Catalina Island Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Sometimes you kick, sometimes you get kicked. This time I freakin kicked! I kicked somebody so hard that I felt guilty for not turning around to see if they were ok. I started in the middle and at the front because I don't seem to mind the contact. I didn't manage to get kicked hard until rounding the first buoy. Off with my goggles and swim cap from that one. I drank about 100 gal. of sea water but recovered ok. Got the goggles back on, jammed my swim cap down into my wetsuit and kept going.

As we got towards the outer end of the channel, I started to have some trouble breathing in the chop. Nothing too serious.

I passed way more than I got passed which was different from last swim. It felt GOOOOOD.

Be more agressive in the start. If I could have gotten in front of some of the others by running harder, I could have made better time and probably would have avoided kicking that one poor guy quite so hard.

Also, a little bilateral breathing ability would have helped with the chop.

Here is where I found out what the water trays were really for. My neighbor, who was WAY gone by the time I got there (4th in my AG) said I could use his if I wanted to. Thank god for that guy. I would have been toting an extra 40lbs. of sand with me on the bike had it not been for his kind offer.

Just a little more hurry-up would have been good. I didn't exactly dawdle but I didn't really get after it either, oh, and next year, bring your own water tray for rinsing of your feet. Did I tell you the transition area is in the sand?

This is where I need somebody to scream in my ear, "WAKE UP, BILL, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE RACING HERE". I am nowhere near as aggressive as I should be on the first two laps. I hung out behind people I should have passed, I mashed away in a bigger cog than I really needed on the uphill, all the while, I'm telling myself that I'm conserving energy for later. WHAT LATER, this IS later, this is a sprint tri! NOW! NOW! NOW!

Despite my blase attitude, this is a fun course, while you're mashing up the hill there are literrly hundreds of bikes careening past you with feet and inches to spare. "LEFT!" zing.... "ON YOUR LEFT!!!" zing.... "HOLD YOUR LINE!!!" zing.... "MOVE TO THE RIGHT PLEASE!!", then finally reaching the top and flying past all those poor bastards that are trudging up the hill. I saw a few people lose their tempers with the faster riders which is too bad. I had fun just getting wrapped up in the excitement of it all.

I finally coughed up whatever it was I was mentally choking on in the third lap and I passed tons of people, I don't think I got passed at all. I looked at my max speed afterwards, 43 mph. This is pretty good for me.

Get WAY more agressive, WAY earlier. I could have cut at least five minutes off of my time by just not screwing around.

There was a huge distance from the dismount point to my transition are. There was a line that was not moving fast enough. There was the fact that the transition area was in the sand. All of this contributed to a lousy T2 but the thing that killed me is that I have a relatively new pair of shoes and I didn't put speed laces on them. I am capable of tying my shoelaces, have been for some years, but I also get a little shaky when I'm wound up tight and I was definitely would up tight after that third lap on the bike.

I finally stood up in my socks, walked across the sand and sat on the concrete to put my shoes on. Precious lost minutes. Unforgiveable. I am still cowering in fear of being stricken down by lightning bolts as punishment from the tri-Gods.

Do not foresake the speedlaces. Speedlaces are good. Oh yeah, and thanks again to the kind neighbor with the water tray. Bring one of those next year.

I run soooooo slow. I got off to a pretty shaky start. I even walked into the first aid station and walked out (shame...hope the triGods weren't watching). I did poorly on the uphill, the end of which seemed like it would never come. The water in the bay looked so good that I momentarily mused to myself, "I could jump in and swim faster than this...." Probably could have, too as it turned out. I lapsed into "Survive it" mode for the balance of the uphill.

I was still moping along, woe is me, on the downhill back into town when I was passed by a 12 year old kid. Not just passed, but passed as if I was going backwards. I owe that kid a thank you card or something because that is the specific and discernable moment that I exited the "Survive it" mode and got aggressive again. I tried to chase the little squint down but he was too far gone so I took aim at anyone within sight that was in my age group and started picking them off one by one. I must have passed five guys in my AG. Coming down the last leg towards the finish line I pulled ahead of one guy that I had been trading places with back and forth for about the last mile. It was as if I could feel him breathing on my shoulder as we both poured on the steam coming towards the finish. I have never run harder in my life.

I held him off and crossed the finish line and hit the timing mat first but stopped in the chute where he ran right past me (I though you weren't supposed to do that). Anyways, his pull tag from his number bib was threaded before mine. Later I come to find out in the results that he is ahead of me by two seconds. I'm momentarily irked but quickly get over it. Who cares? The second half of that was one of my best runs ever.

Fight off the urge to lapse into "survive it" mode. Get aggressive sooner and forchrissakes, don't stop running until the end of the chute!

I ran a little dry the whole race so I downed a few bottles of water. The race organizer put out a very nice spread at the finish line.

Met up with Marie and went to see if we could get a picture of Rob as he crossed the finish line.


90% mental. Had I gone at this with a more aggressive attitude, I probably could have shaved off 10 minutes or so.


I practiacally grew up in Catalina as a kid. My family has a sailboat and we vacationed there as many as 15 times per year. Trips ranging from a weekend to several weeks. For this I feel like I have a special attachement to Catalina. My parents came to see the race as they have an affinity for the island as well. The prospect of competing in this race is what caused me to start seriously training for triathlon in the first place.

Having said that, I am dissappointed in my own mental effort level on this one because I know I could have done much better. At the end of the day though, I did improve my time from my last sprint on what I think was a tougher course. The weather and the island were perfectly beautiful. I can't imagine a better end to my first triathlon season.

Congratulations to Rob (RH1977) who finished his first tri here. It was nice having a fellow racer to share the experience with.

I will be back next year, this time fully prepared with an agressively positive attitude and full foot bathing regalia.