2010 Race Schedule

After much intense thought and many minutes on trifind.com, I finally figured out my race schedule for this year. Now this was no easy task mind you. I had a "rough draft" in my head of the races I wanted to do this year, then my Mom goes and does something like, oh I don't know, schedule the family summer party on a weekend that I had to work. That meant switching my week to accommodate them. That meant switching the races that I wanted to do (for those of you that DON'T know, I work seven on seven off, which means 7 ten hour shifts followed by seven days off so I have to work every other weekend, all weekend, which means I only have certain weekends that I can race). That was still no problem, because I had several races in mind. After a little web browsing (can I still say web browsing?), I found that the races I wanted to do would be on a weekend I was working OR they were already full... I had no idea that you had to register for a half-ironman so early in the year, I mean it's only February and the races are already full! So I weighed the options of traveling farther from home to do a race. There are going to be half-ironman races in Missouri, Texas and Florida that would work with that schedule, but after a registration fees of $200 plus, then plane tickets, a hotel, a rental car, shipping a bike to the race location, kennel fees for the dogs, I figured $1000 or more for one race just wasn't worth it, so I bagged the idea of a half-ironman completely for this year. I found some other exciting races that I could do with my schedule, and was satisfied. THEN I found out that the guy working opposite of me might not be able to switch weeks... Back to the drawing board... I then figured out a race calender if he could not switch weeks, and had two possible itineraries. I contacted my co-worker and found that he would trade me some days but could not switch weeks, so I can do the race I had originally planned on, AND make it to the reservoir party.

My calender is thus:

April 24th

The Fourth Street Clinic Triathlon
300 m swim, 8k Mountain bike, 5K run.

This is a short race put on by the Fourth Street Clinic in Downtown Salt Lake. I'm not really sure where this one takes place. The website didn't have a whole lot of info, but trifind says that the swim is in the HPER pool... I think that is the gym on the U's campus. The bike is an 8K (5 mi) ride in the foothills above the hospital. I have ridden some of those trails and I think it will be a tough ride. The run is a 5K (3.1 mi run) on the sidewalks of the U's campus. I'm pretty Excited about this one, it will be a good warm up for the season.

May 22nd
Speed Tri Boise
500 m swim, 12 mi bike, 5k run

I had to find a race out of state for May because Utah didn't really have a race in May on a weekend I wasn't working. I told my wife that I was thinking about doing this race and she got excited because she has been wanting to stay at the Boise Anniversary Inn for a while. I guess that is where we will be staying when I race. The swim is in a small pond just off the Boise River. The bike is two loops of a 5.4 mi course, and the run looks to be on a running trail that runs parallel to the river. Should be a good one, and I might be able to get a state highway or two out of the way on the way up or back from Boise.

June 5th
Willard Bay Triathlon
Olympic Distance

Originally, I had planned to do the Salem Spring Triathlon this same day, but that race is only a sprint distance. I am preparing to do a Half-ironman so I wanted to build up to it by doing a few Olympic distance events, ergo the Willard Bay Tri. I know it is in Willard Bay, I know it is an Olympic distance event (1500m swim, 24.8 mi bike, and a 6.2 mi run), and I know the race starts at 8 am, but they are still kind of building the site for this one, so I don't know much more than that. Kind of nervous for this race. It will be my first Olympic distance race and it is only 2 weeks after a short sprint race. We'll see how I do.

July 17th
Scofield Triathlon
Not sure of the distance of this one yet.

The reason I say not sure, is Scofield has three different distance one could race. A sprint, an olympic and an "escape" distance. There is a triathlon in San Francisco called the Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon. In that race, competitors swim from Alcatraz Island to The Marina Green Beach... whatever that is... then they bike and run in the streets of San Francisco. The "Escape From Scofield" triathlon is a swim from the island in Scofield Reservoir 1.75 miles to the Marina followed by a 37 mile bike ride concluding with a 10 mile run. I am not sure if I want to do the Olympic distance or the escape distance. The Olympic distance I'm sure I can do, the escape will be harder because it's longer, but it will be good to see how I fare doing a race that will be closer to the half ironman distance. That 1.75 mile swim seems like it just might be too much, I think I may wait until it gets closer to decide which distance to race. Oh! Fun fact, Scofield Triathlon has the highest elevation of any triathlon in the United States at around 7800 ft (if you can find one that is higher, let me know). That will make it just a little bit more difficult.

August 28th
The Utah Half
Half Ironman Distance

This is the goal for the year, the Utah Half. This race is a 1.2 mi swim, 56 bike, 13.1 mile run. I am as excited about this as I am nervous. That is a long way. My goal is to complete the race in less than 6 hours. I figure if I can do the swim and T1 (swim to bike transistion) in 60 min, then do the bike and T2 (bike to run transition) in 3 hours and finish off the run in 2 hours, that would be 6 hours. I think it a pretty viable goal with a lot of hard work. I ran the Mesquite Half Marathon in less than 2 hours and last fall I did a 50 mile ride in gusting wind and pouring rain in less than 3 hours so I think it possible. I found a half ironman training plan online at beginnertriathlete.com that lasts 20 weeks. The training is anywhere from 5-10 hours a week and I looked at some of the workouts. There is a crazy one that helps you work on transitions where you run for 4 min, bike for 10 min, then run again for 4 min, then you repeat that 7 more times. Looking forward to starting this program halfway through April.

September 25th
XTerra Utah
XTerra sport distance

I did this race last year. I think of it as a reward for all the hard work I will do this year to complete the half ironman. Last year, the race was tough but I had a BLAST! I seriously underestimated the race last year but this year, I am looking forward to considerable improvement. The swim is in Pineview Reservoir above Ogden. You transition into the bike and ride up to Snowbasin ski resort where you finish by running the ski trails of Snowbasin.

Well there is my race schedule for the year. I will post updates after each race to let you know how I did and of course after each state road ride. I look forward to writing this year. Enjoy!

Chris