Tempe, Arizona
When I originally signed for this race it, the venue was Las Vegas. Since that time a lot happened. The venue was changed to Tempe. Lifetime bought Red Rock. Leadman was combined with one of our favorite races – Marquee. The race was moved to Sunday because of a conflict with the collegiate national triathlon championship. One of the reasons we have always liked the bike course for Marquee is because it went up the Bee Line Highway and mirrored the Ironman Arizona Course. It is a great fairly flat straight course that both Christian and I love to hammer. It is a good bike course for my strengths. Apparently, the Salt River Indian Community strung Lifetime a long for nearly a year and then ultimately told Lifetime they could not use the course two weeks before the race. The course changed to the convoluted U-turn heavy course that we have done in other Red Rock races that both Christian and I hate. Only now it would have 4 additional U-turns and I would have to do it 4 times for a total of 69 miles. The race’s bright hope would be the challenging trial run through Papago Park.
The swim went fine and seemed a bit long to me but the water temperature was great. The bike did suck. There were too many people and it was too monotonous. I really wanted off my bike by the end. I also drank too much Gatorade. I usually limit myself to a bottle or two because I know it does not do well in my stomach. But it was a warm day and my stuff got so hot that those ice cold Gatorade bottles looked so inviting. I grabbed three bottles and at about three hours into the bike ride I thought I might throw up. I stopped drinking Gatorade and my stomach resolved itself. I even ate a banana before I headed out to the run.
The run was awesome. It was so different and I never lost interest. It was challenging, and I had to think about almost every step once we hit Papago Park. It went by so fast. I did not wear a watch so I had no idea how long I was running or where I was on the run. In fact I only ate a couple block shots and I saw this aid station coming up so I downed a gel thinking I was about half an hour into the run. I asked at the aid station if they knew what mile we were at and they answered mile 7 and told me I only had a mile to go. I was amazed. I could not believe how fast it had gone by. I love this run. I turned on the gas and passed a few people and headed towards the finish line. I got a free massage from this guy who worked me so hard I almost passed out from the pain.
The run was the highlight of the race. I couldn’t have planned a more interesting course. It was all new and a surprise to me. Since there were no mile markers and I was running without a watch, I had very little idea at any point where I was on the course. It had so many different surfaces and I was glad I bought my new Newton multi-surface shoes for this race. The run course combined cement bike path, flat dirt river trail, hills on the road, and lots of hills on rocky single track trail, and a few places I don’t know how to describe. It was non-stop fun.
