Another Entry for the Bucket List

My bucket list has a few events on it that one day I hope to participate in. The Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon is one such event. Today, I learned of another one.

The RocketMan Triathlon. 

What makes this event worthy of a spot on the bucket list? The triathlon takes place on central Florida's Space Coast, and the bike course takes place inside the gates of the Kennedy Space Center, around the major landmarks of America's space program!

Biking around some of the historic areas and scenery of the American space era? Yes please! For me this is yet another example of geek worlds colliding. 

Three distances will be offered, Classic+ (sprint), International+ (Olympic), and half Iron. The "+" for the Classic and International is because the bike course will be 34 miles for both to allow for the ride through the Kennedy Space Center. 

Registration for the inaugural race on May 5, 2013 opens on September 1st, and it is almost assured that the 800 spots available for each distance will fill up quickly. 

A Change in Plans

I know that on Monday I posted my intent on riding (not racing, my whole goal would be to just finish) the Epic 200 in August. Well, plans have changed…

I am not wussing out. I fully intended to have a go at it. If I made it, great! If I made it 120 miles, I could live with that. I was going into this with zero expectations as to my performance.

What is influencing my decision is money.

The registration fee for the Epic 200 is $95, going up to $105 next week. I am not complaining about the cost – I understand fully that the registration fees go to cover the cost of the t-shirts, food, permits, insurance costs and other assorted fees that the event promoter has to pay in order to put on a ride. If they are very lucky, they may actually break even.

After discussing this with the wife, we just can’t justify the cost right now.

Riding your bike is relatively inexpensive – assuming you already have a bike. Riding your bike in an organized ride or race is not. Aside from the entry/registration fees, if the ride is out of town, you have to include gas, lodging and eating out to your monetary output.

A 200 mile ride is still on my bucket list. It will just have to wait till next year – and I plan on riding this next year. When I sit down to plan out 2012, the Epic 200 will be part of that plan, and I will register early – when we can still afford it.

My Cycling Bucket List

We all have a "bucket list" of things we want to do before we die. Here is my cycling bucket list. It is far from complete, but here is what I have so far...

• See the Tour de France in person.
• Get a racing licence.
• LOTOJA
• Do an Ironman.
• Visit Italy
• Go on a bike tour
• Go bike camping
• Try cyclocross
• Ride a tandem with my wife
• Go to Interbike
• Bicycle in Hawaii
• Visit a custom framebuilder, and have them build a custom frame for me.
• learn how to weld, and make my own frame
• learn how to trakstand
• Climb the Alpe d'Huez
• Learn to ride a Unicycle
• Run a marathon.
• Race the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon
• STP
• Own a cargo bike (Madsen, Bakfiets, Xtracycle...)
• Live car-free (or at least car-lite)

Spudman Triathlon - scratch that off the bucket list!

Saturday was a good day, I got to cross something off of my unofficial bucket list.

Last year, after I finished my first triathlon, the sprint-distance Turkey Tri, I made a goal to complete an Olympic-distance triathlon before I turned 41. I always had my sights on the Spudman Triathlon in Burley, Idaho to complete that goal for a couple of reasons. The open water swim is in the Snake River, and my wife grew up in nearby Paul, Idaho and still has family that lives in the area.

I won't go into any individual fears about this triathlon, but I will say that I was nervous at the start of it. 1 mile of open water is a long swim. I also wasn't used to swimming in a full wetsuit, and wasn't prepared for the amount of resistance that the suit gave through the shoulders. To overcome that, I just rolled over on my back, and swam backstroke for a while to rest my shoulders.

Another thing I wasn't prepared for was how I would feel when I came out of the water. I had a friend who was starting in the same wave I was (he finished 44th in our age group). He told me before we started to take it slow coming out of the water, because of the dizziness that you experience. I did believe him, but I wasn't prepared for the level of disorientation. I was staggering around like I was on a 3-day bender. For a few moments I couldn't walk straight to save my life. I staggered over to my T1 location and finishing peeling of my wetsuit and grabbed my bike and gear for the ride.

I probably don't need to mention that the bike is my favorite part of the triathlon. The bike course was nice, flat and fast. I averaged a nice 20 mph for the course. It seemed like the only people passing me were guys who were on full tri rigs with aero bars (note to self, and whomever feels like being generous this Christmas. I want aero bars for next year) Aside from a little disruption caused by an ambulance about half-way out on the bike course (I overheard that someone had a heart-attack - but I have no confirmation if that is accurate), there was nothing of note on the ride.

We rode into T2 - I guess I need to insert a note here. Because of the nature of the course, specifically the swim portion, there are two different transition areas. You start off and swim downstream to T1. From there, you put all of your gear in to a hefty bag, and drop it off as you leave on the bike leg, and then you go to T2 which is back up where you started this whole adventure to take off on the run leg. The helpful volunteers haul your swim gear back up to T2 for easy retrieval after the race is over. Because of my unfamiliarity with the setup, I was out until almost 10:00 the night before setting up my transition areas. Okay, back to our story - and I threw on my shoes and cap and started off on the run. The run was great! It was part paved, and part trail. I used a run/walk strategy so I could finish strong (read: finish at all). We would be running along a road, and they would have us cut off the road and run along a canal bank for a while, and then back onto the road. The locals and farmers were great, too! The farmers would have their big water trucks alongside the road spraying water down for us to run under to cool off, and there were a couple of locals who set out their sprinklers, or had their garden hoses out to spray us as we went by. Plus there were quite a few who were just out to watch and cheer us on as we passed. Let me just say thank you! You don't know how much the cheering and watering helped!

I thoroughly enjoyed my first Spudman experience. I will be signing up next year for certain! I didn't take very many pictures because I parked a little too far to run my camera back to my car after the elite wave took off, so I'll post pictures of the race at a later time, or put a link in the blog then. Here are some pictures I took Friday night.

My offical results. I'm happy with my placement for my first Olympic.  There were 107 finishers in my age group, and 1545 total finishers.

I found a potato in my bag along with my shirt and bib number. It is called the "Spud"man Triathlon after all.

Transition 2

Part of Transition 1.  Yes, it is that late - plus it was threatening to rain on us. Fortunately there was nothing but blue skies for Saturday.

 

This is the only picture I took the day of the race.  The finish is that bridge over on the left side of the picture by the tree.

After the race I retired to our "exclusive" island retreat (Thousand Springs State Park. Kelly's brother is the park ranger and lets us stay there when we come up) on the Snake River to rest.