Arrival! Our cabin, expertly haggled into our possession by Slothower, who was still on his way |
Top priority and first into our cozy cabin - Mr Coffee of course. |
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Ferrell struggles to learn an unfamiliar phone and get hold of Slothower, who we found out later was also struggling... with a dead cell phone battery. |
Dave and Mai find us at the transition area, and we head down to get our swag from the nice young lady... |
A pasta dinner for the troops, overlooking the lake. |
The Olympic swim started just below on the sand, out past the orange bouys and to some green bouys beyond the edge, clockwise back the start, and then a 50 yard run on the sand and then out for a second lap. |
A happy family! |
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Relaxing... |
...and reliving past Bass Lake triathlon adventures |
Race morning 5:30am. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (well, bright shirt'd anyway) Slothower, gets an early go for the sprint race. |
Ferrell's standard pre-race breakfast - cereal, Mr Coffee, and nutwheels. I had 2 eggs, a Kind bar, and my protein smoothie. |
Let's get this show on the road! |
Bummer... all the good spots are taken |
I do like the pre-race ritual |
Rick pulling himself together. So, the sprint got off first. Rick and I had time to cheer in Slothower as he finished the swim. My swim, I started on the extreme right, deepest water (water start for this race). No pix, alas. Two loops on the swim, beat Ferrell out by about 20 seconds, but he caught me running up to the bikes, I beat him out of the transition, he caught me on the bike on the first big hill about a half mile up. |
Ferrell! |
I had a great race.... but not THIS great. Me and Ferrell together on the run?! Yeeaahh! But, he's on his second loop, I'm on my first. |
Away he goes, to chase down another competitor |
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Rick at the turn-around |
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Good-looking volunteers always help keep the blood pumping |
Finish line in sight now... |
Great race! Now it's time to relax and enjoy... |
Post-race BBQ, where we meet Paul Sharman- who was the organizer (and fellow competitor) of my very first triathlon - the Strawman Tri - in 1985 at little Camp Verde, Arizona. Remarkable! |
As the number of Michelob empty's grows... |
...Ferrell's smile grows too |
Party's over - the final transition rituals begin, taking our stuff back to the cabin. Then, to the awards ceremony
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Slothower takes 2nd place for the Sprint race |
Ferrell took 2nd in his age group too - Here accepting the wild cheers from adoring fans and groupies, apparently. |
Like Bass Lake days of old, our table took home a good share of the awards. And like a Charlie Brown Halloween, "I got a rock" was heard over and over |
Candid camera, Dave! - pull it together |
A last few moments in our cabin. |
Bike slung over the shoulder, Rick navigates down the path from our cabin |
The ceremonial re-packing of the faithful and ever-present Mr Coffee - not something to joke around about. |
A last few items - then we're off. Next stop, Los Banos and a good Mexican restaurant to refuel properly - thanks Mai and Dave! |
Slothhower had a strong race, and in a tough age group. Dave's time of 1:22:21 would have earned him 1st place in the younger age groups of 45-50, 40-44, and even 35-39. He was 7th overall! Congrats Dave on a top 10 finish.
So... The timing mat for the swim was WAY up at the entrance to the bike transition, which was the upper parking lot of the Pines Resort. I exited the water and my watch said 29:47. It was another 3 minutes running barefoot uphill to the timing mat. Rick caught me about 2/3 of the way up, and beat me to the mat by 9 seconds. Gah! The swim sure seemed longer than the advertised 1.5k, even just the water portion. With my stroke, I figured I'd be 26 minutes even, and then add maybe 20 seconds for the 50 yard run through the sand for the second swim loop.
Some notes: I felt much better out there than I expected. I think I did a few things right... First, I got back on the "stick" and roller the prior two nights before the race - this is something I've been slacking on for most of this year since I've not had any injuries and roller'ing isn't particularly fun.. Second, I got to sleep early. Third, I ate hardly at all during the 3 hr race. Just a Gu and half a bottle of Accelerade. 4th, I didn't forget the 5hr Energy bottle, which I nursed along the bike and run. I did take a cup of water at every aid station on the run. I felt light and had plenty of energy and no big issues with my hip.
Here's the splits...
| Group | swim | T1 | Bike | T2 | Run | Total | Group Place | Overall Place | |
| Rick Ferrell | 55-59 | 32:14 | 3:38 | 1:19:04 | 1:13 | 45:28 | 2:41:40 | 2nd/10 | 17th/177 |
| Rick Nolthenius | 60-64 | 32:23 | 2:32 | 1:40:03 | 1:27 | 59:34 | 3:16:02 | 6th/9 | 83rd/177 |
Sloth was our videographer after he finished his excellent race, and he got a couple of short YouTube video's of Rick Ferrell coming in here, and me on the run, struggling to extract my camera from my fuel pack, and starting the second run loop, and Rick Ferrell finishing
