Denver Marathon Relay - Race Report

Going to a race completely for fun is indeed great fun. The Kernel Jsssup relay team was a mixed team, 2 gals and 2 guys. My friend Susan from work and her twin Sarah and my buddy Scott. We decided to meet at Susan's since it was close to the race venue in downtown Denver. I picked up Scott at 5:50am and we headed north to downtown. Everyone was ready to go and Susan's boyfriend Roland was our driver to the relay transitions.

We all loaded up the car and headed to drop Susan off for the first leg of 6 miles. The race start was 7am so we got her close by 6:30am and the rest of us headed to Starbucks to hang out. Susan was targeting below 10 minutes a mile so we had about an hour before we needed to make our way to the first transition (are the called transitions in a relay?).

After some coffees and lattes we got our numbers and timing chips fastened and loaded into the car again. We made it easily over to the relay station and got ready for Sarah to take over the running. She would be running the 4.2 miles and aiming for close to 9:30 per minute miles. Susan made it right around on time. It's hard to tell exact on relays because the start time is officially unknown until well after the race for the individual. But she was close to her goal and we were looking good so far.

Sarah took off for her 4.2 miles and we headed to the car to get Scott to the next station. We didn't a ton of time given this being the shortest leg. Again no problems getting the car to the next station. We all kept watch for Sarah. It was a beautiful day at this point crisp cool air and sunny. The atmosphere was very festive and the crowds and runners seemed to be enjoying themselves. Sarah made it through and looked to be right on her target as well. Scott took off on the big leg 9 miles and he was aiming for 6 to 6.5 minutes per mile. Not too specific but he was looking to move fast, our fastest team member.

We all piled back into the car with a decent amount of time to get to my transition station. We unfortunately got stuck in a traffic line blocked by the marathon. Minutes ticked away and we weren't too worried at first but we sat longer and longer. I figured I'd be happy to have 10 minutes to spare and hit the porta potty and eat a gel pack before my turn at the wheel. We got closer and closer to the crossing and watched one guy get out of his car to complain. That was comical. Well we made it with 10 minutes to spare and I got prepped to run.

We were waiting for Scott and the Ace Venture team, complete with pink frilly skirts, feathered back hair and a football made there hand off. Scott came roaring through right on target and I took off on the final 7 miles which I was hoping to do below 8 minutes per mile. I have raced several tris where you have the benefit of seeing the R on the back of relay team calves. I did not have such an R and got to enjoy that feeling of passing boatloads of people. It's always such an annoying feeling in a tri especially when you see that R. Well I felt good and kept my heart rate in the low 160s for the most part. I gave an OK kick for the final few hundred yards and looked at my watch which said 11:34am...official time to come later on.

We all met up and headed for brunch with a handful of folks. Thanks a bunch to Roland for driving and great job to the team! Official time 3:31. Susan 9:50 / mile. Sarah 9:36. Scott 6:25. Me 7:49. We all were right in line with our individual projections. Good enough for 39th of over 300+ relay teams and a top 20 for mixed teams. Well done!

Happy training!

Coming up soon...rebuilding my road bike into a racing machine!

Training as a Vacation

Triathlete magazine often talks about races as destination vacations. There are also a multitude of training camps out there to pay money and have them tell you what do. How about just picking a cool location and going there for an extended weekend focused on training and recovering (aka, relaxing)? I've done it in the past and was fortunate to do it again last weekend in Moab, UT.

My wife loves camping, mountain biking, road biking and skiing. This is instrumental in me balancing work and training with a happy marriage. We headed over to Utah on Thursday for a 3 day camping and mountain biking trip (a day and a half off work doesn't hurt) with the Denver Mountain Bikes Meetup.

Thursday night we met up with some folks at a restaurant and I kept it clean with some salmon on mixed greens. We headed over to the camp site and set up our tent in the dark (with the help of some headlamps). We headed to bed early to wake up for the big Slick Rock ride on Friday.

Friday morning we both woke up around 8:30. I broke out the camp stove and cooked some Canadian Bacon, toast, mixed fruit, banana and eggs (same breakfast again Saturday). After breakfast we headed over to Slick Rock. It was pretty crowded (as is often the case). We had about 15 folks so we just went out and rode the 15 mile or so ride. It's basically a practice loop and then a big lollipop course. Slick Rock is a bit of a misnomer because it's sandstone and you bike tires get traction like nothing else I've ever ridden on this planet. Anyway it took awhile to ride as we were liberal with stops to keep the whole group together. We finished a little over 4 hours later counting our lunch break.

We headed back to the camp site. Some folks went for showers. Dana decided to do some yoga and I figured this was the perfect time to get a brick workout in and changed gear for a desert run. I refilled my CamelBak and put on my trail running shoes, grabbed the iPod and was off. I headed out for about 9 miles (4.5 mile out and back). Theelevation gain on the way out was incredible. But I felt pretty good and after finishing it was time to shower up and head out for dinner. We hit Pasta Jay's with our big group and I had some chicken and penne.

I went to bed early again. I slept unbelievable well there considering we were sharing an air mattress in the tent. Saturday we woke up and had breakfast. Then we loaded the car and headed to Sovereign Singletrack. Some folks took a shuttle to do Porcupine. I've done and thought it was a little too technical of downhill for Dana. Sovereign was some good climbing and rolling hills so it worked well. We got ahead of the group along with Anelise another rider and so we waited a few times but to no avail. Then we kind of got turned around with some folks (Don and Jody who I did not get contact info for) we met out on the trails so we just kept at it. It was a long 5+ hour day of riding and we all ran out of water with about an hour to go. Given it's the desert I was beat by the time we were done (I took a little longer route back than the ladies).

We headed back to camp and dropped off the bikes and headed for showers again. We (about 30 of us) had dinner at Eddie McStiff's that night. Dana had Salmon Putanesca and I had a strip steak with mashed potatoes. We shared and then had 2 big desserts, which were well deserved and tasty. I had hoped to run that day but was totally destroyed and had a pretty good wreck on Sovereign hurting my right wrist and left shoulder.

Sunday we decided to head back in the morning instead of ride since it was windy and rainy and generally not so great. Plus my wrist was pretty banged up. We grabbed breakfast with the group at the Pancake House. I had an omelet and muffin. Then we hit the road for 5:30 hour trip back to Denver. We got back with plenty of daylight to spare and my legs felt pretty good. So I grabbed my 4 bottle fuel belt and headed out for a run. I decided since I felt good I'd just do a half marathon and call it a successful weekend training vacation. The 13.1 miles went well. I felt strong the whole time and finished under 2 hours without pushing too hard.

Dana was quite happy with her first riding in Moab. The last time we went she just had knee surgery so she read at the campsite. This time she got to fully partake and said it was blast. I was quite happy with the diversions of new mountain biking terrain and the joy of going hard all day and then resting well afterwards. I recommend it anybody looking to balance work, training and family.