2012 ITU San Diego

The 2012 ITU San Diego wrapped up about 12 hours ago and while things are still fresh in my head I thought I would sit down and tap out how things went. A long day on the road heading back to Albuquerque begins early in the morning tomorrow (Sunday) and I'm pretty exhausted from an early morning today (4a Pacific), but those are the sacrifices I make to you, my loyal readers. Please excuse any and all potential grammatical errors in this post. I'm fading fast.

Today was a beautiful day for a triathlon. Got up around 4 this morning and got some nutrition down my throat. The hotel I'm staying at, which is very nice and comfortable, isn't triathlete friendly. My room doesn't even have a refrigerator. So I had to make due with what I could gather that didn't need to be chilled. After putting together my stock of water bottles laced with Nuun tablets and getting in a quick morning stretch, I headed off to the transition area. Luckily it was only a 30-min walk from the hotel so I didn't need to fight the traffic/bus situation of 2500+ athletes converging into the same area.

My bike was [luckily] where I left it the night before and I quickly laid out my stuff, tapped gels to my bike, got everything situation, etc. At about 6:05a the transition area was closed, a local triathlete sang a real nice Star Spangled Banner, and the first wave of racers got ready to head out the shoot. My wave (M30-34), all with royal blue swim caps, was the last wave on the list, scheduled at 7:20a. I still had quite a while. To pass the time I went for a couple out-and-back swims to loosen up and enjoy some open water swimming. Also met a cool fellow New Mexican and chatted with him and his family for a while.

The first wave was delayed by 15-minutes but they compressed the schedule and our wave was able to start on time at 7:20a. I did my best to avoid the sometimes-lethal kick to the face and lined up towards the back and to the outside. The horn blew and we were off...

Swim
The race started with a 1500m swim in Mission Bay. Water temperature was quoted as 64F which made wetsuits legals. I broke out my 2XU T:2 for the first time since last Memorial Day and took advantage of it's thermal protection (and, of course, added buoyancy). However, as I was pulling the sleeves up to where they should be, I must have either been pulling in the wrong place, have some crazy Hulk-like strength, or the suit wasn't manufactured with the highest quality because a seam in the sleeve ripped. So, looks like I'm in the market for a new wetsuit. Suggestions?

My swim was a bit of a disaster. My stroke felt pretty good - feeling the glide - but my sighting led me astray quite a few times. And by astray I mean pretty far off. As in a volunteer had to chase me down with a kayak. Apparently sighting off the wrong buoy isn't a good idea. The first half of the course I zig-zagged all over the place. Wish I had a GPS unit tracking my path. I knew it was bad when I passed the same guy (he was easy to recognize with his gold TYR Hurricane Freak of Nature wetsuit) three times.The second half of the swim was a little better. Got into a groove of alligator-eying every 8-10 strokes and staying somewhat on track. So good I ran into not just one but two buoys in the process. Ran right into them. Even got semi-tangled up in their anchor.

The last 50-100m of the swim was a mucky mess of seaweed and mud. Nothing like swimming 1500m and then having to wade through knee-high mud. It was an awkward depth of water: too shallow to swim but a little too deep to high-step out comfortably. After getting out of the water, we were shuttled into the opposite end of the transition area than my bike. And with 2500-some participants, the transition area was big. Luckily my stuff was racked not far from the cluster of port-a-johns, so it wasn't too hard to find. After de-mudding, slipping off my ripped wetsuit and putting on my bike gear, I was out of the transition area and hitting the road.

Note: I tried to write this entry the night of the race since it was fresh in my head. I was, however, pretty beat and ended up crashing right about here. The rest of this entry is a week after the race, so the details aren't quite as fresh. I apologize.

Bike
Next was a 40km bike ride that started at Mission Bay and made its way to La Jolla (which I finally got used to saying). The course was well marked, pretty wide in most areas and easy to navigate. It was quite the  beast of a course. Right out of the transition area it was a subtle climb until you got to Mt. Soledad. From there it got pretty intense, including a section about 1/2-mile in length that was a solid 10% grade. The hill was pretty meaty. And of course, what goes up, must come down, and the ride down the hill was a good opportunity to tuck into a decent aero position and let the legs relax. It was a two-loop course to make up the 40km before cruising back into the transition area. The energy from the crowd along the route was awesome. Quite a few people took to the streets to watch the age groupers tackle the course.

Security (in the form of volunteers and the San Diego PD) were out in full force on the course to help us out. However, no matter how well they did their job, it's impossible to stop everything. And less than 2 miles into the bike, a guy on a beach cruiser ignored securities demand for him to stop and he came cruising across the bike course perpendicular to my path. It would have been an ugly and disastrous bike-on-bike T-bone collision had I not have gotten a handful of brakes and a quick swerve. Other than that situation, the local traffic and people were respectful of the racers and kept to their own lanes.

Run
As I was getting off the bike and getting into my Brooks for the run, my back started to tighten up to punish me for the 90-minute bike ride. I pounded a gel pack, headed for the exit and tried my best to ignore the pain. After about a mile or so the pain crept away and stayed away. My legs felt pretty fresh coming off the bike but I had over 6-miles left before the finish line so I did my best to keep a good pace. Looking at my Garmin every once and a while, I tried to keep my pace at the 8:00-8:10/mi mark. The run course was a two-lap route on the "boardwalk" (which is nothing like the boardwalks I'm used to on the Jersey Shore). The course looped around the southern point of Mission Bay with the beach on our left and sweet condos to our right. Aid stations were plenty serving water, Gatorade and even some sort of energy bar/gel/etc.

On the last lap and shortly before the last aid station I decided to take in a few more calories to send me home. Reached into my tri suit's pouch and got a Cliff gel pack. I think it was Double Espresso (apparently Chris "Macca" McCormack's favorite flavor). Tore off the top but must have tore it a little too high. The resulting small orifice didn't allow much flow, and instead of re-tearing it a little lower to open it up, I just squeezed harder. As a result, another seam in the packaging gave lose and delicious energy in the form of a paste went everywhere. I was able to get some down my throat, which I followed up with some water at the aid station, but I was licking the rest off my hand, fingers, arm, etc. the rest of the race. It wasn't until after I crossed the finish line that I realized the extent of the mess. Luckily it doesn't really show in any of the photos that were taken of me.

Results
For my very first triathlon at the Olympic distance, I was going to be pleased with any result. Hey, it's a PR! However, with the swim turning into one of my strengths, I was disappointed with my results. It goes to show there is definitely a lot more to open water swimming than stoke length and stroke rate. Definitely something that will need some work and concentration. They say you can't win the race in the swim, but you can lose the race in the swim. The same is true at a personal level: you can't win YOUR race during the swim, but you can lose YOUR race during the swim. Regardless, it's a good starting point and was definitely a fun weekend. Here are the final numbers:

Swim: 38:23 (2:34/100m)
T1: 3:09
Bike: 1:30:36 (16.46 MPH)
T2: 3:24
Run: 51:32 (8:17/mi)
Total: 3:07:01

My next race is coming up in a few weeks. I'll be doing an Olympic Tri at the Billy the Kid Tombstone Triathlon in Fort Sumner, NM on Saturday June 9th. Just a quick 3 weeks away. Fort Sumner is where Billy the Kid is buried and there is also a lake out there (think it's called Lake Sumner). It will be my final tune-up before the Philly Tri a few weeks after that. Stay tuned for more.