SILVERMAN Spectator Report

Okay, this is actually a recap of the entire weekend with about a bazillion pictures, so you might want to grab a snack before you get going on this post!

We arrived in Lake Las Vegas Friday evening after a 9+ hour drive.  Lake Las Vegas is a ritzy resort town and our hotel (The Loews Resort – you say it like “lows.”  I wasn’t sure until we checked in and the attendant pronounced it that way, so I had been saying it different every time we talked about it – lews, low-eez, lee-yous, etc.) was absolutely amazing.  I’ve never stayed anyplace quite like it before.  They had a private white sand beach on the lake and two swimming pools.  The only thing missing was a continental breakfast.  I guess rich people don’t like free breakfast buffets.  Bummer.

We don’t do a lot of “destination” races, but when we do, my favorite thing is staying at a hotel that has lots of other athletes.  The Loews parking lot was full of cars like this one.  Don’t you wish this was your license plate?????

It was already dark when we arrived and we were tired, so it was off to bed with us.

Saturday morning, we got up sort of early (6 am), because The Hubs had a mandatory race meeting to attend at the Expo and I wanted to get in my long run.  The Expo was held at the Finish Line/T2, so The Hubs asked me to run the 13.1 mile course for him (he would do it twice, I just did it once plus a little) to do some recon.  Armed with a map (seriously, look at how convoluted this course it), I took off for a remarkably pleasant run.  I say “remarkably pleasant” because I had a complete and utter hydration belt fail, a bloody foot problem (yes, there’s a pic below – feel free to skip it!), I was tired from the very long drive, I am used to running at sea level and Lake Las Vegas is at 2000 ft. elevation, and check out the course profile.  Them there’s some serious hills!

So, I’ve been having this problem on my long runs lately with one of my toenails cutting its next-door-neighbor toe.  I keep my toenails trimmed very short, so I really can’t figure out why this keeps happening.  It must be time to win buy some Injinjis.

When I peeled off my bloody sock, The Hubs said, “EWWWWWW. <pause>  Let me get the camera so you can take a picture of that.”  He knows me so well.

While I was running, The Hubs scored boatloads of free stuff at the expo.  Here’s all the race schwag (Silverman logo backpack, logo visor, logo water bottle, tons of Hammer samples, logo pen, logo playing cards – ha, ha, only in Vegas, right? – Triathlete magazine, and USAT stickers):

Saturday afternoon, we took Mr. Bicycle and The Hubs’ transition bags to be checked in:

Then we drove the run course, ate rice bowls for dinner and went to bed ridiculously early.  Having the time change the night before a race was awful, in my opinion.  It was just an extra hour to toss and turn and worry.

But, soon enough, Sunday morning arrived!  The alarm went off at 4:15, plenty of time for The Hubs to freak out get fully prepared for RACE DAY!

 It was still dark when we got to the Swim Start.

Hanging out on the dock before the deep water start.  I was on a bridge that they swam under, a perfect vantage point to watch the whole swim.

And they’re off!!  Do you see that poor guy way in the back of the pack?  Not The Hubs, thank goodness!!  This poor guy obviously missed the start somehow – not an optimal way to start a race.  SWIM TIME – 1:28:08

I admit it:  I didn’t see The Hubs get out of the water.  250 guys in wetsuits and yellow swim caps look EXACTLY the same stumbling exhaustedly out of a lake, in case you were wondering.  At least I caught him in transition.  T1 TIME – 11:07, apparently he was doing his taxes with Jeff!

See you in 112 miles!!

We drove part of the bike course Saturday afternoon – beautiful desert scenery.

Oh, and did I mention that the bike course was hilly??  The Silverman bills itself as The World’s Toughest Triathlon for a reason!  BIKE TIME – 6:37:08, T2 – 7:33.

The Hubs headed out on the run course with a HUGE smile on his face!  Because of the looping nature of the course, I saw him at the start, Mile 4, Mile (almost) 13, Mile 17 and the finish.  He was smiling the whole time, in spite of some stomach troubles that had him doing more walking than running.  RUN TIME – 5:19:40.

Words simply can’t describe how proud I was (and still am!) of The Hubs as he came running into the finish chute.  I was jumping up and down, screaming, crying and ringing my cowbell – it’s darn lucky I got any pics!  FINISH TIME – 13:43:43.

IronHubs!

The post-race fuel of champions?  Oh, yeah, baby – TWINKIES!!

We capped off the weekend by waking up early Monday morning (5 am) and driving the 9+ hours back home.  Yay.

*whew*  What an amazing weekend!  I never had any doubts that IronHubs could complete the race (and beat his time goal of 14 hours!), but watching him and the other triathletes grind it out was nothing short of awe-inspiring.  I had a front-row seat to one of the greatest shows on earth and you better believe that it made me want to do one of these things myself!! 

Congratulations to everyone who raced or spectated this weekend!!