just tried to follow the pack.  I actually swam directly into a buoy that I simply couldn’t see until I was right on it.  The fog made Sunday’s swim fun, but both days were nicely laid out.  They have a turtle and a swan as the turnaround buoys and those were had to mistake.

The swan is in the background.  The air was cold, the water warm.

The Bike:

Of course this is what it is all about.  The main climb consists of four parts with the hardest being the last.  On my practice runs I did the final street that decides the brick 7 times but I would have had a better idea of how to handle it if I had started from the very bottom each time.  By the time I got to the final section on race day I had been exhausted by the three smaller preceding climbs.  Getting over the top took everything I had.  I made it, but just barely.  Looking at the video of me ascending makes my climb look even worse than I remember it.

After the main climb there were plenty more to come.  It was truly savage, but that is what we all signed up for.  I was happy to get off the bike at the end, and very happy that I had bricked.  Really, after that, I didn’t care what else happened.

Road bikes way outnumbered triathlon bikes.

The Run:

Normally the run portion of a triathlon is flat.  Not this one.  We ran up a seriously steep dirt road that I think I would not have been able to climb on my mountain bike, and overall I think there were many three hundred yards of flat road.

You'll be glad when it's done.

The Swag:

You have to pay for it, but you can get a brick for your office.  I have one and I treasure it.  The shirts were also very good: cotton, well fitting, and comfortable. Surprisingly there were no finisher medals.  I would have liked one.

Finisher's shirt.

Conclusion:

Do it!  This is a race that anyone will be glad they did, and if you get a brick you will be especially happy.

Posted by Undercover Athlete Reporter #001

Cincinnati Triathlon 2013

The Cincinnati triathlon is a fun and well-organized event.  It has a sprint distance and an Olympic distance offering, and I recommend it to anyone in the area.  We took it on as a family outing, with my daughter running and winning the sprint distance, and two of my sons and a future-daughter-in-law and me doing the olympic distance.

Registration was available the day before or the morning of, but parking was a real issue the day before so I recommend checking in in the morning if you can.  We were there in the pre-dawn darkness and had plenty of time to unpack, set up, and stretch.

The race was not crowded, and it should have been.  I think the reason is that most people were afraid of swimming in the Ohio river.  The universal reaction of anyone hearing the swim was in the river was "There's no way I would swim there!"  I don't know if there were even any native Cincinnatians in the race.  Too bad, because the water was clear in my hand and tasted fine.  There was no gasoline taste and only minimal debris like logs and branches.  No rashes or sore throat afterwards either, so I think the water quality was high.

The bike course was on the Columbia parkway, a big multi-lane highway by the river which was entirely closed for the race.  I'm surprised they did this, but it made for an awesome bike leg.  There was one very steep hill near the baseball stadium, and some of the racers were surprised in their big gear and had to dismount and walk.  We all managed to power up it, but it wasn't easy.  My personal bike leg was fast in the beginning but I flagged near the end and ran out of juice.  My usual goal is to let no one pass me.  One guy did early on and I tried to reel him in but failed.  Another guy passed me after the first loop, and we went back and forth for several miles.  Finally he passed me for good, and then a few others did too.  If there had been more time I might have ground to a halt entirely.

The run was my favorite part of the course.  It was a two loop course over the Purple People Bridge and through a riverside park which was pretty and shaded.  The finish line was still a welcome sight, and the surprise for us was that three of our team won podium positions.

The Cincinnati triathlon is a fun and well organized event.  I recommend it to anyone.

Tough Mudder Tampa 2013

It is hard for me to generate enthusiasm for this posting.  I enjoyed the Tough Mudder, but must give it a failing grade because of the logistics.  The Tough Mudder events bill themselves as "Probably the Toughest Event on the Planet", and they are certainly not that.  They might be one of the most fun, and I think that a team doing this together would have a blast, but it's not really an aerobic endurance event and should be viewed as an enjoyable group outing.

First the bad news: getting there.  Our event was at the Hightop Ranch outside of Tampa, and we got there early in the morning, several hours before our assigned starting time.  Even so, traffic was backed up onto the Interstate, and it took us about 90 minutes to travel the final 2-3 miles.  Our friend, who came later, was stuck in traffic for 6 1/2 hours waiting to get into the event!  There was nothing else going on, and the Tough Mudder was the only cause of the congestion.  Police directing traffic?  Zero.  Entrances to the parking lot?  One.  Number of entrants in the event?  25,000.  Do the math and you can see that this outcome was predictable.  So if you want to do a Tough Mudder choose an early start time and get there a few hours in advance..., unless you live next door.

Now for that good part: the race was fun, well organized, and definitely worth the money.  We ran about 12 miles, and topped maybe 23 obstacles.  There was freezing water, morasses of mud, plunges from heights of 20 feet, monkey bars, live electrical wires, and barbed wire.  The race is patterned on the training for the British Special Forces, and all we were lacking was live fire overhead and 40 lb. backpacks.

If you do this race bring a tall and strong friend.  Todd was our go-to-guy at 6' 3"; lean and muscular, he was able to help the rest of us ascend the wooden walls and then pull himself up behind us.  Without him we might have resorted to chicanery, but with him we were unstoppable.  Since Doug was stuck in traffic so long we started in the very last group to leave.  Throughout the race we were passing through some of the slower teams that started ahead of us, and near the end a large number of teams that had slowed to a walk.  That made us feel good, but didn't really reflect our abilities.  We never caught any really dangerous looking crews.

My favorite event was the Monkey Bars.  I thought I should train for that, so I went to the local elementary school and tried them out.  I could only do three before dropping.  This event had 27 which I knew from my research, so I decided not to train for it at all.  That turned out well, surprisingly.  These rungs were closer together and much easier than on the schoolyard.  All of our team made it across without a splashdown, though I couldn't have gone much farther than I did.

So the Tough Mudder is a fun event, but marred by logistical issues.  If you do it bring a large team and have fun, get there early, and don't worry too much about training.  And if you're as lucky as I was your Mom will be there to take pictures of you and your team!