Game Day - Pacific Coast Triathlon

Woke up at 4am, had an "oh shit" moment as I'm supposed to be at Jillian's in 30 minutes and it takes about 30 minutes to get to her house. I jumped in my clothes, fed the dogs, filled up my water bottles, then my ice chest, grabbed everything from in the house and rushed outside. Loaded my gear and my bike and sped out of my driveway.

I ended up only being 10 minutes late, although I left about 17 minutes late. It helped that it was 4 in the morning. No one is on the road at 4 on a Sunday morning except us crazy people.

Loaded the bike on Jillian's bike rack, threw my gear in the back of her car, grabbed some hot water for my tea and we were off with her boyfriend. We got to the lot a bit after 5, unloaded and went to transition.

Everything was pretty uneventful until about 7:05 when a chick came over and started pushing our bikes around. Um, there were already 5 bikes on our rack. I went up and down the long rack and found a space for her, but she wasn't having any of it. You see, we got there early to get an end cap. As close to bike out as we could be in our wave. I think she wanted that. She also showed up 10 minutes before transition closed. In a preview of what's to come, when I came back from the bike I had to shove (and I didn't do it nicely) her bike over as it was diagonal across 3 transition set ups. Why do people do this? On to the race report.

Swim
I haven't been in the water for 2 weeks. I had prepared myself for my swim time to be my swim time. Whatever it was, it was. I'd finish and walk up the hill, get on the bike and my race would start there. I did notice that I had no shoulder pain, for the first time in 2 weeks. It was still a bit of a downer to realize I was the last out of my swim wave. At least I didn't see anyone behind me, although there were still bikes on the rack now that I think of it. However, those could have been people who were out and back already...

We had to run up this horrid hill to transition, I walked. Unlike Solana, no one was yelling at me to run. I think my swim, including that walk up the hill, was under 30 minutes. I need to work on putting my face in salt water and the run into the water. I didn't feel like I could catch my breath the whole time.

T1
Okay. I realized I put my right sock on inside out, but didn't care. I might try Viv's no socks next time.

Bike
My plan was to burn my legs on the bike and see what I had left for the run. It's my B race, as I'm shooting for the Olympic as my A for this part of the season. I averaged about a 14 min/mile, which was close to my 15 min/mile goal (there were hills people, HILLS) I was a bit disappointed about this bike just because I had done the 2 loops last Sunday and it didn't seem that hard. However, I hadn't swam a 1/2 mile and ran up a crappy hill last Sunday.

The only thing that killed me about this leg were the people passing on the tight turn arounds and that people from subsequent waves passed me en masse. Included the kid's tri. Nothing like an 8 year old zooming past you.

My co-worker, who's wife is joining the Divas for our fall season, yelled at me as I was rolling to the dismount line. That was a nice boost, but I still didn't really catch my breath on the bike.

T2
This one was horrid. As mentioned before the chick took up so much room with her bike I had to shove it over to put my bike on the rack, got my shoes, almost forgot my race number, grabbed my inhaler and I was off.

Run
Ran/walked through the first mile and the whole course. I had opened my Clif shot to consume on the bike, but ate the Clif Bloks instead, so it was still open. I downed it, even though I knew it was too early. This may have been part of my problem. The other part, still couldn't catch my breath. It physically hurt me to take a deep breath.

Saw Martha, not sure what she was yelling at me, run my race? Not sure, but I started jogging here. Stopped to walk and see if I could catch my breath. Was egged on by a 69ish year old to run, there's no walking on this course. You'd be proud, I didn't flip him off, I just took some puffs off my inhaler and started to jog.

Saw Jillian coming it, I'm so proud of her. We're both having us being too competitive issues, only she seems to be progressing faster than me. Although she's always been faster than me.

Was passed by Stacey and some other Divas in the wave behind me on the run. It's okay, I know what I need to work on, someday I'll finish before people in the waves behind me do.

To tell you the truth, this was the worst run I'd ever done. Not just the worst race, but the worst run. I was so disappointed with myself and my body for not being able even jog the whole 2.8 miles, well, 2.5 miles as there was a ramp I was going to walk up regardless of how I felt.

After I rounded the corner and got my lei from one of Martha's girls I sprinted to the finish line. Apparently I can sprint without having to take any deep breaths. Maybe I need to push past the pain more, I'll talk to Martha about that later. I did have to yell at people who were crossing right in front of me. I mean really people, look around. I know I'm not super fast but you saw me sprinting towards the chute. Did you really need me to yell, "I'm coming!!!!" to get your asses moving? It was Pendleton's bike in all over again.

In the end Lisa passed me at the finish line. I mean right at the finish line and I wasn't even in her age group.

I did like the course, it was challenging and that makes it fun. If I'm able to, I'll definitely do this one next year.