2006 Wildflower Triathlon

I completed my first Olympic Distance Triathlon on Sunday. It was the Jamba Juice Wildflower Triathlon held at Lake San Antonio in Monterey County in Central California. It is 1.5k Swim, 40k Bike and a 10k Run and the course is brutal with lots of hills.


I drove up with my friends, Chad and Fatima on Thursday and we set up our tents in the G Loop of the Redondo Vista campgrounds. We found a fairly level spot in the hilly area with a nice moss-covered tree for shade. Fatima was part of the Team in Training group for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society so we were camping in the same area as them. Jessica and her boyfriend, Matt, arrived early the next morning to share our spot.


On Friday, I started to go on a training ride with Chad and Fatima and the rest of the TnT group but my rear tire blew out with a loud bang while we were going down Lynch Hill. I was able to buy a new tire at one of the Expo tents for $45 and Chad put it on for me. Later in the day, we all went for a nice training swim in the lake. I got to test my new swim wetsuit. It was nice and comfortable and I could really feel it's effect on my swimming.


Saturday, I got to watch Terenzo Bozzone of New Zealand win the Long Course Race, breaking the course record in the process. (Finish Time - 3:54:43 for 1.2 mile Swim, 56 mile Bike & 13.1 mile Run) I got a nice picture of him high fiving the crowd as he came into the finishing straight. I also got a high five from him as he came out for a little victory lap. He wrote an interesting article about his race here called "When It All Goes Your Way"


The 13 mile Run for the Long Course ran right near our campsite and it was fun watching all the participants running past for hours after the professionals had already finished. That night, a large group of the Long Course racers streaked through the large dinner tent where we Olympic Distance racers where having a meeting. It was pretty funny, but too many male streakers for my tastes. Heh!


Sunday morning was the Olympic Distance Triathlon and I went down with Chad to the transition area around 8am to set up for our race start. Chad and I were in the 9:40am wave wearing the white caps. I was near the front row when the horn went off and I got off to a good start out ahead but my goggles kept filling on my right side. With the rest of the swimmers in my wave rapidly bearing down on me, I had to make a couple of quick pauses to adjust my goggles before getting run over. I was able to fix the problem and I got into a good stroke for the rest of the swim and came out of the water surrounded by mostly green caps of the wave that left 5 minutes earlier.


My legs felt really fresh as I jumped on my bike after the swim but having to go up the steep Lynch Hill first thing out of the transition area was pretty rough. I really enjoyed the bike course, tough and challenging but fun all the same with lots of rolling scenic hills. I spotted Chad on his bike on my way back from the turnaround point after climbing one of the longest hills on the course. I wish I had a few extra gears on my bike because I found myself having to stand up on my peddles on several of the steepest sections of the course.


My transition times suffered a bit because I made sure to slather on extra sunscreen each time through, but I glad I did it because I escaped a major burning. My run started out better than I expected from my experiences in earlier triathlons. Doing brick training really helped get rid of the feeling of running with anvils in my shoes after getting off the bike. But soon I started to suffer and I found that I had to walk on the hills. The sun was blazing and the long 2 kilometer hill at the halfway point was brutal so I appreciated the aid stations giving spray downs with a hose as I ran by. I think I dislike going downhill even worse and running down Lynch Hill to the finish line was torture on my knees and feet but I made it across the line. The cold, wet towel they put on my head after the finish was heaven.


Climbing the steep hill back up to our campsite was not that fun, but we broke down camp fairly quickly and we were on the road by 6pm. We stopped for a quick bite at Taco Bell before driving down to Santa Barbara where we had hotel reservations. We went out for pizza and crashed pretty early that night. In the morning we had a nice breakfast before finishing the rest of our drive back down to San Diego.


For more in-depth report of the Wildflower race check out Fatima's posts at Dolphins Name Themselves. She kicked ass in the race.

Previous Races:

Los Angeles Triathlon Post

Long Beach Triathlon Post

Mission Bay Triathlon Post

San Luis Obispo on Dwellable

2004 Los Angeles Triathlon

I completed the Los Angeles Triathlon on Sunday. It was a point-to-point triathlon that started at Venice Beach and ended at the Staples Center in Downtown LA.

The triathlon was real fun even though it was blazing hot during the run and I got a bit dehydrated and cramped up bad after the finish. I think I did really well on the swim though. The split times aren't up yet but I think I had to be in the top twenty at least on the swim.


The bike section was really fun. It was twenty miles from Venice Beach to Downtown LA so it was very scenic with the whole road sealed off by the police the entire way. There was long upward grade about 3/4 into it and in the last mile there was a short, but really steep hill to climb. There was also a steep downhill section that was very fast, but what was so bad about that was that you had to go back up it on the run, it was brutal.


The Pros started after all the others so I had hoped to watch them come into the finish after my race was over, but my best view of the Pros was as they sped past me on the run. My wave start time wasn't far enough ahead to watch them finish. There was a helicopter circling over head to film them also. That was pretty Cool!

Long Beach Triathlon Post

Mission Bay Triathlon Post

2003 Long Beach Triathlon

I did my second triathlon this last weekend up in Long Beach, CA. It was still a sprint distance but it was longer than my triathlon in Mission Bay with a 1/2 mile swim, 11 mile bike & 3 mile run. I did the race with my friends, Chad & Fatima. It was their first one.


The ocean swim for this triathlon was freezing. It almost knocked the breath out of me when I first jumped in and my ears felt ice cold. I had to keep switching which side I breathed on to give each of them a break. If I was surfing I would be wearing a wetsuit in water this cold, but I don't have the right kind of wetsuit for swimming.


The bike section was a loop that you had to circle twice past the Queen Mary. That was nice because I was able to spot my friends as I passed them on my second trip around.


I felt much better in my run than I did in my first triathlon. I think it because I was more mentally prepared for the tough transition from the bike to running. It was nice that it was a very flat run course that swung out and back on a long jetty jutting out into the harbor. Afterwards we went to breakfast and each of us ate a huge meal. We were starving.

Mission Bay Triathlon Post

Long Beach on Dwellable

2000 Mission Bay Triathlon

Well, I finished my first triathlon yesterday in Mission Bay with my friend, Robert. It took me about an hour and fifteen minutes, but I won't know my official times and splits until they mail them to me. It was a sprint distance triathlon with a 500 meter swim, 15k bike & 5k run.


I did pretty well on my swim, but it took a little time to get used to the crowded swimming conditions. It threw me off my stroke and messed with my breathing. I actually bumped into Robert right near the end and we exited the water together.


I sucked in the transition area where I switched to my bike. Robert was gone in about thirty seconds but it took me about 3-4 minutes. Because I was still wet, I accidentally ripped my number off my singlet when I was struggling to put it on over my head. I had to re-safety-pin it back on. Next time I'm not going to wear socks or a singlet until after the bike section.

I did okay on the bike but there are a lot of very fast guys out there. I passed about five guys, but I was passed by about thirty while I was in a higher gear.


The run sucked. My legs felt like lead weights after getting off the bike. I took me two of the three miles for my legs to start feeling normal. I don't want to mention how many people passed me. I definitely need to practice on the bike and then switch straight to a run. I was able to sprint to the finish, passing a guy who was twenty-five. I was able to tell because we had our ages written on the back of our calves with a permanent marker. Each age group starts in 5 minute intervals after the professionals start. You know you are doing really bad when someone in their forties passes you.


Robert finished in one hour and four minutes (this is his twelfth triathlon) and the pros who started one minute before us finished in about fifty+ minutes. It was really fun though and I am definitely going to do it again. I definitely think I can improve.