BlogMay 5, 2007 Cinco De Mayo in Mexico was quite an experience! My good friend Shawn OC was kind enough to make the trip with me down to Las Palomas for the Rocky Point Triathlon over this past weekend. What a time we had! An International Olympic distance race that I've never done proved quite challenging. Jeff Suffolk at Red Rock and Gus Warnholtz at Racelab did an incredible job putting this event on. The new Las Palomas hotel/resort was over-the-top nice and I was quite surprised by the field having over 1000 starters! Before the race I was a little pensive as it's been three weeks since Ironman AZ and I haven't trained much since I crossed that finish line in Tempe. I had to actually wipe the dust off my TTX as I hadn't ridden it one mile since April 15th. At the start I found my friend Alex as we made our way into the Sea of Cortez. I figured Alex would be an excellent person to swim with until i saw that Mike Melley (48 minute IM swimmer and former ASU distance swimming star) had decided that he wasn't going to wear his wetsuit. Now, in all arrogance, I figured that perhaps I could swim with a wetsuit-less Melley if and only if he'd submerged himself with one-too-many margaritas the night before. This isn't as unlikely as it sounds, as the party atmosphere the night before the race was more festive than many famous post-race parties I've been to. If you're looking to do a triathlon nobody seems serious about, be in Rocky Point Mexico on May 5th next year! The swim started and Alex, Melley, and I rounded the first buoy about 300 meters into the ocean leading the large all-male-Olympic-start-wave. Alex is a big dude, 200 pounds probably, Melley is big too, but ridiculously slender. I chose to follow Alex for the added wake. Rounding the turn I was swimming comfortably in Alex's draft with Melley starting to pull away. Seeing that this wasn't Ironman, and I wasn't interested in saving energy, so I made a desperate run to catch up to Melley. Alex and Melley both were swimming a little bit too far into the ocean and i figured that my line was a little more direct. Melley was probably fifty feet to the left of me and a little ahead for most of this long swim section parallel to the beach. By the time we reached the final turn buoy his swimming off course had hurt him and we rounded the buoy together. This marks the first swim I've ever finished with Melley. Now, he wasn't wearing a wetsuit, but I'll take them when I can get 'em. Also, in my favor, I wasn't drafting or just following in anybody's wake. I spent most all of this swim alone swimming a smart line cutting the heavy wind-blown chop. Alex, having chosen to chase Melley's line instead of mine, found himself a bit back by the last buoy. Put me in Alex's wetsuit, and I'd have followed Melley, too. Good friend and TriScottsdale regular Shawn OC had bad luck coming out of the water just behind Alex. As he negotiated some coral on his swim exit he got a lashing from a stingray! The low tides on the day had us negotiating a bit of coral reef where lots of sea-critters like to chill. OC held top five most of the day too, until he found he was losing all feeling in his lashed right leg. As he crossed the line, we all saw lots of blood, a little blue, and some swelling. After the finish his leg resembled Steve Nash's nose after colliding with Tony Parker in today's NBA round two Suns vs Spurs Playoff Action! He didn't look much happier than Nash either, but his spirits lifted after a ladicane shot and about ten cold cervezas. OC, is known around the world as being quite the stand-up guy and true to his roots. Being an O'Connell, a good Irish lad, he felt partial to Red Rock Co. and was extremely focused on supporting Corona as a title sponsor of this triathlon! Back to the start of the bike the race was a 3-loop fast course with lots of turn around. I got out to a nice lead right away and noticed that the temperature was truly heating up! By the run, my lead was 4-5 minutes over strong Arizonan and ex-German cyclist Patrick Bless. I knew I could run comfortably for the two 5k loops and win my first Rocky Point Triathlon. A 35 minute 10k was a little faster than I expected as I just wanted to truck along at about 6 minute miles. It was almost harder running "controlled" than my usual racing for my life. After Ironman three weeks ago, I still really feel that effort. Hopefully I'll be ok down at the Disney World 70.3 in two weeks time in Florida. That Cinco De Mayo afternoon I didn't embark too deeply into the festivities. Instead, I went back to the sixth floor condo and watched some old Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya matches. I gathered that Mayweather is nearly impossible to hit, as he's so incredibly fast. De La Hoya is a remarkably good text-book fighter, every move is measured and smart. This should be a good match, but my money's on Mayweather for tonight's fight. How can you beat a guy that can't be touched? All right, so next weekend, May 12th, is the Max Muscle McCormick Ranch Tri for a Cure! Everybody should come on out! I'm very excited for this huge all women's triathlon and I'll be down in Tempe cheering them all on. If you're racing, have a fantastic time, this event will be a BLAST! More updates soon, as down in Mexico I discovered peripheral brilliance and plan on my blog one day reflecting that. Thanks for tuning in. Cheers, Lewis « Back to Blogs |
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