Silverman

Hill profile for bike portion of silverman triathlon

I guess my proving ground is starting to take shape - or at least i'm creating a financial incentive to enter the field.  I signed up yesterday for the Silverman Triathlon - an Iron distance race next november (early registration discount only lasted through the month) out in Las Vegas.  it's touted (by Dave Scott anyway - but hey, what does he know?  (:  ) as being the toughest race of this distance in the united states.  The race has over 12000 feet of elevation gain.  Although the course doesn't start and end in exactly the same place there is nearly as much 'down' as there is up (with the exception of a final 20 mile long climb on the bike) which means that all that elevation is gained over roughly 60 biking miles and 13 running ones.  So doing some quick estimates this gives an average elevation gain of 150 ft/mile or about a 3% grade for those 73 miles.  mind you there will be 'flat' sections of the course and consequently much steeper climbs, but it gives an idea of what i'm up against.

Dave has signed up as well - so there'll be at least one other 'grossly undertrained according to conventional wisdom' athlete out there to commiserate with.  My goal, which mind you is completely meaningless as i sit  in my office, typing this, a year away from the race, is to finish top 25%, which based on past year results puts me somewhere around 13 hours.  it's going to be brutal.  For now though i'm going to try not to think about it for at least 9 months or so - when i start training for it.