Pacific Crest Triathlons 2008

We thought taking a road trip to Sunriver Oregon with our 10 month old twins would be a great way to relieve work and home stress. To even further increase the calming effects of our vacation we decided to each sign up for a triathlon. Janine imagined back in December she would have plenty of time to train for a ½ Ironman in between work travel, caring for the boys, and keeping me in line while I planned on doing an Oly a month to prepare for Age Group Nationals in September. The Pacific Crest triathlons were the perfect setup for our craziness. Janine would race on Saturday and I would push the boys around to see her and I would race on Sunday and she would sit in the air conditioned comfort of the cabin sipping Margaritas.
We invited our friends Jan, Jen, and Jayden because we wanted to maximize the J-ness of our trip. Jan was prepping for a sub-4:30 go at the Vineman 70.3 so he signed up for the ½ Ironman at Pac Crest while his wife went for the Olympic distance race to keep me company. 3-year old Jayden had his own event to plan for, entertaining two little boys for 6 days while their parents were off racing in the heat drenched high desert.

Preparing and packing for a 6 day road trip with twin infants is not quite the same as the planning and logistics of the Normandy invasion, but at times seemed awfully close. I started a few months ago when I realized getting two bikes, two babies, two feeding chairs, a double jog stroller, a portable crib, triathlon gear, clothes, food, and toys into anything smaller than a semi trailer was going to take either an act of organization worthy of the Berlin airlift or I was going to need a roof top carrier and a hitch rack. Thanks to the magic of the Internets, I soon had a Thule coffin shaped cargo box for the top of the Pacifica and nifty new hitch bicycle rack. I was pretty proud of myself at this point until I woke one morning and happen to be bending down behind the Pacifica to retrieve the morning paper and discovered it did not have a hitch. You would think that would have been the first thing I checked, but alas, it was not. I quickly scurried to my trusty laptop and looked up hitches. Lucky for me, before anyone could ask where I planned to plug in my nifty new hitch rack, I was at the local U-Haul having the hitch installed.

The day arrived quickly for our departure and the plan was to get up in the wee hours , transfer the boys, hopefully still sleeping, from their cribs to car seats, and get at least 4 hours of the drive under our belt before we received our stereo wake-up feed us now scream. All went according to plan except neither TriTwinMom nor I was prepared to drive at 3:30AM. Somehow we managed to make it Redding and a conveniently located Dennys. We pulled in, unloaded the boys, descended on the poor unsuspecting Denny’s denizens, and occupied a corner booth. After overcoming my shock that a Grand Slam breakfast was no longer $1.99 (it’s been awhile since I visited Dennys) we ordered and proceeded to feed the boys while they charmed the waitresses and customers alike. As a proud papa, I have to say our boys garnered the majority of attention from the wait staff to the detriment of the other patrons.
The remainder of the trip north passed smoothly with the boys alternating between sleeping, playing with Mom, and screaming for their next bottle. We all arrived safely in Sunriver and invaded, I mean moved into our rental cabin. We scoped out the courses, did a short swim , drove the bike course, and took the boys for a run to recon the run course. The weather was wonderful, but we kept hearing from the local news that a heat wave was coming on Saturday and Sunday just in time for the races.

Race morning for Janine and Jan did not come too early due to the very civilized 9AM start time. I shuttled them to Wikiup reservoir with Josh riding shotgun. Jake was still sleeping when we left the cabin, a phenomenon we had not experienced since he came into our lives. I dropped our long course competitors at the swim start and headed back to Sunriver. The Pacific Crest triathlons are point to point races, so there are separate T1 and T2s about 28 miles apart. The long course racers circumnavigate Mt. Bachelor between T1 and T2 while the Olympic competitors take the direct route to T2. Not long after arriving back at the cabin, in walks Janine with her bike in tow. Unfortunately, after a stellar swim, her crank arm decided to mutiny and jump ship at mile 10. She was able to negotiate a ride back to T1 and from there another ride in the Gear Truck to the Finish Line. The Finish was about ½ mile from the cabin, so she walked from there. Once home, most sane people would have called it quits, but Janine kept muttering something about getting her money’s worth and headed out to T2 to run the remaining half marathon. At this point the temperature was 97°F, she had a 2 mile run to reach T2 in her trail shoes, a switch to her racing flats, then a half marathon in scorching heat and 4000 foot altitude. She ran a respectful sub 2 hour half and received her finisher’s medal and t-shirt. I offered to cut 1/3rd from the medal and shirt, but she was still annoyed with my bike maintenance skills or lack thereof that allowed her crank arm to fall off and threatened me with bodily harm.

After cracking 5 hours at Wildflower, Jan set a new goal of going sub 4:45 in a half Ironman, so needless to say he was a stress monkey up until race day. He played footsie with the lead swimmers and came out of the water with the race leaders, then set a blistering pace on the bike averaging an amazing 30 MPH on the last 18 miles of the bike (it is partially downhill, but still…). He suffered on the run due to killing himself on the bike, but managed a sub 1:35 for the half marathon. He met his goal of breaking 4:45 by coming in 4:44 good for 3rd in his Age Group and 15th overall. The overall winner of the race, Matt Lieto, also in Jan’s 30-34 AG, finished in an astounding 4:10.

My race the next day was pretty straightforward. I had a good swim, although I think it might have been a bit long evidenced by my and my competitor’s times. The bike was extremely fast with a good 12-15 miles being either flat or downhill. I fell into the trap of riding much harder and faster lured by my bike computer flashing 30…31…32 MPH for such a long period of time. When I arrived at T2, I was done. My legs felt like they had been drained of go juice, so I literally slogged the first few miles of the 10K. Seeing Janine and the boys at mile 2 and having Jan yell something about moving my arms helped spur me on. I finished with the temperatures already hitting the high 90’s and was pleasantly surprised I placed 3rd in my AG and 9th overall. My prize was a nice Widmer pint glass and a coupon for a free beer. I would not recommend a beer shortly after a race as proper recovery fuel or hydration, but it sure tasted good. Apparently another competitor in my AG was found in the middle of the night and his chip time placed him in front of me, so the official results say I came in 4th, but I’m keeping my medal and glass and good luck getting any of that beer back. Jan’s wife, Jennifer, racing for the 1st time in 5 years and only having ridden her bike outdoors twice before the race, cracked the top ten in her AG.

Normally a race report would end after the race ended, but not in this case. We stayed in Sunriver for an additional 3 days to do a little biking, swimming, and hiking with the boys. Our remaining time was uneventful except for 1 attack by carnivorous mosquitoes and a close encountered with a cell-phone using, cigarette smoking, loudmouth jackass while we tried to have a nice picnic next to the Deschutes river. We deployed to another location and had a pleasant time. The eventful part of our post-race experience came when we started the return home process.

Jan, Jen, and Jayden left Sunriver about 1 ½ hours before we were able to mobilize. When we finally hit the road, we received a call from Jan informing us that their car was on fire. I said “ha ha, funny joke”, but he replied, “no joke, our car will probably be ashes by the time you get here”. He was right, when we arrived; we witnessed the very sad sight of the three of them standing on the side of the road just north of Klamath Falls, next o a pile of their belongings and the smoldering remains of their 2001 Dodge Intrepid. We slowed down so we could properly rubberneck and held out some marshmallows to take advantage of the nice carbeque. I don’t think they saw the humor in it, but they were in surprising good spirits. Somehow we managed to get them and all of their belongings down to the Hertz counter at the Klamath Falls Airport so they could rent a car. After settling with the rental company, the tow truck company, and the fire department, we all went out for some lunch. When I asked them where they would like to eat, they said anything was fine…just not BBQ!