Silverman Triathlon – Part ONE: Pre-Race

The Silverman Triathlon was a bit of a last minute addition to my triathlon season. It wasn’t on the original season schedule, but I decided to sign up for it around July as one last “hurrah” for my year. I’m really glad I did, because it was such a GREAT race.

Part ONE – Pre-Race

Minh and I packed up the car and headed out Friday evening after work. Minh built this new bike rack thing so that we could put the bikes INSIDE the car. It was pretty cool. We were ablet o fit his cross bike and my tri bike, plus all our other gear and travel things, and snacks, for the trip. Much better than having to leave the bikes outside while we drove four hours across the desert with the howling winds.

LEFT: Just the bikes... RIGHT: All packed up...

We opted to NOT get a room Friday night because we would be getting to the Las Vegas area pretty late. Instead, we made plans to pull an “all-nighter”. We got to Vegas around 11PM.. so we parked the car at Bellagio and walked down to MGM Grand to watch Saw 3D – I’ve been wanting to see this movie since Minh first showed me the trailer.. if you like the Saw movies, then you’ll definitely like it. But don’t go to see it until you’ve seen the ENTIRE series. After the movie, we headed back to the Bellagio to walk through the Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. I thought it would be bigger and take more of our time.. but it was still pretty cool.

Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Garden

By now it was probably 3AM… we didn’t know what else to do and we’re not much of gamblers… so we went to sleep in the car. We got kicked out of the parking structure around 5AM by a security guard.. hehe.. it was a good nap though. By that time, we decided to head out to Henderson and find breakfast. Made a quick stop at the Las Vegas Welcome Sign for a photo-op.

Ahh.. Las Vegas.. Where else can you get "internet beer"?

The drive to Henderson wasn’t very long, and thus, did not kill very much time. We found a place to get breakfast that opens at 6AM.. so we only had to chill in the car for about half an hour before eating. The restaurant is called The Cracked Egg. It was OK for a breakfast place.. nothing special.

Breakfast from the Cracked Egg

After we finished eating, we still had about an hour to kill before the Race Packet Pick-Up opened… so we went to Whole Foods and walked around looking at groceries. I had forgotten that their was a Pancake Breakfast going on at the Expo, or else we would have gone to that. Eventually we got to the Expo and Race Packet Pick-up and Mandatory Athlete Meeting and all that other good stuff.

Silverman Finish-line.. I'll see you TOMORROW!!

Coffee and Kahlua to keep us awake during Mandatory Athlete Meeting

After leaving the expo, we headed out to the Race Start/T1 area (which was next to our hotel) to drop off my bike, bike gear, and run gear. I got a pretty good spot in my aisle since no one else had showed up to drop off their bike.

Bike Checked IN!! Best spot in my row!

Once all my gear was dropped off, we headed to the hotel to see if we could check-in early…. and we DID!!! YAY!!! The room was really nice and spacious and RIGHT NEXT TO the race start. There was also a nice small kitchen area with stove, dishwasher, sink, mini fridge, pots, pans, plates, silverware, cooking utensils, etc.. so we could make food.

I was hoping for a nap once we were all checked in, but Minh said “NO!”. His thinking was that if we napped, then we wouldn’t get a good night’s rest that night… so.. We went to go find lunch and things to make for dinner. Then we ate.. watched TV.. walked around a little bit.. pre=drove parts of the course.. made dinner.. and went to bed.

Lunchtime!

For dinner... browned butter and mushroom pasta

Race day report coming… in Part TWO…

Good night BIKES.. I'll see you in the morning!