Tritonman Triathlon

February 17th, 2018

San Diego is always a great place to be, whether it be for a race or vacation, it never disappoints. This time around, it was no different, the weather was ideal (although a tad nippy on race morning), the team was happy, and we were all ready to race! Given that UCSD's Tritonman Triathlon was not a conference race for us, there were no implications on the race results which is surprisingly less stressful. Additionally, given the race is a sprint, and in February, it is a great early test of speed and a good fine-tuning race for the remainder of our season, which is rapidly approaching. Since Pumpkinman, I got a new bike (yay, 2018 Trek Speed Concept), tested my bike-racing skills with a road race and criterium, broke a finger, strained a shoulder, and badly bruised or cracked 2 ribs! But nonetheless, I was excited to get out there and drop some bombs.

smiling cause we were on the way to dinner

Race morning was status quo with no surprises or anything unexpected to unsettle my nerves. It was a chilly 50 degrees out, with the water of Mission Bay in the low 60s, it was most certainly a wetsuit swim. Luckily, I was drawn into wave 2 (Collegiate A), although it was completely randomized, I was happy to be able to tackle the course with the least amount of people on it. The swim started across the bay, and we 'rectangled' it back to the swim exit, with two right turns and a left. Prior to the gun, I put myself right out in the front line and waited. When the gun went off, elbows were flying and my right eye was lucky enough to catch one! Thankfully my goggles did not fall off nor did fill with water. Getting hit slightly angered me (I don't know why, I should have expected that), but I channeled that energy to get out front into unobstructed water. By the first buoy I was swimming next to another athlete, as we were out front together. A small surge on the short end of the rectangle put me out front alone. Towards the end of the short swim, I began to find a good rhythm and coincidentally I was already at the last buoy. Exiting the swim first, I heard the spectators cheer (in general, not for me) as I reached to begin to take off the top of my wetsuit.

Once in transition, my wetsuit was slightly stuck around my ankles (of course), but once I got that taken care of, my helmet was on and my bike was unracked. After a quick flying mount and inserting my feet into my shoes and tightening them, it was time to get serious. I got onto Fiesta Island and it was definitely game time. With the weather being ideal, despite the cold, there was hardly any wind, which favored fast bike splits, from everyone! The first lap was controlled and the island was still empty, but once lap two hit, the course began to get much more crowded and the third lap would only be worse. Once the second lap began, I was feeling good and began to push some more watts. I was passing people and getting passed all at the same time and was unsure of where I sat overall, but was not concerned with that at all. The third lap was extremely crowded but I did my best to hold a constant pace and turn the cranks as steady as possible. Even though there was hardly any wind this year, a 4 minute improvement over last years bike was nothing to hang my head on. After my three laps, I exited the island and rode back into transition getting ready to run. Strava here.

head down!

I got off my bike and racked it, took off my helmet, and shoved my feet into my shoes. I could not feel my hands so I was unable to tighten my shoes, but visually saw that my feet were in my shoes. Without sacrificing any seconds, I said 'f*** it' and took off. About 4 steps out of transition, "14th place, 1:20 down" from Coach Cara. It was good to hear where I was, but at the same time, it caught me a tad off-guard. For the run, my main focus was to descend and test my legs off a hard bike. With each lap of the run being roughly 1 mile, it was a good indicator of how I was doing, allowing coaches to give me feedback on how I was looking and doing. The other benefit of the short laps was running with teammates. Being able to run with others certainly helps, no matter the situation. The descend worked well, but its no doubt that I started off waaay too slow (run Strava here). Coming down the finishing chute, I was thrilled to see the 58-minute tick to 59:00 as I had broken an hour with a final time of 59:03 (results there), over a 7 minute improvement on last years duathlon. Once I had finished and gathered myself and congratulated other teammates who finished right near me, it was time to cheer on the rest of my awesome team.

post race

Once the race festivities concluded, we packed up and headed to the beach to hang out for a bit before heading back to Tucson. Thankfully the weather cooperated the rest of the day and we enjoyed some Pacific Ocean with salty air and ocean hair. Despite only being in San Diego for just over a full day, we headed back to Tucson to get back to business! Shoutout to Coaches Thane, Doug, and Cara for coming out and supporting us all, Hannah for using Zach's camera to take some bomb-a$$ pictures of us, and the rest of the team for making it another enjoyable trip!

messin around w/ Tito

Whats next? Havasu Triathlon for MCTC Championships on March 17th!
See y'all soon, stay sweet!