my green run as a triathele (issaquah triathlon 2009)

Does someone that’s never won Paris-Roubaix deserve his own denim collection, Hincapie jeans? I wonder if finishing 119 in the Issaquah Triathlon 2009 allows me to put my name on someone’s ass. Probably not. At best I might be able to persuade my wife to get my name (it’s short) on a cupcake, but she also did the triathlon and won’t be too impressed.

Triathlons can seem daunting. Before you do one, you imagine drowning in the swim, crashing on the bike, and tripping over a squirrel and smashing into a tree on the run. The worst excuse is that it’s too hard. It keeps people from ever attempting it. So it’s awesome to turn out to an event and seeing numbers upwards of a thousand people tackling their aspirations (triathlon, duathlon, 5k, etc). I’ve been to these types of events before, but this was my first triathlon.

In some ways it was like the first time I went snowboarding. The experienced boarders I was with took me down a black diamond run to “teach” me to board. After that all the other runs were easy. To some level, that was my experience with my first triathlon. The triathletes that I know are competitive and they set my expectation in training. So the green run of a sprint triathlon seems pretty easy.

In the Obama era, even the Issaquah triathlon changed. The bike was shorten due to road construction and the run was extended to make it closer to 5k. All this was minor, probably the biggest change was the increase of the participants by over 30% for the triathlon from 2008 (704 to 929). That’s a good change in my book.

After a few months of training, I'm one of these new rookies. Last fall, my friends threw me into a pool and taught me to swim, just about the same time I started my running again. Both were tough starting out, I couldn’t even swim a length of a pool when I started and my knees would be so sore I couldn’t walk after a 3 mile run at slower than a 10 min/mile pace. So when I look at a triathlon, the swim and run are the most intimidating, where the mass start swim is probably the most infamous part of a triathlon and potentially the most terrifying.

Well, the swim indeed lived up to the expectation. How my friend described it to me afterwards was that I was stuck in the washing machine part of the pack. I guess I need to avoid that part in the future, going faster than the pack or swimming off the edge or the back. I vote for being in front. The first 100 meters were crazy. You just surfed the mass of bodies undulating in the water, elbowing and kicking each other to the first turn. After that you can almost swim without being clobbered constantly. Of course, you have to stop seeing stars first.

The bike was my strength as I’ve been biking for a good number of years. I’m pretty comfortable, with my stealth bomber Orbea Ordu, riding in a pack in tight situations. Since there’s no drafting in a triathlon, the biggest benefit is being comfortable passing people on the road in the aero position. I pretty much passed everyone I saw on the road and felt pretty good. However, it was not like what I’m used to in a conventional time-trial with a lot more people dodging and a lot more easy spinning. The mile in and out of the park was slow without much opportunity to pass unless you want to take unnecessary risk to make better time, potentially knocking a few aspiring triathletes off their bikes, including yourself. So I lost a lot of time in those parts, which I imagine can vary dramatically for each competitor. In the end, I was pretty happy with my bike with plenty of opportunity to improve next year.

Running was not like I trained at all. I couldn’t just keep hitting the up arrow to increase the speed to my target pace and watch the Oxygen channel to build mental toughness. Also the treadmill doesn’t have all the bumps of the uneven terrain. I wonder if someone is going to invent that. The run course is beautiful on a sunny day, if you weren’t gasping for air and have tunnel vision. Probably the biggest thing next year is trying wearing a shoe that has more stability, which may be helpful for the trail running and increasing my run speed. Or just tether to the guy blazing by me from 2 waves back. I’m slow, just started running, and decreased my run volume before this triathlon. There should be some good room to grow.

Adding all that up, including some OK transition times for a rookie, I had 1:10:41 for my first sprint triathlon with a ranking of 119/929 overall or 23/116 for my age group. I was able to beat John Curley a local celebrity and health and fitness advocate working the cause, http://ibeatjohncurley.com/. For next year, maybe I’ll be bold and try to break 100 overall. Ok that’s a lie, but check back next year to see what happens. Next up, a blue run, Lake Steven’s Ironman 70.3. I can’t wait to get to my first black diamond triathlon.

BTW, does anyone want to buy jeans from a guy who finished 119 in a triathlon. I loved to be sponsored and do this for a living.

live strong

Vu Nguyen rode in the Livestrong Challenge in Portland Oregon on June 29th. Read about Vu's experience and his short lived attack on Lance. For readers who do not cycle, "attack" is a cycling term that describes a sudden acceleration of one's bicycle rather than a physical altercation.

Vu also describes his fundraising efforts, his enjoyment of the event and the importance of continuing to support the fight against cancer. Thank you Vu for your hard work. Cancer has no friends on the Starbucks/SCCA Cycling Team!   --  Darol Tuttle

I’ve done many bike rides and LiveStrong wasn’t a ride, it was an event. There were of course a lot of bikers and runners, but that didn’t really define the event. It was everyone coming together to remember their love ones and celebrate their lives, a showcase of how you can take back your life after cancer, and of course a fundraiser to help survivors. I’ve lived in the Portland area for many years and have fond memories of visiting friends at Nike during their Friday unwinders. As a patient at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, myself, and coming back to Portland for the ride, it felt a bit like completeness. But the weekend was a roller coaster of emotion and labor.

My wife and I had a hectic week. She told me she had the hardest work week in her life and on the Friday night before the event, it wasn’t over. She had to work really late, think several hours into the AM on Saturday, which meant we didn’t leave town until the afternoon on Saturday. We barely made it to registration and we had errands to do, including a bunch of bike maintenance on my part. I ended up sleeping late, think again AM, after catching up with friends we were staying with. The next morning, I underestimated what it would take to get into Nike campus for such an event. I got to the campus an hour early, or should I say on the road next to campus an hour early. After 30 minutes of waiting in a left turn lane, where only 3 cars made it through the light because the traffic into Nike was backed up, I called Darol. Who told me I should meet them on the ride course. I was thinking man, I guess this is going to be solo day representing Starbucks and SCCA.

I drove a couple of miles from campus and parked my car and road down to the main entrance to Nike. I get a friendly shout from a girl saying, “Are you a hundred miler? They are about to roll.” I looked around and all the roads that lead to the front of the hundred mile staging area was packed with people, solid layers of people that seems to stretch beyond what I could see. I’m a bit confused but I obviously was well positioned, so I didn’t complain. I looked around and there were people taking pictures of two guys in the LiveStrong yellow and black. The announcer said go, the photographers weren’t quite done taking pictures yet, meaning they were still in the middle of the road. I was amazed no one got not knocked down as they tried to dodge the photographers, leaving Nike.

I quickly learned that the guy I’m riding with is Lance Armstrong. I rode next to Lance and his buddy for several miles. I didn’t try to talk to him, since he was talking to his friend and people who were trying to get his attention. I just thought, how luck was I. I was soft pedaling and found myself probably a good 10 feet off the front of the entire pack. Then I see some guy shoot by me and I said hi and got on his wheel. This was where it gets fun. Lance has an entourage of police motorbikes as his motorcade, where one crashed almost immediately out of the gate. From what I can tell their job was to stay ahead of Lance and block off streets as he rode by. Me and this guy were now probably a few hundred feet in front of the pack and Lance. I did the classic Lance look back, hoping to see him chase us down, but alas no. But now the motorcade of motorcycles also had to block off the streets for us and since we were so far ahead it caused them some logistic issues I was guessing. However, for a few minutes I was able to feel how the king of cycling felt, streets being blocked and traffic stopped as you past. Ahhhh, the life. Not too long after that I looked back and Lance’s group was chasing us down. They quickly caught us, but another guy shot by to ride with the guy who originally shot forward and they stayed ahead for a while. I was in the fold again and riding within a bike distance from Lance. I was just enjoying the pace that picked up and riding in a peloton with Lance Armstrong leading it. Can’t complain about that. But alas all good things have to come to an end. Lance took an immediate right that made the peloton scramble to figure what way they were suppose to go. I guess he was riding out with the 100 milers but was only doing the 70 mile ride. I was anxious to try my first season climbing legs against the 7 time winner for the Tour de France, but that was not meant to be.

After that the peloton was unleashed. It was casual at first with some joking and small talk about Lance Armstrong then one or two people shot ahead and drawn back. At the first little bump, the peloton was decimated and the racers asserted themselves. The hills were solid hills with great 1000+ climbs on average for the two major hills for the course. I was likely one of the first twenty people to crest the top of the second hill. I was hoping to see some Starbucks arrive, but didn’t see any. When I took off on the course again, there was no one to ride with as most people where just beginning to get to the top. It was an extremely fast decent, reaching speeds of around 50 mph. I was lectured by a friendly guy who said I was going too fast especially on roads I didn’t know. He couldn’t believe that I was continuing to gap him on the decent. It was funny because he was obviously trying to chase me down and was upset it took longer. I was glad to have the company and road with him for 10 miles until I stopped to get my cleats fixed. Off on my own again, I road until I notice a bunch more people. Finally the route lined up with the 40/70 mile loops. I caught some people and rode with them for a while, but one after another dropped off on the hills of Hagg Lake until I was alone again. My only consolation was that I met Deb, one of our survivor team members. I apologize for not having the opportunity to meet her before. She was doing really well and was really strong. We departed a few minutes later, hoping to see her at the finish line. The day was getting blistering and I can’t take the heat (and wanted to get out of the kitchen).

With 25 miles left to go, the sun was oppressive and I was beginning to suffer a little from heat exhaustion and dehydration. I drank tons more water than normal and the max my body would take in, but not fast enough to counter that water loss. I never do well in the heat. It was about 95 degrees with a dry wind that vaporized any moister almost instantaneously. At the power stops, there were people spraying us down with water and I would stand there until I was completely soaked, but only a few minutes on the bike and it was completely dry. I was fortunate to have a guy pull me for the majority of the last miles. It helped motivate me to finish sooner. He was also the guy who lectured me earlier about descending too fast on unknown roads. I finished a little over six hours total time. At the end of day after a bunch of food and drink, I was still down by 7 lbs, which was amazing.

Immediately after the ride as with during the ride, I was approached by other bikers asking if my teammate was OK. I was really confused because I’ve not ridden with other Starbucks rider all day. So I didn’t have any information to give them. At first, I thought it was a mistake, but after the 4th person asked me about it I was sure it wasn’t a mistake. After the ride I was able to get the whole story. It was a Starbucks rider that went down. Fortunately, nothing a few weeks of recovery can’t heal up, but it did involve a broken bone, a major laceration, and a bunch of road rash.

I personally would like to thank all the people who sponsored me in such short notice, with my registration setup less than a week before the event, I was able to push pass my personal goal of $400, hitting $465. Thanks for helping out the survivors!