First Tri of the 2007 Season

The Strawberry Fields Triathlon is a relatively new event. This was the fourth year, and my first time doing this event. It is very similar in layout to the Breath of Life tri I did last year in Ventura. The ocean swim is a rectangular course out, across, and in around two buoys, about 400m total. The run back to the transition area is a bit longer than that at Ventura, but the transition area is grass, rather than an asphalt parking lot.

The swim was a lot tougher than I thought it would be. The seas were rough and the water was chilly (59F), but the cold wasn't really a problem as I had a full tri wetsuit. For some reason, I found myself breathing really hard and fast early in the swim. For this reason, I couldn't get into a good rhythm, and spent most of the swim doing a 'water polo stroke', i.e. head out of the water. I was disappointed that I wasn't able to do an efficient swim, but I just couldn't get relaxed enough to do it 'right'. There were nice 5+ foot waves right around the buoys, which made for some excitement. If I had my surfboard with me, I would have really enjoyed it, but swimming through them was not as much fun. I ended up right in the impact zone on the way out, which meant a dive under the crashing wave, then fighting my way back up to the surface for air. On the other side as I rounded the buoy for the swim back to shore, I caught a couple of smaller waves and bodysurfed for a few yards, which was nice. By the time I reached the shore, I was drained. I walked/jogged up the beach toward T1, trying to catch my breath.

Transition 1 took longer than it should have, as I was still trying to recover from the hard swim effort.

By the time I got on the bike, I was feeling better and ready to go. I ate an energy gel as I got out on the road and settled into a nice quick rhythm. It was still cool weather, so I was glad I took the time to pull on a long sleeve jersey. I would later wish I had also brought shoe covers. The course was flat and fast, and well-controlled by local law enforcement. I passed several riders and was only passed by a few on serious time-trial rigs. At one point I, a 28YO woman, and a 43YO man were all on a long straight stretch at about the same pace, and we had to take care to stay out of each other's draft, as drafting in a USAT race is illegal and subject to a penalty. There was a fair amount of jockeying back and forth to try and stay 'legal', but eventually our little group split and spread out. At one point about halfway through the ride, I saw an unfortunate competitor pulling up on the side of the road with a flat. What a bummer that must be to have a mechanical in the middle of your race. (NOTE: I know the ages of the other competitors because the body markers wrote everyone’s age on their right calf.)

As I neared the final turn toward the dismount area, I saw Des cheering and snapping pictures. As I passed her position, I suddenly realized one of the marshals was shouting '...at the red line!' I saw the red line on the road just in time and skidded to a stop, unclipping from my pedal a millisecond before I fell over.

I ran the rest of the way toward my transition spot, racked my bike, and stripped off the long sleeve jersey, gloves, helmet and shoes. I slipped on my running shoes, grabbed another gel and was off.

Last triathlon I did, I had a major case of 'jelly legs' after getting off the bike. This is a phenomenon where ones legs have gotten accustomed to spinning pedals, and when you suddenly make the switch to running, it feels like they were not made for that purpose. This time, there was no perceptible wobbly feeling, but I was dealing with a different issue. The fast, chilly bike leg combined with my ventilated shoes had left me with no feeling in the front half of my feet. Running on numb feet is not a pleasant experience, and it was distracting. Otherwise I felt relatively good. I ate a gel and settled into my comfortable 5K pace. I was not being passed by many runners, but I imagine that was due to the order in which the waves started (mine was second to last, and most of the faster racers were ahead of me on the course). As I neared the first turnaround and aid/water station, there was a white car sharing the road. This section of road was supposed to be closed to traffic, but apparently the driver had not gotten the message. He was slowly driving straight toward the turnaround aid station, when a sheriff’s explorer came out into the lane waving and trying to get the driver's attention. A resident who was standing on his front steps watching all this commented that it was 'an elderly man in a buick, so everyone watch out!' We all had a morbid laugh at the Santa Monica Farmers' Market reference. Law enforcement got the driver redirected down a side street without incident, and I grabbed a water and made the turn. The next leg took us back along the path past the finish, so we could look enviously at the runners who had already made the second turn and were finishing. Another half-mile or so and I reached the final turn for home. At this point I knew exactly how much farther I had to go, so I kicked up the pace a bit (which for me probably meant going from 6.1 mph to 6.2). As the finish arch came into view, the crowd noise was growing. Friends, family and volunteers were making sure every competitor felt the love. As I crossed the line, I heard the announcer talking about a couple that had just gotten engaged at the finish, then he announced the names of several of us that had just crossed the line. Des was there to give me a big hug and congratulations, telling me I did great, and my run was really fast. That was great to hear, as the run is my weakest event.

I remembered to stop my stopwatch shortly after the finish, and my unofficial time showed 1:25:11, which was better than my time last year of 1:27:39 (although a different event, so the real test will be in June when I do the same race as last year).

I ended up 16th out of 30 in my category. Not bad, and an improvement over my last effort, which is what I was shooting for. My splits were:

Time: 1:24:46
Swim: 0:14:58
T1: 0:03:43
Bike: 0:35:15
T2: 0:01:53
Run: 0:28:57
BikeOverallRank: 174
Bike MPH: 19.5
RunOverallRank: 371
Run Pace/Mile: 0:09:39
Penalty: 0:00:00

I was really happy with my run result. Generally I run about a 10-minute pace, and I actually walked for a few seconds twice on my run, so it could be quite a bit better. If I can get near a 9:00 pace in one of my events, that would be a huge accomplishment for me.

Pics can be found here.

I am looking forward to my next race now. Des is so fired up after watching another event that she has entered a race in May so that she can have one under her belt and not have the Ventura event as her learning experience. I will be her crew/photographer for her event in May, so watch this space for another race report, this time from the better half of Team Chesnutt.