XTerra Vashon Island

My first XTerra (off road) triathlon was a couple weeks ago on Vashon Island and I truly enjoyed the experience.

We left a day early and stopped at the Clear Lake Triathlon for Jacobs third try at this race and he improved again finishing under 20 minutes!

After, we continued south to spend the day with my Grandma and took her a surprise lunch in honor of her 91st birthday and then spent the night at my parents. We all got up early Sunday morning and were off to catch the 6 am ferry to Vashon Island so I could pre ride the course to check for dangerous sections, roots, logs, rocks, sections where I could pass and spots to conserve a bit of energy.

We were second in line for the ferry behind other Bellingham triathletes (Tjalling and Dan) headed over for the same pre ride. It was great to be able to pre ride with these experienced XTerra studs (both have raced at XTerra world championships in Maui).

The guys at BuDu Racing were still setting up when we arrived, so we went out for our pre-ride before registering. Lots of the tape marking the course had been cut down so we took our time and reset what we could and I think pre riding helped me out during the race.

We got registered and walked down to the starting dock and given the course description and I almost had to laugh... Swim out and around this red sailboat over there and then head to the green one over towards the other side of the marina. trouble was there were three green sailboats to choose from. we got it all settled out and I, being a slower swimmer, was just following the swimmers in front of me so not too worried. and we were off, nice salty water (ug!) but only about half a mile so not too long and was out of the water in under 15 minutes and up the football field of mud at low tide (made for a shorter swim and was actually runnable and not too mucky)

I don't have click style pedals for my mountain bikes and just wore my running shoes for the bike and run. I got quickly onto my bike and was off out the parking lot and a very short section of road and right onto a tough, sandy, steep up hill section that I had to get off and push my bike, and being a race wanted to run while pushing and I was very soon huffing and puffing and pretty much red lined on top end of my HR.

Once up the course has less up and down and lots of winding single track which made it hard to know where other competitors were, but I just tried to keep on pushing myself and kept up some speed. We do this lap twice and it was easier the 3rd time (counting pre ride) and never crashed but did get banged and scratched up from how narrow the single track was with all the bushes and stuff. Great fun!

The final half mile or so of the bike course is on paved roads and mostly downhill so it made for a nice fast ride back into transition and since I already had my running shoes on, I had a very quick T2 and was off running.

Coming right out of transition is a steep hill that you must go up and across the road for a short on road uphill then onto a trail that, you guessed it, continues uphill, but once up was back on windy, up and down single track and again not knowing where other runners are kinda makes you run scared. There is a long paved road (maybe 3/4 mile) in the middle of the run that I was able to open up a bit more and then after is the flying descent back to the finish line right at the bottom of the same steep hill you went up to start.

All in all, I had a great time and enjoyed the event and course. BuDu has always put on a great event in my opinion.

I gathered up my stuff quickly as we were trying to catch a quick ferry off the south side of the island for the start of our trip to the Oregon coast staying at Cannon Beach. We made a couple wrong turns and when we got to the ferry dock, the ferry was just offshore headed over to Pt Defiance in Tacoma, so we got an extended rest waiting, but then were off the Debbie's parents for a shower, drop off the bikes, some lunch and quick visit then down to Oregon. Check out our trip pictures here.

Lake Padden Triathlon 2008

This was my second run at the competitive version of the Lake Padden Triathlon and was hoping to improve on my previous time from 2006. Last year I was at a little race over in Coeur d'Alene 8-)

Got up early and drove to the park and got the closest parking spot one could get and then rather than just sit and veg I decided to jump out and help Lance and his crew setup transition. It was fun setting up the racks and then being able to set my bike at the premier spot (first row closest to bike exit).

As more and more people started to show up I stopped helping and was able to visit with friends and before long was in my wetsuit and down at the beach for a short warm up. We all got out of the water for pre race messages and then the first wave went off. I was able to get into the second wave and we went off about 3 minutes after the first.

Got into a nice groove and actually swam pretty straight. Hit the turn around buoy with lots of other swimmers still around me, so felt good about keeping pace. Way back to the beach it was definitely thinning out, but still enough to help keep me swimming straight. Hit the beach at 14:32!

Run up the grass hill and into transition and saw Debbie and the kids, they found the cattle bells and were ringing them for me, awesome. Real quick transition and off up the steep driveway out of the park and onto Lake Samish road.

The bike course is pretty hilly, but all that goes up must go down, so we get lots of downhills too. But first we must climb up and out of the Lake Padden area up towards the parking lot people use at the bottom of Galbraith. I was trying to keep a good pace, but this first hill is always tough on me and got passed by a couple riders, but was able to keep them close and on the long downhill into the lap around Lake Samish passed them back.

Kept a good pace around the lake and then back up that long downhill towards Lake Padden, but we turn at the freeway and go onto Old Lake Samish road that is generally downhill towards Chuckanut Drive. I like this section as you can really hammer it and get back some time.

Once on Chuckanut it is uphill again but it is short and get to come right back down the other side into Fairhaven and then we turn towards the freeway and the climb kinda starts before the freeway but once under it really turns up and this short 3 block climb is tough and pretty much straight up, but once at the top you come out onto Lake Samish drive and just another mile or so back to the park.

My bike split of 1:02:20 (20.2 MPH) was 3 minutes faster than 2006, woohoo!

Quick transition and off to run around the lake twice. This part is always tough to run past the finish for your second lap. The finish is right there but you cannot use it, must run around again.

I was running at a pretty good pace and it felt like I ran at a consistent pace not slowing too much. Each lap was within 30 seconds of each other. I was able to run the finish with Jacob and Alex and stopped the clock at 1:58:06 44Th out of 256 overall and 9Th out of 29 in my age group (M35-39). I was VERY happy to improve by 4 minutes on my 2006 time!

Great photo by Brunk Photo

Inmate 631 Escaped from Alcatraz

SAN FRANCISCO - Inmate number 631 Glenn Gervais (AKA GGTriGuy) escaped from the ROCK also known as Alcatraz on Sunday June 8, 2008. After an early morning wake up call at 4:15 he was seen riding his bicycle from his cozy hotel room to the Marina Green near the San Francisco waterfront. Glenn dropped off his bicycle and left behind a Scooby Doo towel, helmet, sunglasses and shoes for bicycling and running but quickly left for his get away vehicle, a large tour bus.

John an Ironman athlete from Wisconsin was seen talking to Glenn on the bus ride to Pier 3 but did not apprehend our triathlete. Unable to verify, but we think Glenn was among 1800 people in wetsuits boarding the San Francisco Belle, a 292-foot stern wheeler two hours later just before 7 am. The cruise ship departed at 7:15 sharp before we were able to board to take Glenn into custody. The San Francisco Belle returned empty and we think Glenn jumped ship near Alcatraz Island and swam 1.5 miles to shore.

Glenn was seen exiting the water at St Francis Yacht Club by his Brother, Wife, kids and about 2000 other spectators but no one grabbed him. Glenn took off his wetsuit but left the Blue Seventy swim socks on and ran about half a mile before finding the bicycle and gear that he left behind hours earlier. He was too fast and was already gone on the bicycle before we could stop him for questioning.

There were over 1800 athletes and 20,000+ spectators so we could not follow Glenn out onto the bicycle course, but we believe he conquered the out and back hilly San Francisco course that went up and down through the Presido and out the other side and down to the Great Highway before turning into the Golden Gate park. Glenn's family saw him returning to the bicycle parking lot and caught him waving, so we know he really enjoyed the bike course.

After another quick stop to change his shoes Glenn was back on course, this time running. The sun was really beating down on all the athletes as they ran out towards the Golden gate bridge along the waterfront, only to find some stairs that took them oh so close to the bridge deck but just eluded capture by running under the bridge and through a battlement and some trails at Fort Point before running on the street out to a trail that took the athletes down to Baker Beach.

The athletes were seen running south to the end of Baker Beach before turning north to run to the other side where Glenn was seen at the bottom of the infamous 400 step sand ladder by an 11 year old athlete from Florida as she passed him and quickly beat him to the top.

Once tackling the sand ladder Glenn was rewarded with Clif Bloks before running back the same course to get back to the Marina Green where we finally caught Glenn as he crossed the finish line and officially Escaped from Alcatraz!

Once Glenn slowed down we were able to interview him and it is true, he did escape from Alcatraz along with about 1600 other triathletes. 1259Th out of the water he passed quite a few on the bike and run to finish in 595Th place. Plug in inmate (bib) number 631 here for complete results.



What a great race, What a great event! The weather turned out perfect, no fog, the ebb tide pushed us in the right direction. I used the pre race advice and sighted properly and came out on the correct beach. Hearing Debbie, Joe and everyone cheering for me gave me a great big smile and pumped me up even more. With so many people, the only thing I can compare to is the Ironman in Coeur d'Alene. Both races were put on by different organizations, but both were perfectly run and very well run. I highly recommend doing this event. I will do it again some day.

My Picasa photo album of the event is here: http://picasaweb.google.com/ggtriguy/EscapeFromAlcatraz

My Picasa photo album of our GREAT vacation is here: http://picasaweb.google.com/ggtriguy/SanFranciscoVacation

Off to Alcatraz

Well we are on our way for a great week of fun ending with a Triathlon where I will swim 1.5 miles from Alcatraz to downtown San Francisco followed by a nice 1 mile warm up run to find my bicycle amongst the 2000 bikes for a hilly 18 mile ride finally finishing with a short 8 mile run including the famous sand ladder up from Baker Beach! WOOO HOOOO!!!

Hopefully you can track my progress online at: http://triathlon.accenture.com/SanFrancisco/

While your waiting for me to finish, head over to the B-Fit BDay site where I did a birthday Triathlon on my birthday. Since I turned 38, I swam the 3 miles, biked 38 and ran 8 miles in about 5 hours or so on my birthday to complete the GOLD challenge. Please vote for me (GG Iron Guy) and I might win a prize!

Voting is along the left side of the screen: http://www.bfitbday.com

Check back next week for a race report and photos from Alcatraz!!!

Ski to Sea

The Ski to Sea race this year was quite different. With all the snow we had this winter and a recent heat wave, the river was flowing high and fast and as of late Saturday night the full race was planned to be run. After an early morning evaluation, the race director decided to cancel the canoe leg of the event. While there were lots of disappointed racers this was the best decision due to the high water there were no beaches to allow for self rescue. The exit beach (at the mountain bike leg start) was 6 feet under fast moving water, there was no place for them to exit the river.

So onto my leg the mountain bike... How to keep the race on schedule and allow for proper spacing and finishing in Fairhaven. They gave each canoe leg the same 2 hour time and tried to have the mountain bikers leave 2 hours after their road biker finished 18 miles away in Everson. it was quite hectic, but at least it wasn't raining. Actually it was hot and we heard at least 4 bike tires explode!

They did pretty good with the 2 hour window with the front runners, but then moved to about 5 riders at time about 3-4 minutes apart, then about 10 at a time, finally they gave up and just started calling numbers.

I rode my bike out to Hovander for the pre race meeting and then to wait... and wait... about 3-4 hours after arriving I finally got underway during the call out of numbers. I started out quick and kept passing riders that went out ahead of me, it was nice to have all these riders up ahead to give me targets to chase and catch.

This is a flat and fast course, only one small actual section of mud and more than half is on the road, so road with my slick tires pumped way up and tried to ride low and aerodynamic as possible. I caught more on the road and was only passed by one person, but I was able to catch his wheel and draft for a bit and then passed him back to have him pass me again, this time he got away but not too far and I finally caught back just as we got to the beach section, where you don't ride, but run with your bike and I just ran past him and never saw him again.

After the beach it is more road and into the park to Zuanich park at the finish to hand off to the kayaker. I needed to pass two more to get an even count and I had them in my sights and made the final pass after the final turn in the last 150 yards of the ride. Passed the line and passed the timing chip onto Jim.

I had a great ride, passed 40 riders and was 59th fastest overall (out of about 420 teams) and 11th fastest in the rec open category. Debbie and kids came to the finish and got some great pics. After a shower we went to Jims for a post race party and the whole team made it and exchanged food, drinks and stories of the day. All in all a great day.

THAT was a challenge

I did the North Face Endurance Challenge yesterday and was one of the toughest, hardest and slowest half marathons I think I'll ever do. The held the event at Camp Lutherwood on the north end of Lake Samish. They are planting trees for each competitor to offset the carbon gasses generated by the race, so I decided to help out and ride my bicycle.

I was up and out the door about 6:30 and very few cars on the road and nice easy ride over to the lake, about 11 mile warm-up arriving at about 7:30. I had hour and half to change, relax, and get my timing chip. Saw Damian video taping a friend of his doing the 50k. The 50k runners started at 7 am and we saw them coming through the first aid station and it was then I knew I was in for a long day. I missed some of the front runners, but by the time I figured out that this was their first time through the aid station meant that they were only at 5k at about 45-50 minutes.

We would be running on the same 5k loop (twice) to start our half marathon. I got fully changed and ready to run, we (I'd say 100-125 runners) were off right on time at 9:00 am and it is less than a quarter mile before we start climbing and the sight of a stream of runners going up in front on the switchbacks and once I was half way up the stream continued behind, quite a site.

The trail was mostly all single track on this 5k loop and we went back and forth and at times came back to spots where the course almost ran back onto the same single track only to turn again at the last chances. I like these looping single track trails, no real destination other than the beauty of the woods. The elevation chart for the 5k loop did not look that bad, but was kind of misleading in that we run two smaller loops to make the single 5k loop, one went up about 200 feet and the other about 300, so nothing too really bad, but there were plenty of ups and down inside the those changes as well. There were a couple sections where we ran along the edge of a hill and it really wasn't a trail, and not even a flat area to run (walk) as each step you kind slipped down the slope a bit, they had a rope so you would completely fall down the hill. Combined with nice muddy conditions made for slower run times. My split for the first 5K was 36:00, ug!

Back up the for the same loop again and with all the 50 milers, 50krs, half marathoners and the 10k runners (sent 15 minutes after us) the trail was really getting more and more slippery. I was very happy to make it back to the aid station marking the finish of my first 10k (second 5k was 41:00).

I thought we would be headed off in a new direction, but we basically just skipped the first half of the 5k loop to start up the second (muddier) loop only to eventually turn to the right at the apex of the 5k loop (we went left the first two times) and while the trail got a lot less muddy, it was a lot more straight up, and up, and up. I really felt like this was steeper than chinscraper (on Chuckanut). Since I had looked at the elevation chart before I knew we were to get up to about 1400 feet or so and my watch said about 600 at the turn so I knew what I was in for. I was simply walking and my HR was pegged. There were not really any switchbacks as we pretty much went straight up. I don't think there was much of a trail here before the race. We eventually made it to the top and based on my calculations this stretch from the lake to the top was 1142 feet of climbing, my GPS recorded 1.52 miles (8025.6 feet) which calculates out to about 14.38% grade = 100*(tan(arcsin(1142/8025.6))). UG! oh yeah, this 1.52 mile walk took just over 32 minutes.

BUT I was at the top, or so I thought, we ran a bit on the top and then it went up a bit more before we started in earnest back down a logging road, this road curved around and as luck would have it, even have some small up hill sections to get down the hill. We finally made it back to some single track and I recognized a couple signs from the Lake Samish county park, so I knew I was getting close to the aid station at mile 10.7. I didn't realize how high these trails went as it took longer than I thought to get back down the lake and the aid station. Great volunteers everywhere and the energy from their excitement helped me along.

We ran along Roy Road to get back towards Camp Lutherwood only to make another detour UP a logging access road to hook back onto the highest point of the first half loop of the 5k. Since I had run this section twice earlier I knew I was close but wasn't able to really ever get a fast run in as it was real muddy by now and I was very tired too. Finally get back to the flatter area near the camp and past the aid station to the grassy finish. Very, Very happy to finish in 3:16:55 by my watch, pretty slow, but I guess the winning half marathon time of 2:20 indicates how hard this course was (so I didn't feel as bad about my slow time)

Sat down for a bit with Damian, thinking about how in the heck am I going to ride my bike home (I hadn't thought of that or that the course would be this hard). Damian was leaving so I asked (ok begged) for a ride up the hill out of the lake basin. He got me up the first part of the hill and I made it slowly up the rest to try and spin easy all the way home.

Great race, great challenge, very tough... not certain I'd do it again... maybe... see if I can improve... only time will tell.

WWU Triathlon VI

I love doing this event. It has been a great early season test for me and I have improved my time each year. I missed 1 hour by 1 second last year and was hoping to break the elusive 1 hour mark. Another reason I really enjoy this race is all the friends I get to see before and after, a lot of Bellingham triathletes come out for this race.

I've been joining the Bellingham Masters Swim Club in the evenings and it has improved my swimming in just the 4 weeks I've been. I was really hoping to improve on my swim time.

As usual, I arrived pretty early and got a great transition spot on the end pretty close to the bike exit. Now that that was done I had the next 90 minutes to walk around, wait around, and visit. I could of gotten another 30 minutes of sleep as I was early enough that no one else showed for the next 30 minutes or so. People started arriving and I did a quick bike ride to set my bike in the correct gear and leave my shoes attached to the bike. Got my transition area all set and made my way into the pool to get a short warm up. I got about 75 yards before they had us get out for the start.

Debbie and Alex arrived about 5 minutes before my start time, so they hit it perfect and got some great shots. I waited in line for my start time and finally moved into the starting slot.

Started right on time this year, I was off and swimming. I knew Debbie and Alex were at the far end so I tried to give a good photo opportunity and I think they got a good one.

After hamming it up for the camera I tried to settle in at an easy pace and keep an even pace the whole 300 yards. I had been working on this at the masters swims and I think I hit my marks each 100 yards. I got close to the guy in front of me to finish about 10 yards and 5 seconds behind him. I ended up taking 10 seconds off my time from last year. My fastest timed 300 yet at 5:20

Up and out of the water and started the run to the bikes. I'd left some crocs and my jacket near the pool so I could run on the gravel and have my jacket on before I got on the bike. This worked great as I had my jacket on before I got to the bike, biking this early in the season with a wet tank top on doesn't work to well for me.

This is a short 9 mile loop, but they send you up and over quite a few hills just for fun. They adjusted the course slightly to actually take one hill out at the end, so it was a bit shorter than previous years, but my time was the same. 29:32 although I forgot to hit the split until my running shoes were on, so I'd say about 29:00 and put the 32 seconds on my T time.

They send you straight up the hill to the top of the ridge which is the worst of the run. I ran a bit, tried jogging slower, but eventually started to a walk. Just till the next light pole and then started back up and made it to the top and then downhill way past campus just to turn and another hill and then the long slope back up into campus. I thought I was moving along at a pretty good clip but a couple of track team members went past much faster. I was catching other runners though and just tried to keep on moving forward. Up through campus and on a trail out the other side just to turn around again and back towards transition. Last year we finished right next to transition. This year they added about 400 yards as we ran past transition and onto the track for 3/4 around to the finish. My 26:32 was about 3:43 slower than last year, but adding the 400 yards should not of taken that long, so I was a bit slower, oh well, I had fun! but happy to be done too.

1:03:01 total time (last year 1:00:01)