Camp Pendleton International Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

After watching 6 waves in front of me go off, I thought I had it pretty much figured out. I waded into the water until it was hip-deep and waited for the countdown. While I was stretching my triceps (and others were just hanging out as well), I suddenly heard the gun go off. I didn't hear any countdown. We all splashed forward in surprise. I was thinking "should I roll back the sleeve of my wetsuit and start the stop watch?", but decided that I would just check my time in the transition area and deduct the time I started later. I swam OK I think, but was never quite sure what the course was like because the verbal description they gave before the start was so different from the course map. Of course my goggles fogged up so instead of sighting the buoy I just sighted the people 20 feet in front of me and hoped they were swimming in a straight line. Not exactly ideal, huh? I was happy to get out of the water, although to this day I have no idea how fast I swam because the swim time includes a long run about half in the sand and half on pavement.

Try some sort of anti-fog. It can't get any worse! Listen super-carefully for the countdown. I'm thinking the speakers were oriented towards the beach and not the water. Or maybe I was just so focusing on the race that I didn't see and hear anything around me.

Took forever to lace up those shoes. Then again, I was grateful to get a break...

Get different shoes with velcro.

I had a great time! I passed a bunch of people who then passed me again, and so it kept going. I feel really bad for the woman on the side of the road who asked "Do you have a spare 700?" Having no idea about my tire size I said no. Later I discovered that my spare inntertube was a 700. I was on the aerobars most of the time, and I think I'm going to keep them! The GPS doesn't fit very well, might have to change that. But overall I did better than I thought - I was hoping for 17.5 mph, but according to the GPS I was at 18.2 or so. I got hungry towards the end.

Eat something. Anything. Drink more.

When I got to my spot I noticed that people who racked their bikes before me hardly left any space for my bike. I planned on racking it with the brakes and I had to move another bike to make room. Maybe I should have racked it with the saddle instead. Didn't waste much time with it, just annoying. Then I couldn't find my baseball cap! Whatever, I decided to run without.

Two loops on a course with three legs, the first one flat, the second one with a slight incline, the third one with a steep hill. I noticed pretty soon that I wasn't running as fast as I wanted to even though my GPS showed a slower pace than I was hoping for - something like 6.5 mph. I then realized that I was BONKING! I simply had run out of energy. What was I thinking, 3 hours of hard work on 110 calories? I hardly go 3 hours without eating just sitting at my desk! It was hot, and I missed my baseball cap. I drank lots of water, and even stopped to gulp it down - even Gatorade, which I normally don't drink because it gave me stomach cramps at the San Diego marathon. Whatever, I'm hurting, give me that Gatorade! They had a water hose to cool people off, and if you yelled "shower please" before the water station, they would dump a cup of water in your face. I was pretty miserable. I passed Gene on the second leg of the first loop, and he looked all happy. I did a little bit better towards the end of the second loop - esp. after the steep hill, someone passed me and I re-passed her again, stayed in front of her for a while, and managed to even pick it up and do myu infamous drop-the-hammer sprint for the last 100 feet. I passed a woman, but she turned out to be not in my age group. Oh well, I passed her ;)

Definitely not zip up my baseball cap in my backpack, and EAT! And DRINK! It was the first day of a two-week long heat wave and I think it was at least high 80s, if not more, in the shade (there was no shade on the course).

Nothing. I just stumbled all over until I bumped into Gene. Had some oranges. But there was really nothing going on. So much for a post-race party...


Didn't eat, I think I said it often enough now. Plus, all along I never knew how fast I was because I didn't start my watch. I thought I had come in after 1:15 or so - then I found out I was less than 6 minutes from my goal time. I could have easily done it had I just... Oh well. Next year :)


I felt bad afterwards. Not hungry, which is weird because I didn't eat anything! I finished the leftover spaghetti from the night before, but when Gene said he really wanted to go get lunch, I just moseyed along and picked at some vegetables. Everything hurt, and I laughed at the idea that I had brought my surfboard along. I didn't even move until Gene discovered an ad for a massage. We booked a session for 6pm (hint - sports massage from Rochelle @ Just Massage), and boy, did I wish I had gotten the massage sooner! It totally picked me up, and I was ready to eat! We got sandwiches (dinner for Gene, lunch for me) and I bought a giant bag of M&Ms which I almost finished. Gene got himself two different kinds of chips. We ate ourselves delirious while watching Pirates of the Carribean on TV.