Last year, Janice, Jens and I did this one as a relay and I liked the transition area so much I decided right then and there that I would do it this year on my own. This was my first proper triathlon of 2009 and I felt pretty good about it going in. Running as of late has been difficult and a bit slow, probably due to so much focus on endurance running in the first half of the year (also, not really being recovered yet). But, I thought if all went well, I stood a chance of placing in my age group on this one.
Well, that all went out the window right off the bat. Last year, there was a big swell and the swim took me a long time, so I figured with a calm ocean this year, it would be 30 minutes max. The course wasn’t marked all that great – only three large buoys a few hundred yards from shore. They were easy to spot when standing on the beach, but once you got into the water the waves were blocking your view most of the time. It didn’t help that the lifeguards wore buoy-yellow, so a lot of people (me included) sighted off them at first. Couple that with a strong westward current and I was pretty far off the mark by the time I actually saw the first buoy. Rather than right-angle around it, it was more like 170-degree “turn”. Swimming against the current to the next buoy was slow, but straight at least. I thought it was the turn-in buoy (since I’d been out there a long time already) until I saw everyone else keep swimming straight. The third buoy was also no problem. When we turned in towards shore you had to look straight at the sun, so I had no idea where to go. Most others didn’t either. There was a lot of activity from the lifeguards shouting for us to swim more to the right in a few places. Partly because the current was dragging us to the left and partly because no one knew where exactly on shore we were supposed to be swimming towards. Eventually, we swam to and through the orange buoys of the sprint waves, which was planned I guess. From there the swim finish was obvious and I actually managed to catch a little wave and body surf in the last 10 meters or so. The swim had felt long, but I still thought that it just seemed that way. I was shocked when I looked at my watch and saw almost 40 minutes had passed. That was really disheartening and I figured that pretty much destroyed my chances of placing.
T1 was uneventful; just thinking about the rest of the race and how to approach it. Having felt pretty beat the last few weeks while running, I figured I’d just go out and try to have a good ride, then just finish the run. At least it would be an overall solid workout.
The bike went pretty well actually, almost as good as I could have possibly hoped for. The two-loop course was flat and no wind for the first lap at least. It is absolutely un-scenic which would be a bit of a bummer for a leisure ride, but is just fine for a race. Just put your head down and go. No distractions. I pushed it pretty hard the whole time and could probably have gone a bit faster but I didn’t want to have a pathetic run so I saved a little bit at least.
T2 was bad. I racked up my bike in the wrong spot. It turns out I was only off by one section of the right rack, but in a panic I then went to an entirely different rack before realizing where I was supposed to go. That cost me some time, maybe 20 seconds.
On the run, as predicted, I wasn’t feeling awesome so I just took it fairly easy. It wasn’t a terrible run, but it was far from great. I mostly just went at an effort level around my aerobic threshold and distracted myself by looking for and cheering on other SB Tri Club members (a few TCSD members too).
Afterwards, many people were saying that the swim took a long time. Some say it was distance-wise too long too. I didn’t bother looking at the results being posted at the event, but when I saw them online the next day I was kicking myself for not going 100% on the run. I took 5th in AG and could have had 3rd if I was 50 seconds faster overall; definitely doable on the run. Overall, compared to other athletes, I did quite well. Lesson learned I guess.
I did a lot of thinking on the bike and the run. I’m pretty sure that Boston and Lake Merritt have finally caught up with me. I’ve had – and been ignoring – the classic symptoms of overtraining and not being recovered: tired, gaining weight, drop in performance and loss of enthusiasm for the sport. So, I’ve decided no more additional races this year besides what I’ve already committed to (which is still a lot). Surf Monkey, SB Tri, Carpinteria Tri, SB marathon. That’s it.
Brightroom was there in full force and provided a ton of photos. Josh Shultz from the tri club was also snapping pics at the finish.
Total time of 2:30:30, swim 39:21, T1 2:58, bike 1:03:32,
T2 2:00, run 42:39
Place: 68/279 overall, 58/192 men, 5/22 men 30-34
after completing my first official olympic-distance event, I have nothing but respect for your performance in this, or any other, race.
good work dude. I hope some time off will bring the fun back. I was sad to “have” to take a week off of training to travel to a conference, but I really think some time off is definitely the best thing.
also, I’m still in awe that slowish fun run for you is still way out of my league.
Man, you are on the ball! I just posted this update.
Congrats on the NYC tri – I’d like to do that some day (although maybe not after what you told me about getting there etc.).
You did awesome, especially for your first olympic. Keep doing speed workouts once a week and you’ll start seeing some big improvements in run times.