Nucleathlon – Rancho Seco Recap 2007

On a lonely stretch of wind swept highway, between the towns of Galt and Ione, a now defunct nuclear power plant looms over vineyards, small cattle ranches, and the venue for a series of sprint and Olympic distance triathlons. If you have no idea where Galt or Ione are located, you are not alone. These hamlets are located at about the point you lose your Bay Area radio stations on the drive to Tahoe at which you frantically search the dial in a futile attempt to find anything not country before you send your significant other over the front seats into the back of the car in search of your collection “Best of Disco” CDs.

In the lake once meant to be the back-up cooling source for the Rancho Seco Nuclear Power Station, race organizers Total Body Fitness stage a summer series of races.
Now, I personally would not immediately pick a nuclear power plant as the site for a triathlon unless you believe free genetic mutations would be a good draw, but then again, I’m not a Race Director, so what do I know. Maybe it isn’t such a bad idea to bill the venue as an alternative to performance enhancing drugs. I can see the ads now, “Race at Rancho Seco, your kids will be faster with four arms, and run so much faster with three legs!” European cycling teams might even send their development teams over for a good dose of radiation and genetic manipulation. Hey, radiation seemed to work for that Lance guy.

Regardless of the motivations for choosing the site for the race, the folks at TBF run a great series of events. Each month from June to August, they stage a sprint distance Tri for Fun on Saturday followed by an Olympic distance Tri for Real race on Sunday. To ensure future revenues, TBF also hosts a Tri for Kids Sunday morning for the little tykes. In all honesty, I am a bit intimidated by the youngsters. Most of them had bikes that cost not only more than my bike, but I suspect cost more than my car. I saw more aero helmets on the tots than I saw on the FOGs and I think one kid was taking in packed red cells prior to his wave start. Another kid was sponsored by Amgen, so I suspect he had a future in professional sports. I didn’t want to accuse anyone of doping, but I did spy one young lass of about 8 years old shaving and it was not her legs.

The swim is a fairly tame affair; nothing like the chaos and anarchy of a Wildflower or Ironman event. The lake is clear enough to spot three eyed fish, those allusive WMDs, and last year’s competitors. The buoys are easy enough to see although spotting the first turn buoy is not necessary since the 20 story nuclear power plant cooling tower looms directly over it. If anyone gets lost on the first leg of the swim, then they are more navigationally challenged than I am. Many of us wore our streamlined horizontal flotation devices or wetsuits for the swim despite the high 70’s low 80’s water temperature. There’s nothing like bringing yourself to a slow boil over the course of 1500 meters in a full wetsuit, but hey, I’m faster with it than without it. I even saw one guy wearing a squid lid, a neoprene swim cap designed for cold water swimming. Since the water was so warm, I can only surmise that he had a very large noggin and needed the added flotation afforded by the cap.

Transitions are fast at TBF races. For those racers who require extra amenities during transitions like showers, massages, and large screen TVs, the race organizers provide ample racks and plenty of room to spread out. Truthfully, transitions under a minute are the norm due to the prime location of the area within a hundred yards of the swim exit.

The bike is a quick out and back with a few rollers thrown in for variety. I would rate the road surface as ranging from moderately crappy to downright harrowing at the point where an ancient set of railroad tracks crosses the road. The pits on either side of the tracks still contain bottles, tubes, teeth, miscellaneous bike and body parts, and possibly a USAT official or two from years of hapless triathletes careening cross the craters. After successfully negotiating the train tracks of death not once, but twice, you are treated to a fast return trip to the park with the ever present cooling towers marking the way.

TBF has constructed an entertaining run course. It starts off on a wide undulating fire road that then dumps you onto the park entrance road for a short out and back segment. The ever present cooling towers loom over you as you make the turnaround at about mile 3. The return trip is on some fun single track that twists and turns its way along the edge of the lake, across little bridges, and through a few open meadows. One thing I’ve learned after two incidents (you would think I would have learned the first time), was that trying to do a sharp turn at full run speed on dried prairie grass will, 9 times out of 10, land you on your arse with tri-shorts full of dirt and weeds. The first time it happened I tried to blame the ground squirrels since they have been known to form small commando groups and prey upon unsuspecting runners. I just know they had laid in wait for me and executed a perfect double reverse runner block tossing me head over butt crack into the weeds. I could not blame the commando squirrels the second time around though, since I had received intelligence from CNN that the squirrel squads had been called up to active duty to hunt for WMDs. The fault was all mine when I slid out sideways, caught the edge of my racing flat, and went cartwheeling towards the lake. Only by grabbing a handy poison oak vine did I save myself from a refreshing mid-race spritz.

The last mile of the run is back on the original fire road with a nice straightaway sprint to the finish. The course is designed in a way as to always have an idea where your competition is located. You may not be able to catch them if they are in front of you, but at least you have the peace of mind that if you really wanted to, you just might. Volunteers greet you at the finish and provide cold water, a nice pasta meal, and the nectar of the Gods, Sugar Free Red Bull.

Joining me for the final August race this past Sunday was Clancy “Big Wheels” Emry, Mike “I shave my head for speed” Statz, the uber IM Austria couple Patrick and Christy, Jan “I’m too fast for you old farts” Maynard, and a Steve (there’s so many Steve’s in the club it is hard to keep track of all their last names. Clancy won the series in her AG for the third year straight, Mike placed 2nd in his AG, and I think 2nd in the series, Jan placed 2nd overall, 2nd in his AG, and 2nd in the series, Patrick, Christy, and Steve all set PRs, and I pulled out a 2nd in my AG and 3rd in the series. Forward Motion was on the podium so much throughout the series, TBF is debating whether to just let us have own podium next year.