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

Australia Pictures

I have posted my Australia Pics on Facebook.

Here is the link:

Australia Pics on Facebook

Australia Trip - Final Part (Sydney)

It is Sunday and my last night in Sydney. The weather has been really crazy here in the city. I got my first rain here in Australia as we drove in to Sydney on Friday. I was expecting it to stay cold but the sun came out on Saturday and today with clear blue skies. It still has been pretty windy but no problem. The first night in Sydney was pretty low key. A group of us hung out at a pub and then had dinner at a Thai restaurant before calling it a night. It had been a long day driving in the coach.


Saturday was a really full day. We started out by walking to the famous Opera House in the morning and then walking across the Sydney Harbor Bridge. The views of the harbor and the city from the bridge were amazing. After a walk around the city, we went to the Sydney Aquarium. I like aquariums and this one was great because it concentrated on the fish and other aquatic animals of Australia. Checking out the platypus was my favorite part. It was a lot smaller than I expected. We finished off the day with a nice Italian dinner and a evening cruise out on the Sydney Harbor. The lights of the city were nice to view from the water.


Today I went out to Bondi Beach with some of my friends and checked out that famous Australian Beach and visited the markets they have every Sunday. There was some waves but the strong winds was making them pretty rough and formless. After the beach, we visited the Hyde Park Barracks that was constructed by and housed the convicts in the earlier times of Sydney and then we finished the night and my trip off with a visit to the Sydney Tower. It was nice to complete my trip with the panoramic night-time views of the city below us and check out all the places we visited in the city from up high.


Tomorrow I will be flying home. Damn! :)

Australia Trip - Part 4 (Surfer's Paradise & Toowoomba)

Well, I am sitting at a really nice resort in Coff's Harbor. One more day until we are in Sydney. Today we stopped at a Wildlife Sanctuary where I was able to see a lot of the iconic Australian Animals I have missed up to now, including a dingo which I missed out on seeing at Fraser Island.


Driving down the coast today we crossed the state line from Queensland into New South Wales and visited Byron Bay, which is the most eastern point of the Australia mainland. There was some great views from up on the cliffs with the light house overlooking the bay, including watching a pod of dolphins swim past.


The past two nights have been spent in Surfer's Paradise. (I was hoping to get in some surfing here on the Gold Coast but there has been no swell and the waves have been tiny.) Oh well! :) My cousin Vern, who lives in Brisbane, took me on a drive of the Gold Coast and showed me all the famous surfing spots and treated me to lunch and gave me a tour of his lifesaving club where he is a volunteer lifeguard. Thanks, Vern!


The final night in Surfers was spent at Dracula's, a cool dinner cabaret show that was really funny and the food was excellent.


But one of the most interesting parts of my trip was when we stayed at the "Adora Downs Farm" which is located in the Darling Downs area of Toowoomba. We had a excellent country meal and had a fun time learning different country Bush Dances. It was exhausting but great fun. They also had some pet kangaroos which would come right up to you for a quick pet. Tomorrow we drive to Sydney where I will spend three days before coming home. I can't wait to explore that city.


Australia Animal Watch: I have a big list now since visiting the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, the highlights were Australia's most dangerous snakes, the dingoes, and the Tasmanian Devil.

Australia Trip - Part 3 (Fraser Island & Rockhampton)

I have now spent two nights on Fraser Island. We left the tropics and crossed over the Tropic of Capricorn to arrive here on the island. The first night was cross-dress night. The guys dressed up as girls and vice-versa. It was pretty funny and we headed over to the Dingo Bar to dance until midnight in our crazy outfits. Heh!


Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island and we explored it today in a 4WD vehicle. One of the most impressive parts was driving down the wet sandy stretch of "75 Mile Beach" (which is actually only 59 miles long) and stopping to take a short plane ride which took off from and landed on the sandy beach.


The other fun stop was at Lake McKenzie. The sand around the lake is pure white and the water is crystal clear and slightly acidic which makes it a natural skin exfoliant. The water was pretty chilly but a few of us had a fun swim.


Before taking the ferry to Fraser Island, we stayed the night in Rockhampton, the Beef Capitol of Australia and visited the Koorana Crocodile Farm. One of the crocs we visited was "Shaw", a 90 year old croc who killed one of his keepers in the 1940's. We also got a steak dinner with some nice Crocodile Chowder Soup and some Crocodile Kebabs. It didn't taste that bad, though it was a bit chewy.


We are now headed inland to stay at a farm for a night and then further south to the Gold Coast for two nights in Surfer's Paradise.

Australia Animal Watch: Well, I can check off salt-water crocodiles from my list, but I didn't see any of the dingos that live on Fraser Island.

Australia Trip - Part 2 (Whitsunday Islands)

Its me again on the last night of my stay on the Whitsunday Islands. I went sailing today through the islands on a nice boat, the "Ragamuffin", a retired maxi racing yacht that had won two championships in the past and raced all over the world. We stopped for a few hours at Whitehaven Beach. The sand there is made of white silica and it was the whitest beach I have ever been on. The sand was super fine and squeaked when you walk on it. Heh!


After a nice day of sailing I went on a nice hike through the nature preserve on our island at twilight. The woods were full of wallabies, it is interesting to walk through the woods and have the little miniature kangaroos hopping around you on the trail. I was a little worried on the hike because there was hundreds of spider webs with some interesting spiders hanging in them along the side of the trail.


Yesterday was mostly a relaxing day at our resort. We played beach volleyball and I went sailing in the cove in a little two-man cateraman with one of my roommates, Craig, who is from South Africa. He knows how to sail and let me operate the boat for awhile.


Tomorrow morning we leave for Rockhampton where we will stay the night and visit a Crocodile farm.

Australia Animal Watch: I have now seen the Agile Wallaby, an Australian Brush Turkey, and two interesting Birds, the Kookaburra and the Curlew.

Australia Trip - Part 1 (Cairns & Great Barrier Reef)

I have had three busy days in Cairns, Australia. It looks like the great weather has followed me from San Diego, the rain stopped and the skies cleared the day I arrived. Cairns is the major sugar producing area of Australia, surrounded by miles and miles and miles of sugarcane fields.


Today, I went white-water rafting on the Tully River. It took 4 hours with a half-way stop for lunch. I managed to stay on the raft through the rapids except when our river guide, Nick "the Prick" flipped us on purpose. (That's what he wanted to be called. Heh!) One of my favorite parts was standing up in the raft as we went under a waterfall.


Yesterday, I had two scuba dives out in the Great Barrier Reef. It was the most amazing visibility I have ever seen. We rode a huge cateraman out to a floating platform moored on the outer Agincourt Reef. It was quite the operation with scuba diving, snorkeling, an underwater submersible and even helicopter rides from a floating helo-pad. I would have like to try some of the other options but the diving took up all my time. My favorite dive was the first one. We took a smaller boat further out to a spot called "The Point" on Phil's Reef, where we dove down to 60 feet and explored along the edge of the reef. I didn't see any reef sharks. Bummer!


The first day we took in some Aboriginal culture. We watched some spear throwing. It was amazing how far and how accurately they can toss them. We also got to watch and throw some boomerangs ourselves. We also watched some Aboriginal dancing and I was pulled up to give it a try myself at the end. I think I did pretty well. :) We finished with a cable car ride over the top of the rain forest. It was pretty cool.


Tonight is our last night in Cairns. Tomorrow we take the bus down to the Whitsunday Islands for three days. I am going to spend one of the days on a sailboat exploring the islands.

Australia Animal Watch: So far I have seen a Koala Bear and a Bandicoot, but no Kangaroos or Crocs yet.

My new Jeep Wrangler

I just bought a vehicle that I have always wanted, a Jeep Wrangler.


It is a 1997 with only 23,500 miles. I got it for $7,500

Mohawk Chop

My brother, Jordan, gave me a Mohawk haircut.


They like it at work, so I think I will keep it until I leave for my trip to Australia in a couple of weeks.

Karaoke Party

A group of us have been enjoying singing karaoke ever since Dave introduced us to Karaoke Revolutions on his Xbox. It is great fun because the game makes it an entertaining competition among friends. The microphone requires that you sing in the correct pitch to the words of the songs and applies points to how close you are and how long you can maintain it. If you sing badly for too long you get booed off the stage. Heh!

We all suck but we have fun anyway. Here are some pictures from our latest party on Saturday at Louise's house.

Ski Trip to Brian Head, Utah

I went for a week-long ski trip with Christina and her friends to Brian Head with a stop over for the night in Las Vegas on our drive out to Utah. It is a smaller mountain resort but high in altitude with the base at 9,600 feet.


There was a major snow storm the day before we arrived that shut down the mountain but it was perfect conditions for us with very dry powder. We had a lot of fun skiing threw the trees.


We would finish off the ski day relaxing in the Jacuzzi and we spent New Year's Eve in the mountains.

Brian Head 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

Justin Surfing in Puerto Escondido, Mexico

My youngest brother, Justin, went on a surf trip to Puerto Escondido, Mexico this month. He got some great pictures taken of him surfing during the great swell.


Here are two shots of him getting barrelled.


YouTube Video of Justin Unsworth's Surf Trip

Costa Rica Pictures

Here are my pics from Costa Rica on Facebook.

The Link:

Costa Rica Pictures on Facebook

Costa Rica Trip - Final Part

The trip up the mountains to see the volcano was very scenic and very different from the dry, dusty pacific coast. I can see why Costa Rica is called the Switzerland of Central America up here.


There were these cool-looking animals that looked like a cross between a raccoon and a possum that would come right up to the car. I think people must feed them.


For our last day we hiked down into this deep ravine that contained a big waterfall and swam in the pools at the bottom. It was real fun. Then we went to some hot springs at a resort and relaxed and rode some of their waterslides.


Too bad the top of the volcano was covered in clouds, it would have been a cool sight to see.

We fly home tomorrow.