Four years ago, the Carpinteria Sprint was my first triathlon. As the 7th of 10 events to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, I decided to repeat this triathlon. All morning, it was drizzling and roads were wet so I wasn’t looking forward to this. I even considered skipping out, but thought better of that considering that weather can be a great equalizer. Standing around before the start, lots of the other participants were oohing and ahhing at the waves rolling in. I guess I’ve been in San Diego too long to be troubled by a couple 4-foot waves. Having only swam once since Vineman, this was not my greatest swim, but it felt OK overall. There was one thrasher that I couldn’t keep away from though. If I sped up to pass him, he’d start swimming on top of me. If I slowed down to let him pass, I’d be on his feet in just a few strokes. Finally, I just swam more to the outside which probably cost me some time, but saved my sanity an probably a bloody nose. The long, beach-jog back to transition is included in the swim time, so that helps make the split much less impressive, but I did end up in the top third of swimmers – almost the top 1/4. That is really good for me (must have been all that time off from swimming).
T1 was pretty standard. Everything was starting to get pretty wet though, so getting my socks on was a little more of an ordeal than usual. The sprint event racks were furthest away from the bike out/in and my wave was almost at the very end, so the transition time includes a long trot out in cycling shoes, pushing my bike. I feel like I’ve begun to master this trot though.
The wet roads really slowed me down on the bike at first. It was frustrating to not even be hitting 20 mph on such a short and flat course, but I knew riding through all that water was slowing everyone else down as well. On the back stretch though, I was able to cruise at a comfortable 27-28 mph even though it felt like it was into the wind. That certainly helped make up time and I didn’t find cornering to be too bad on the wet roads, so I hardly had to slow down for that. Pulling up to the transition area, I remember thinking I felt more wet after the bike ride than after the swim. While my bike split was barely a PR for this course, given the weather circumstances, I feel pretty good about it. My split was good enough to be in the top 5% anyway.
For the same reasons previously mentioned, T2 includes another long trot 90% of the way through transition. When I got back to my rack, I looked around and saw only one other bike racked-up from my age group. This had to mean I was in 2nd place, which made me quite nervous since there was still a 5 K run to go and my running has not been very quick as of late. I swapped out my gear as quickly as possible and headed out for the run.
Let me backtrack for a minute: while standing around waiting for the start, I was hanging out with my friend Ricky Ho. If you don’t know Ricky, suffice it to say he is an insanely fast runner (sub 3-hour marathoner and can do a 5K in about 16:30) who also happens to be the same age as me, so when he’s there, I’m pretty much automatically one place lower. Another friend, Matt Trost (Matt & Ricky were both on my 2010 R.U.T.E. team) came over and pointed out that the worst thing about racing against Ricky in a triathlon is that you might beat him out of the water and off the bike, but then you have to worry about him catching you on the run. Now, back to the run: not only was I worried about maintaining my placement, I was really worried that Ricky would catch me (it was not his bike racked-up). The first two miles kind of meander through some neighborhoods, then it pops out onto a main road, right before the turn around. From there it’s a pretty straight, and slightly downhill, stretch to the finish. One guy passed me in that first two miles, but he was in a younger age-group and was only about ten feet in front of me when I hit the turn-around. As soon as I started heading back, I was checking the calves of the people still running out. I felt like I was giving it a lot of effort and was worried I couldn’t keep it up, so I wanted to know if there was anyone in my age-group who was within catch-up distance (your age is written on your calf for the race). There were about five or six people who were potential candidates to pass me but none were in my age-group. Just as I was feeling some relief, I saw Ricky. And he was bookin’ really fast. Now, I was concerned that not only would he catch me, but it would be right before the finish. As I got closer to the finish and he continued to not pass me yet, that dread only got worse. This turned out to be good motivation though and I was able to eek out a little more speed. With about a quarter of a mile left, I passed the younger guy who had originally passed me, and once I got around the final corner, I launched into an all-out sprint – every step wondering if Ricky was going to pass me. Well, I ended up finishing only about 20 seconds ahead of him. For the record, Ricky had the fastest overall run; mine was sixth (and a run PR for this course).
About 10 minutes later, the preliminary results were up and I was in 2nd place for the men’s 35-39 age group. I figured I should stick around for awards so I grabbed some free food and hung out for a bit. For about 40 minutes, I was elated! I had finally placed in a triathlon after four years of trying. Then I went and checked the results again only to find out I was now in 4th place. How that happened, I don’t know. As I said before, there was only one bike from my age group in T2 when I racked-up, and no one passed me on the run (except a 30 year old that I passed back and it wouldn’t matter anyway). Supposedly two guys had timing chip issues which is why they didn’t appear in the results at first, but unless they racked up in the wrong place (which is a time penalty BTW) then something is not right here. This is still really disappointing to me as I write this…
Place: 32/471 overall, 28/250 Men, 4/31 men 35-39
Total: 1:04:26, swim 13:28, T1 2:47, bike 26:23, T2 2:04, run 19:30
The final race in my series of 10 (now 11 actually) to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society was the Christopher Daily Turkey Trot. This is a 5K race in Saratoga Springs NY, near where my parents live and this is the third year my family has participated in the race. It was not as cold as last year but very damp so once the race started, my lungs felt phlegmy pretty quickly. Between the limited training, lingering burn-out, cold weather and hilliness of the course (I forgot how hilly it is – again), this ended up being my slowest time yet for this event by about 30 seconds. What a pleasant surprise to find out that my time was still fast enough to get 2nd in my age-group – up from 3rd place the last two years. That’s part of the appeal of this race, I suppose; it is generally populated by high-school and college track athletes, so there’s not too many fast guys in the older age groups. Not a bad way to finish the year and the fundraising!
In 2008, I did the 
Since this meant no hurricane hill, I figured the course would be easier. Later, I was able to determine that this was not the case.