Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Triathlon - Olympic - TriathlonSprint

This was among the top 5 worst conditions I have ever swam in training or racing. We hit the trifecta strong current, 4 -5 foot surf and chop. They ran us about 100 yards north on the beach and would not let us enter because of the current. I entered the water very conservatively because I was apprehensive due to the fact I was smoked by a wave on my warm up swim. I actually had a wave break on me almost parallel with the fist buoy. I got through the surf better than expected and was probably too conservative because I was 50 - 75 yards north of the first buoy and had to swim south to the course. Once I started swimming I begun passing several people. I was unable to site because of the chop and surf and had to stop to get my bearing about halfway to the turn around. I realized I was about 75 yards to the right of the buoys and had to swim left to get back on course. After I turned back north I drifted to the shore and had to do another course correction. I was pulling hard to overcome the current and was getting tired. I knew I was going to take a beating by the jetty and I was not disappointed as it was like going trough a washing machine. Once I turned into shore I was ready for the swim to be over and was really looking back so I would not get smoked by another wave. I did manage to body surf one wave a little bit on my way in and I was never so happy to run up a beach.

I felt like I had swam over 2 miles. I guess I would not start out as conservatively and do a better job of navigating. However, given the conditions I am happy with my time

This was the best T1 time I have ever had. I do not know if it was just because I was happy to be out of the water but I destroyed all my previous T1 times. My suit flew off of me and I actually fumbled stuffing it onto my T1 bag. I rinsed the sand off of my feet and had to open the bag again to put the in the bottle. I then, shoved a gel and my fix-a-flat into my back pocket, put my helmet on and ran out of transition. It did not feel as fast as the time indicated.

I would take this T1 time for any race but, I guess it could have been faster if I did not have to fumble around with shoving my suit and water bottle into a bag.

I was gassed from the swim and it took almost 7 miles to get my heart rate down. I expected the course to be easier than it was. There was a head wind going east on Olympic Blvd and Olympic Blvd also had a lot of false flats which starts to mess with you because you think you should be going faster than your are going. The road was rough especially at the intersections. The only really fast part of the course was when you doubled back on Olympic Blvd.

T2 was on top of a parking garage and you did not dismount until you were on the timing mat which was odd. I then ran around a tent in the middle of T2 to the other side and then got lost. I could not find my rack space and run bag. This was a point-to-point race and I had never seen T2 before. The map I got during packet pick up was not representative of where my bag was located. Last year they had volunteers in T2 helping direct you to your run bag. I do not understand why they did not do the same this year. The racks were also too tight and I had to move a bike over in order to fit my bike in my designated spot. I never like touching anyone things in transition. The rest of transition went well.


Not get lost in T2.

This felt like this was a below average run for me. However, I did the sprint race last year and if I added the 5k time from last year together. I would have shaved almost 9.5 minutes off of my run time from last year. I was able to sprint the last four blocks and I did negative split the course. After I take into account my performance from last year and the negative split. I am happy.

The usual, drink water, eat food and a bunch of standing around.



This was my return the scene of the crime. The 2008 LA Triathlon sprint course was my first Triathlon. I have spent untold thousands of dollars and training hours in the last year. I forward to more training hours and hope the dollars slow down.