Race Report: Tempe International Triathlon

Last Sunday, Chris competed in the olympic (aka international) distance of the Tempe International Triathlon with some of his buddies from work, Jake and Matt.  Two other Gore colleagues, Tim and Peter, did the sprint distance triathlon, which was their first tri each.  Adding to this group of distinguished gentlemen, Cova Endurance was also well represented:  Coach’s wife Emily, one of his buddies Dave, and one of our friends Ryan also completed the olympic distance. 

Me?  I spectated.

Race Mom, reporting for duty!

Okay, time for the details:

We met Jake, his lovely wife Keeli, Matt, Tim, Peter, and his lovely wife Justine at a Costco parking lot at 4:30am to consolidate vehicles and caravan to the race site.  At this early hour, traffic was nonexistent, so the trip was smooth, apart from Chris texting Matt dire warnings about the state of his fancy new tri bike, currently (and safely!) mounted on the top of Jake’s SUV, and Matt texting back with increasingly distressed-sounding responses.  We found parking spots in the nearby US Airways garage and unloaded.  Yes, we took Matt’s bike off Jake’s SUV before we pulled into the garage.  Thank you, honey, for making that mistake so everyone could learn from it.

Matt, Tim, and Jake unpack Jake's SUV

We're still a bit sleepy...

It's important to use your swag properly.

Justine and Peter, all smiles

Tim's bucket, ready to go!

The athletes, heading to set up their transition area

Sunrise over the lake

While most tri’s in Tempe start on the south bank of Tempe Town Lake, this race runs from the north side, which allows for some interesting experiences.  One of these involved trekking everything across the Mill Ave bridge, and taking it into a transition area next to the Marquee Theatre, directly underneath one of the directions of the nearby freeway.  Hey, at least it’s in the shade.

The Keeler transition zone

 

Keeli, practicing proper skin care

"...Columbus sailed the ocean blue."

Since we had some tri newbies with us, we made sure to get to the site early, so everyone could set out their gear and get warmed up before the event.  Bikes were racked and pictures were taken.  Chris had a rather hairy moment where a few yahoos running late crammed their bikes next to his on the rack, sending his stuff flying and making him actually frown. 

That’s not a happy face.

We also found Ryan and Tara a few racks down and visited with them for a few minutes.  Although Tara wasn’t running this race, she and Ryan are both competing in Ironman AZ 2014, which will be held in November.  Coach is training them, and I’m sure they’ll do great!

Ryan and Tara before the race

The days have been getting warmer and warmer here in the Valley, and all week, it was expected to reach the triple digits on race day.  Thankfully, the morning started overcast, but the afternoon was still warm, and the painfully early 6:30am start time was actually appreciated.*  With a few minutes before the gun went off, we headed down to the water.

The gang, pre-race.  From left, Matt, Peter, Tim, Chris, and Jake

The kiddos in the sprint took off first, so we wished good racing to Tim and Peter and waited around while they completed their swim around the buoys.  The rest of the group also readied their swim caps and wetsuits for their start, about to come in another 20 minutes or so.

Peter comes out of the water

That's the face of determination!

Here comes Tim!

Chris and Jake getting ready

Road ID, XTerra, and Garmin, feel free to send us royalty checks whenever

We cheered Peter and Tim out of the water and up into transition and then bid adieu to Chris and Jake, who were starting in the age group wave, then Matt, who was running with the Clydesdales.**  Ryan also went off with the Clydesdales.

Tara sends Ryan off to the swim

We found Coach and Mila and hung out with them for awhile, enjoying the day.

Happy baby!

Eventually, the gentleman and Emily all came back from their swim, and everyone headed up the ramp into the transition area.

First, Chris...

...then, Jake...

...Dave...

...Emily...

...Ryan...

...and Matt!

From a spectator perspective, this event was pretty nicely done; the olympic distance athletes did two loops on the bike and two loops on the run, so it was easy to track them, and the area between the lake and transition was also part of the run course.  I initially had plans to walk to a section of the bike course about a mile away, but with my ankle still rehabbing***, I decided that taking it easy was a better way to go.  From my perspective on the north side of the lake, I was able to see the athletes finish the swim, come out of transition, disappear for awhile while they were biking, then run down a set of steps and enter the run course.  At my spot, I was also able to see the sprint finishers coming back from their single loop of the run course and heading up the final curve to the finish line.  Although I didn’t see any part of the bike course, that’s normally the most boring part of a tri; everyone whizzes by you so fast that you barely see them, and there’s little to no interaction, even if your athlete is really looking for you and vice versa.  Thus, I didn’t miss too much.  We also had a superb system of LWP – Ladies With Phones – and we communicated status updates as we saw our gentlemen (and Emily!) fly through on their various legs of the course.

Enough chatting – here comes Tim!

And here’s Peter, about to finish!

And now here’s Tim again, toughing it out on the home stretch!

Here’s a slew of pictures of the olympic athletes starting the run:

Dave, in his snazzy T3 gear.

Jake, directly after I yelled,

"how are you beating Chris right now!?!?!?!" 

Emily, also a proud T3'r

Chris, climbing down the stairs out of transition.

Thankfully, I didn't witness anyone totally eat it.

And off he goes! 

Ryan, making sure his shorts are adjusted properly.

And now he's off!

Matt totally takes the win in the fine art of

knowing where the camera is located.

After Ryan headed down the stairs and off on the course, Tara joined me and we cheered Matt as he started his run.  The pass through of the second loop was close to where I was initially standing, so Tara and I strolled to the shady area near the pass through to watch our athletes start their second loop.

 I mentioned it was getting toasty out there, right?

After Matt headed through on his second lap, we packed up our gear**** and started for the finish line.  We knew that within 10 minutes or so, folks would start to come through and close out their day.  Dave and Emily came through first, so quickly that I don’t have pictures of them.  Chris and Jake had been near each other all day, trading places back and forth; Chris had beaten Jake out of the swim, Jake was faster in T1 and on the bike, T2 was roughly even, and Chris is generally a faster runner (it’s because of the giant legs he has).  Jake was leading through the second loop, and when I saw him coming in (with Keeli running alongside him), I wasn’t too surprised. 

However, check out who is lurking in the background of this shot:

Catch him, honey!

Jake ended up beating Chris to the finish line and according to those who checked the official timed results (not me), Jake took the day with a blistering 5 second win over Chris.  Crazy kids.

Within the next few minutes, we were able to cheer on both Ryan and Matt through the finish line, and our day was over. 

Peter, Mila, Luis, and Chris watch the finish

Ryan, coming in strong!

Who's ready for brunch and has two thumbs?

This guy!

(also, this blogger)

We had a celebratory brunch meal with some of Peter and Justine’s friends at N Counter on Mill Ave, then headed home for showers and couch time.

A HUGE congrats to all of our finishers, particularly (in the terms commonly used at the annual Beerathalon) our no-longer FNG’s***** Peter and Tim!  Great work, everybody!

Eh, you guys know what Chris looks like.

It's fine.

Later!

Amy

* Maybe more so by the athletes than we spectators who also woke up at 3:30am for a race in which we were not competing.  That was gnarly.

** Many runs and tris have Clydesdale divisions, which is for gentlemen over 200 pounds.  Chris normally just misses the weight limit, as he tends to hover around 195 or so.  The lady version is 

called Athena.

*** But doing better every day!

**** Pretzel sticks, mainly.

***** Frakking New Guys.