I suppose part of the reason we write/read race reports is to exchange some info on a particular race...did you like it? Was it safe? Was it organized? Where did you stay and how did that work out? So this RR may be a cautionary tale...though, all in all, I had a great weekend! I suppose the lesson is to make your own fun and not stress about the small stuff.
I was in great company for this trip...heading to Vegas for my friend/teammate Kim's 40th birthday. You gotta love a girl who plans a trip like that for her b-day! Another teammate, Lori, was also going, and we have become closer the last several months as it turns out we are right about the same pace for everything. She's a good friend and training buddy.
Flew to Vegas Thursday with our bikes without incident. K was super organized. We met L at the airport and rented our cars. The race was at the Lake Las Vegas Resort...about 20-30 min. from the Strip. It was desert-y and sort of pretty, in a stark way, out there. The golf course at the resort entrance looked really nice, too. We were staying in a rental house...omg, it was nice!! 3 floors, posh furnishings, a great view of the resort and lake, and a hot tub! At the hotel/casino area, there is a little village that is supposed to be like a little Italian town, with shops and restaurants along cobbled sidewalks...that was a nice place to hang out. We met Kim's other friends who had come to the event from Colorado and Montana and Wisconsin....a total group of about 16 fun, fabulous women! Lots of energy!
Friday was the day to build bikes, test them out, get our packets, check in the bikes. This was the weird day. First, one of the girls who was doing her first tri was testing out the bike she borrowed and her seat post broke! Thank goodness she stood up quickly, or that would have been a nasty impalement! So we detoured to the bike shop and got that all fixed up.
At packet pickup is where the "fun" (NOT) began....we had been wanting to drive the bike course, as we heard from a pro who was going to race that there were some nasty 18% grade hills. Funny, that little tidbit was not in the info given to the rest of the athletes. Nor do I recall that they mentioned that part of the course was on a bike path. Not a big deal, but knowing that would have explained why no maps were any good. The race website had a google interactive map that was lousy. If you tried to enlarge the map to something larger than 2 inches for the 25 mile loop, only the surrounding map would enlarge, but the race loop stayed the same size. So...at packet pickup (after being admonished not to bring any large transition bags into transition--I presume to keep it neat for the TV coverage), we found the head USAT official for the race. He said he had not been provided with course info yet. hmm? So another girl (not in our group) and I went to ask the lady who looked like she was in charge at packet pickup. First she told the girl that "the course is marked, I ran it this morning" (wow...25 mile run...)...then when the girl said she had started following the arrows then they stopped, the lady said "oh, they are still marking it" (***? you just said it was marked.) In our packet, there was a 2 x 3 inch map of the course, in black and white, with no street names indicated. (um, not helpful) How about maybe a poster size map at registration?? (nope....funny...other races often do that.) So I nicely asked if the RD was around to help us answer our questions on the course. The woman responded, "He's out doing HIS JOB!" (um....ok....I know RDs are crazy busy, but they should have some idea these questions will come up and should have someone to answer them.) Then, she looked at me and said, "you don't need to know the course, you're not going to be in front anyway." BEEYOTCH!! I kept my cool...and said, "you don't know that" and walked away. (I mean, I know I'm really not going to be in front, but ***? with the rudeness)
So...we checked in our bikes and decided to go swim. haha! Couldn't find the swim entrance or exit. Turns out the exit was where we guessed it was, behind a gate that was intending to keep non-hotel guests out. Some lady let us in for a quick and very cold practice swim. I didn't worry about checking out anything to do with the run, since I was planning to just swim and bike due to a hip flexor injury.
We had a great dinner the night before, and a glass of wine, and were ready to go.
The other confusing part of the race was that the parking area/start of swim is in one place; the swim exit/transitions is in another; and the run finish is in another place, over a mile from the TA. Then, post-race refreshments and awards were way back by the TA. No wonder the race people were confused...I think they bit off more than they could chew with that configuration. It was difficult for spectators to get around, too, and many of them ended up on the run course in the way of runners.
So finally....it's time! The Sprint race (before the Olympic--another ??? you'd think they would have wanted to get us Olympic course people going to get out of the way of the larger sprint race) started at least 30-40 minutes late. So our start was late, too. ugh. We just lounged on the shore. I did a warmup swim, and luckily the water didn't feel as cold as the day before. It was about 63. brr! It was very cool, once we got going to see the TV helicopters flying around over the swim (mostly for the pro race--we'll see if any AG people get to be on TV). Lori and I were in the last wave...we talked a little about drafting off each other, though it is tough to really plan that with the wave start. Turns out that after the first turn, I saw her. She was having a little trouble in the chop (the wind really picked up), so I hollered at her to "hop on!" to my feet. I think she did....then somehow she got by me and passed me by the finish...good for her! No wetsuit strippers and the run to the TA was at least 1/4 mile long (uphill), so we had all decided to take off our wetsuits before running up the hill, before the water drained out and made the suits hard to get off. I think that was a good decision. I swam about 30 min, which was a PR at that distance (though I hardly ever do Olympic distance races).
I found Lori in T1 and we headed out together on the bikes. That course is hilly! We had to pick our way through some of the slower sprint athletes at the start, but then our course went out into the wild unknown of the desert bike path. Then we found those dang steep hills...whoa!! Did I really mean to keep the 11-23 cassette on? haha! That section of the course was pretty technical, with turns and hills, but actually pretty much fun. I had dropped Lori right when we got to the bike path section. The other thing about the race is that there were some sections on this path with NO volunteers, etc....if someone had gone down out there, it would have been interesting to see what their emergency response might have been. Luckily, I heard of no significant incidents. One of the last sections on the path was a long false flat. Really false. I couldn't tell and was getting convinced my brake was rubbing. But when we got past that, I started flying! So I knew I was ok. I felt super strong on the bike...I think the Lone Star race gave me a lot of confidence because I really haven't had as much quality time on the bike as I would have liked. The rest of the bike was well marked (thanks, finally) and had plenty of volunteers. I rolled into T2 about a minute ahead of Lori. Since I wasn't running, I just wished her well and racked my bike so I could go watch her and Kim finish (Kim had a great race!).
We met up at the finish, got some pizza (bought it, as we didn't realize the post-race food was back by the TA), and got our stuff gathered up. I had to quickly pack my bike, since I had to ship it home, as I was heading to a conference from Vegas. Shipping was no problem (FedEx) btw (I guess I'll believe all the horror stories on ST when it happens to me--which it probably will eventually). The Colorado girls got several podium spots in the sprint race, so we cheered them at the awards over a cold beer! Then we went for a fabulous dinner at Mandalay Bay. The culmination of the evening was when we were chilling in the hot tub that evening...and they shot off fireworks over the Lake and Resort...very cool.
So....not the most organized race I have ever been at....I think I am spoiled (thanks, KJ!) with the events I have done. But we all had a good time. The venue is fabulous...I do hope they are able to iron out some issues and make it better.
Still new to the whole running/walking thing (like since Jan) but have been swimming and biking since I was little. Actually considered a local sprint tri this summer but want to do the Chicago 1/2 and not sure about training for both so soon. 
