perspective

So it's been roughly 10 days since my first foray into the Las Vegas area triathlon scene, and I think I have the perspective now to give an objective opinion on that experience, and here it is:

F_____in wind!!!  F____in 1 aid station on the bike, at mile 20 no less, useless!!  F_____in no swim because of the wind!!  Are you F___in  Sh____in, kidding me!! Here's an excerpt from my thoughts on the bike portion of the course:   Y%Y%$WU&I^REU%$EYRESY%RD^^^D^RDUTD^TDI&TDUTYD^T#W#$##$#$#$%%%&^TFTYF&TTFT&F&TTFT!!! (symbols and letters signify massive amounts of foul language)

Here's some thoughts from the run:  Why!!!  WHY!!  Oh my god, WHHYYYYY!

   However, besides all that, the race did provide for a memorable experience.  The drive from Boulder was amazing and passes through some really interesting parts of Colorado and Utah, and with a little extra driving my wife and I were able to see Zion, Bryce canyon, and Arches National Park, as well as Moab and St. George (another little triathlon hub). We also saw the Hoover Dam, which purely in terms of human ingenuity is amazing, though there is the question of destroyed ecosystems to consider as well.  Still all in all, it must be seen, love it or hate it, and they now have a bridge that spans the canyon so one can view the dam from above.
  We were planning on camping but snow and cold in Utah, and the F____in wind and 55 degree temps @ Lake Mead prevented that from realistically happening. I jumped in the water and swam about half the course and it was doable, however, the one kayak the race organizers had might not have been enough to save all the people who could have possibly have been struggling during the swim portion of the race.  Better planning and race organization is needed by those folks in my humble opinion, and maybe the swim could have taken place, i've done stroke and stride's at the Boulder rez that were similar conditions...
  Anyhoo, a well placed Best western ( in Torrey, UT, middle of nowhere, trust me), and the El Rancho motel in Boulder city were life savers, however, be sure you're nice to the old lady at El Rancho if you stay there, I don't think she likes out-of-towners very much, especially if you have a dog...
  Interestingly, or maybe not so much, Starbucks became our "restaurant" of choice on the road, where we discovered that in addition to the legalized crack they call coffee, they also have hot, egg-white breakfast sandwiches which were mighty delicious.  Another key component to the LONG road trip is the book on tape.  It was effective in keeping the ride quiet as well as keeping me from driving the wife insane singing to the radio for the roughly 40 hours we were in the car.  "The Girl who played with fire", by Stieg Larsson, highly recommend it, very good story...
   First time to Las Vegas and I can proudly say no money was lost, I didn't even get out of my car, took plenty of pictures though.  Treated it like a trip to the zoo, just pointing and clicking, safer that way.  Again, one of those unique places that love it or hate it, must be seen at least once or twice in one's life.
   So, all in all a pretty good trip.  Saw some amazing parts of America, finished third overall in a brutal duathlon partly on the infamous Silverman tri course, dog was happy, and my wife and I didn't kill each other....Success!
   As I look forward to possibly racing twice more in the Vegas area this year, much was learned from this trip, purely in terms of race preparation and what one can expect in a race in that area of the world.  That may prove to be the most lasting thing taken from the "Showdown at Sundown".


//As a side note, the tour of the Basque country is on Universal sports this week, check it out, it's channel 250 on comcast...I suppose you could check it out online too.  Vinokourov broke away today with about 6K left and averaged 35 MPH's to the line to win the stage today.