Turkey Tri -- San Dimas, CA (Page 3)

I just got back from the race. It was a really well organized race, and a beautiful locale, with perfect weather. Couldn't ask for more. 700 (!) people this year (versus 300 last year), with a bunch of tri-teams as well looking sharp.

This was my 1st tri - will post a race report later, but suffice to say, my swim experience today shows that without open water and wetsuit experience, you're in for a RUDE awakening. I consider myself a decent pool swimmer (avg 1:45/100m x 45mins nonstop) , but with the new wetsuit tiring my arms out and altering my stroke, I just couldn't swim straight. I probably added nearly 50% to the swim, no joke - was out so far at one point that the lifeguard had to direct me back to the course! I finished 2nd to last in my AG on the swim - pretty sad to come back and see ALL the bikes already gone from the rack. =(

 My transitions were pure comic relief as well. (No I didn't practice them.) Couldn't get into my shoes, couldn't get my wetsuit off, and couldn't clip in forever. Totally ridiculous - made me laugh out loud.

On the bright side, I had a solid bike, and likely passed close to 100 people. By the time I got back to the rack, I had beaten more than half of my age groupers back. The run is my strongest, so I also did a ton of passing there. Overall a successful day (don't have my placement yet), but I'm still reeling from that disastrous near-DNF swim this AM. Very humbling! (In a good way!)

Hey, you finished and that's great!  I did it too, and in the wave in front of me, a guy swam out about 50 feet, probably said to himself, "No f-ing way," and turned right back around.  DNF in about 30 seconds.

I'll do my race report later, but I will say that I'm pretty disappointed with myself.  I'm a strong swimmer too and am fine in open water, but I struggled today.  Bike was really good (!), but my run was pathetic. Don't have the splits or AG results, but it took me 1:57 and change.  Ugh.

But hey, I just had a cold beer and am starting to get the taste of motor oil from the lake out of my mouth!

Good job on your first tri! 

The weather was great, it was organized well and I had a good time.  I had a good swim, but it ended there.  My decreased bike training really showed, I definitely need a trainer.  My run is always bad, so no surprises there. 

The hills on the bike an run are challenging.  I think I will do a couple of the Oly courses at Bonelli next year before my HIM, it will be a good place to validate my training.   

I didn't plan on doing this race until about a month ago and really didn't train well for it.  Knowing that this was a sprint, I figured I could relax a bit on the training after doing really good at the LA tri olympic distance this year.  I went into the race thinking that I would go all out on the swim, which is my best event, and bike and run at a comfortable pace.  The plan was going great at fit.  I placed 5th in my age group (male 25-29) which I appeared to be the most competitive wave after seeing the initial results after the race.   The problems started on the bike.  Cycling is my favorite event, so I usually have a hard time slowing myself down.  I did my best to not get passed, and if I did, to keep up with my passer.  I averaged just under 20mph even with all the hills on the course.  Then came the run.  I am not a strong runner, but my limited training in the last month has been averaging 8 minute miles.  My first mile was 8 minutes almost on the dot.  My second miles slowed to almost 9 minutes and the third got worse.  When I reached the climb on the way back, I just couldn't make it up the hill.  Normally I can drag myself through the last mile or two of my weekly runs, but not today.  I walked probably half of the last mile and a half and had just enough energy to jog over the finish line.  My run ended up taking about 45 minutes giving me a finish time of 1:52.  My goal for this race was to finish around 1:40, which is doable for me with better transistions and a good run.

Even though my run was terrible, I am still very happy with my swim.  The water was cold at first, but by end of the race it felt like the perfect temperature as the sun started beating down.  So, today wasn't a total loss despite my dissapointing finish time, I certainly learned what to work on the most in out short CA off season.

Hi everyone - today was fun though surely tiring!  I had a really good experience and would do this again.  My husband says I was the 3rd one out of the water in my AG.  Regardless, it took me 2hrs and 23 seconds to finish since I suck at running.  I had to walk the hills.  Biking was decent though the hills do make it hard to get one's groove in.

 It was a great day weather-wise though I would have been happier if it had been cooler!

Mark, good meeting you too, and as I was leaving the parking lot I was looking for you because I was having second thoughts on turning down that beer!

Oh yeah, I checked out your time and I most certainly did NOT beat you by 30 minutes ... but I'll meet you half way and agree that we both sucked on the run. We'll get 'em next time, my friend.

Again, nice meeting you. Very cool to have a built-in community where part of the fun at the race is tracking down people that you "know" online, but really have no idea what they look like. "Hmm ... visor, great tan. Must be Modie."

ETA:  I felt so crappy about the run that I made myself run 3 miles on the treadmill tonight.  Actually felt good, and I thought, "Well where was that yesterday?"  

Hi Modie,

I looked for you too but couldn't find you...there were so many people there!  I think we need to wear some BT logo so we can find each other.

The run sucked for me too...I walked all the hilly sections.  I'm a very new runner so this was a really tough course but hey, I finished the triathlon so that's all that matters.  My time was 2 hours and 23 minutes...could have been better but I'll live with that.

I plan to do the Los Alamitos tri in February since that is very flat which is ideal, no hills to deal with!

Question for you - how do you deal with dehydration?  I drank a ton of water but still ended up with a headache in the afternoon.  I'm kind of wondering if I would have been better off drinking Gatorade or something similar rather than just water.

Bonnie

Just got my results from M30-35. Finished the race in 1:48:48 for 16th/55th place in my age division.

 33     LOS ANGELES     0:29:05       0:47:29       0:32:14       1:48:48 

As I posted above, I had a horrendous swim, finishing 50th on the swim.

Bike was better, but not as good as I thought, finishing 7th AG. Although that's pretty good for me considering I'm a totally noob cyclist on a hot bike. 

Interesting, I felt really slow on my run, but it is my strength, so I was 3rd on the run AG.

Good job everyone!

Wow, I'm surprised by the bike as well. I'm listed at 54:01, but my bike computer had me at 44 and change. The only thing I can guess is that maybe both transitions are added to the bike?  No way I spent 10 minutes in transitions, though ...

For the record:

Swim - 0:18:47

Bike - 0:54:01

Run - 0:44:47

 Motor oil in the mouth? Is this what I'd get to look forward to if I did a triathlon in Bonelli?  Ewww....