Playa Del Run: Playa del Rey - Aquathlon

Since everyone started at once (no waves), there were several packs that formed shortly after the start. I tried to catch one to draft, but couldn't quite hang and ended up doing most of the swim solo. That said, I felt this was one of my better swims, and probably the closest I've come to a sub-2:00/100m performance (since the swim course at Breath of Life was decidedly short). I didn't stray too far off course, didn't drink too much seawater, and found a good rhythm. My arms started to get tired about halfway through, possibly due to a couple of hours of kayaking yesterday morning.

Edit - race times were posted today, but an "equipment malfunction" meant no split times were available. My watch time for the swim (20:58) includes a run up the beach to the transition area, which took 25 seconds.

No kayaking the day before a race. Make a stronger effort at the start to stick with a group and draft.

Long run through the sand to the transition area, much of which I had to walk. The transition area was small and a little crowded- people who had just finished the 5k were standing around and checking out the vendors booths that were set up right next to the transition area. Not a big problem, but something I would hope the race organizers would try to remedy in the future.

My suit came off easily (I'm getting good at that). I decided to wear socks this time around after what happened at BoL, and the sunburns I received on the tops of my feet during yesterday's kayak trip. Added maybe 10 seconds or so, which wouldn't have made a big difference in the end. Put on shoes, clipped on race number, took a quick drink, and I was off.

Edit - again, time is from my own watch. Which I'm considering to be reliable, since the total time I recorded matches my official time to the 1/100th of a second (weird).

Need some practice running up the loose sand from the water- this seems to really slow me down.

Going straight from the swim to the run was more difficult than I expected. Definitely not one of my fastest 5k's, but I'm satisfied with it. Had some GI issues early on, which seemed to go away over the course of the run.

Need to log more miles, period.

None to speak of. I felt a little queasy and lightheaded after finishing, and it took me a good while to recover from the effort. Afterwards, I drank some water, had some muffins (GREAT post-race refreshments), washed off some of the salt, and tried to find shade.


I've neglected my run training of late.


Overall, had a really good time. The race has a nice feel to it. There was only one drink station on the run, which you pass twice (two would have been nice), but the post-race festivities were good. Lots of food (muffins, croissants, coffee, nuts, oranges, etc.), showers, a raffle. Definitely a fun local race.