Race Previews

That 140.6 Thing...

Tuesday, 16 November 2010 04:20

Ironman Arizona Stuff - A myriad of Minnesota multisporters will descend on one of America's coolest college towns, Tempe, pronounced either "Tem-pee" or "Tempy," both work with the locals, next weekend. Tempe is the home of Arizona State University, a.k.a. the Harvard of the Southwest, Mill Avenue and the ghosts of former iconic bars, Bandersnatch and Minder-Binders...

It is also the home of Ironman Arizona, the 7th version of which will staged next Sunday.

Among this year's Minnesota participants are OptumHealth Performance coaches Kris Swarthout and Devon Palmer. Kris is an iron-vet; Devon is an iron-virgin. They shared their pre-race thoughts:

"As a coach and an athlete I can tell you this 140.6 thing never gets easier. I have been working hard to get OptumHealth Performance up and functional, be a good husband, raise three kids and when you tack training on top of that you get the idea. Lucky for me I am surrounded by the best coaches, equipment and support team anyone could ever ask for. I am excited to get back out there and race more than anything. As some people may have observed, I have focused more on my athletes and my teams that I have on myself. I have not raced in almost two years!

"Like the Duran Duran song goes, I'm "Hungry like the wolf." Funny thing, I share a birthday with their lead singer, Simon Lebon. I have some things I will be bringing out on course with me as coaching experiments. I have some new clothing selections, equipment selections and will be continuing to fine tune my application of racing with power (wattage). I have been focusing on wattage-based long course racing for three years and I have learned quite a bit.

"I am also looking forward to seeing how my two athletes, Margarita Sevilla and Stephen Olsen do. I would be lying if I didn't also say that I will be thinking as much about Devon's race as my own. His debut at this distance is going to reveal many things about his future." - Kris

"....I decided to do the race to gain perspective as both a coach and as an athlete. Moving forwards into 2011 I'll be able to work with IM athletes through Optum Health Performance and I'll have a better idea of what race distances to focus on. My only aspiration for the race itself is to execute reasonably in terms of pacing, nutrition, hydration, and thermoregulation. My primary objective right now is to avoid getting too fat over taper, which for me is harder than the training itself.

"To give credit where credit is due, a few supporters have made this process possible. Enterprise Lighting and W. Harvey Skees, P.A. (one of MN's fittest defense attorneys), have helped with the cost of travel. Gear West has been kind enough to let me borrow a Powertap Zipp Disc and a Joule head so I will have more than enough information while I'm racing - the boys in the shop have also replaced a substantial number of chains for me this year. My training partner Jorgen has been willing to put down his aerospace homework long enough for some great runs this fall. He is both a Norwegian and a nerd and will be on hand to tell me to go faster in AZ. Kris Swarthout has also been a great resource for putting together my race day plan. I am also grateful my girlfriend did not dump me immediately when I told her my plans to do an IM.

"I am excited to see if this "Ironman" thing lives up to the hype." - Devon

Ironman Arizona's 2010 Minnesota Participants:

Owen Belman, Troy Bouma, Rob Bryant, Becky Burdick, Joe Conlin, Cindy Cook, Richard Ekstrum, Troy Espeseth, Lyle Henson, Julie Hull, Shad Ireland (photo L), Tiffany Lindstrom, Shannon Nelson, Stephen Olson, Devon Palmer, Merilee Sander, Margarita Sevilla, Bay Shock, Adam, Daniel Sobiech, Kris Swarthout, Rich Wicklund, Jenny Wilcox, Robert Younger and Shane Zindel.

MTN Staffers salute Minnesota's ironfolk and hope that great memories will be made next weekend.

Photos: The great shot of Kris was pulled from Trijuice.com, a totally cool website. The pic of Devon, shown here with his short-lived House, M.D. beard and un-shaved-down chest, was taken by YndeCam.com. The Shad Ireland--very cool name--photo was lifted from the Livestrong website.