Bottomless Is The TOPS!

Saturday was the 26th annual Bottomless Lake Triathlon. http://myweb.cableone.net/janolesinski/ This race is so cool for so many reasons. It's a great venue, anyone under 18 years old races for free, you get a discount if you sign up for this race and the "sister" F-1 Tri, they combine both races into the "Bottomless Series" and give awards to the podium finishers in the series, and the engraved trophies are some of the best trophies you'll ever get if you finish on the podium. The race director, Jan Olesinski, really does a great job putting this and the "sister" F-1 Triathlon together. This year, Jan was out of town, but Perry Toles took over and everything came off without a hitch. Perry is one of the fastest athletes in the area, but he's nursing a knee surgery this year, so I didn't have to worry about finishing behind him (again) in the race.

The race takes place at Bottomless Lakes State Park, which includes a fairly large water filled sinkhole where they hold the swim. The race is advertised as a 400m swim, 14K bike, and 4K run. I guess they like the number "4", because none of the distances are exactly as advertised. The buoy on the swim course is placed in the lake without (as far as I can tell) the benefit of a GPS receiver or a laser range finder. It has been as long as 600m and as short as 300m during some of the races that I have done there. However, I think it was pretty close to 400m the past two years. I know the bike is 7.86 miles (not quite 13k) long, which is pretty much dictated by the road that loops around the park. Finally, the run is probably about 4.4k long (based on my race times vs. my 5k times). Part of this is because there is a long run from T-2 to the road which could be where they start measuring the run. Anyway, the distances are the same for everyone, so it's not a big deal to me. And it's the shortest race I do, so I can finish in less than one hour!

Some of the big names in the SWCS showed up for the race. Bobby Gonzales (48 years old) and Colleen Burns (60 years old) represent the "ageless wonders" who shoot for the overall win in the races they do. Jason Atkinson, one of the fastest runners in any race, represented the "young guns". Larry Marshall, the race director for the Milkman Tri, showed up to race and he brought over the bike racks and carpet to cover the gravel in the transition area. Kori Mannon, the race director for my favorite race (the Elephant Man Tri) was there. Mike and Marti Greer, who put on several races including the BSLT IM 70.3 were both there. (Race directors are my heroes.) "Iron Mike" Baker showed up in a 1986 vintage red and white speedo race brief. And a bunch of fellow "Outlaws" were there. (Brian and Misty, MG and Michi, Stuart and Helen, "Bones" Mackenzie, "Stitch" Zetocha, Naomi, Karen, and me.) All told, they had about 120 people racing.

The race is scheduled to start at 8:30. Some folks wish it would start earlier to avoid the high temperatures. Personally, I like the start time. I can leave home at 5:00 in the morning and get to the race in plenty of time. It's not that hot at 8:30 (certainly I train a lot in hotter temperatures) and almost everyone finishes by 10:00. The air temperature was still only in the 80's at 11:00 when I left after the awards ceremony, so I didn't think anyone had to deal with anything too extreme. They had three waves (women, old guys, and young guys) separated by 5 minutes. I am a huge fan of wave starts to keep the kicking and punching down to a minimum on the swim. The water was 78 degrees F, but this isn't a USAT race and for a short swim I'll never overheat in my sleeveless wetsuit. Since I'm such a feeble swimmer, I'm almost a minute faster even in a short race like this if I wear my wetsuit. So, I pulled on the neoprene and headed over to the race start. They got the ladies lined up and by my watch they started the race about 30 seconds before 8:30. Alright, that's the way to get everyone organized!

I went off in the old guy wave exactly 5 minutes later. I wanted to make up for the slow swim I had done at Buffalo Springs two weeks ago. I made a real effort to go out fast and then stay up with the front half of my wave. I felt like I was working hard, and I never felt that during the swim at Buffalo Springs, but I was far from blowing up. I finished the swim in 7:24, which is about right for a "fast" 400m for me, and I think I was in the top twenty or so of the old guy wave. After a fairly slow 2-minute T-1, it was off on the bike.

You have a few hundred meters of flat coming out of T-1 and then you hit a fairly good hill. It's not particularly steep, and it's not long, but it sure gets your heart rate up. Once on top of the plateau, I started picking up the pace. The road is pretty rough, but no worse than some of the roads that I train on. I was soon cruising along at 22-24 mph, figuring that "I must be really strong today!" (Not realizing that there was a 10 mph tail wind.) I was passing quite a few people, but one "old guy" went by me. They didn't write our ages on our calves, so I didn't know if this guy was in my age group or not. (It turned out he wasn't.) So I picked up my pace to keep him in my sights. The course drops pretty quickly off the plateau, but just when you reach the bottom you have a short but steep climb. Once past that, it's a flat (and bumpy) three miles back to T-2. I finally caught and passed the unknown fellow old guy, finished with a 21.7 mph average, and entered T-2 just behind "Bones".

I had a fast (for me) T-2, and started the run about 20 meters behind "Bones". I worked as hard as I could, and eventually caught "Bones" before the turn-around. We both watched as, first Colleen cruised past us on the run and then Jason went by (after making up the 5-minute head start that we had on him) like we were standing still. Dang, I used to be able to run. Anyway, "Bones" eventually got tired of my pace and he took off. I was staying at my red line trying to hold off any potential challenge from the unknown old guy. Last year, Mark Balsiger was coming up behind me fast on the run, and I just held him off by one second. In the end, there was nobody close behind me this year, and I finished the race in just under 52 minutes.

Among the other nice features at this race, you can jump in the lake after you're done, and then they have outdoor showers. The race is timed with stopwatches, but they get the awards ceremony organized pretty quickly. It's interesting that the order of finish between the people in a given age group doesn't seem to change even though it's a short race. It's just that there are only 10-30 seconds separating people who are normally separated by 1-2 minutes. This was another race for the veteran racers. Bobby and Colleen were the first place overall winners. (Once again, 48 and 60 years old!) They don't have the results posted yet, but if I remember correctly (and forgive me for any mistakes), Brian, Misty, Michi, Naomi, and I all won our groups, and Helen finished on the podium in her group. Everything was wrapped up and we were in our car headed out of there before 11:30. It's so cool to be finished up in time to stop at Farley's for lunch and then still get home in time to mow the grass.

muffinman