San Diego Triathlon Classic - Sprint Course - TriathlonSprint

A fun swim, and it was interesting, it was crowded with a lot of contact because of the order of the waves: Oly waves went oldest to youngest, and the sprint left a few minutes later when the Oly was about half done. It was crowded the whole way, more so when the sprint and Oly merged.

I could have been a couple of minutes faster if I'd been smarter with the crowd. I started in the middle about three swimmers back, and found myself stuck behind a group of slower swimmers for about 1/3 of the swim, until I gave up, stopped, and swam a few yards to the right to get to the outside. From then on, I was at a better pace, and found it easier to get through the various waves. My plan was to swim on the outside, which I should have done, but my wave lined up a lot less crowded in the middle. Next time, I think I'll line up on the outside in the first row.

46th o/l Not bad, nothing fancy. I took off the cap and goggles at the rack so i wouldn't lose them.

As always, it would have been good to run faster out of the water.

After I signed up and read race reports, I obsessed after reading about the bike being especially hilly, technical and crowded, so I left the TT bike at home and put clip-ons on my Masi road bike. It was hilly, and but not as technical and crowded as I expected. There were crashes again this year, which means it wasn't the safest bike course, but it was fine for most experienced riders.

The Masi did fine, but I was initially confused that I was faster than the people I'd climbed with once on the aero stretches - I expected to be faster on the hills and slower on the flats than similar riders. A friend who'd done similar races knew the answer: some of the people on TT bikes over do it on the hills, matching my roady's climbs, and aren't as fast in aero as they would be.

I'm very happy with doing about 20 on a tough course, but next time, I'd bring the TT bike, on this course it would be slightly faster.

AND THEN - toward the end of the course at the key intersection where the second Oly loop went back to Point Loma and the bike finish was to the left, I missed the signs while I was paying attention to traffic, so called to the volunteer, "which way do sprinters go," and he pointed me to Point Loma. I knew immediately that that was fishy, and that according to the rules, it was my fault that I didn't know the details of the course. After asking every volunteer I saw, I figured it out, and turned around, losing 4:00 according to my Strava file. Shrug. So much for my hopes for the podium.

This race is very high quality, and it was a fluke that there wasn't a vol shouting clear directions like is normal. I emailed the RD suggesting that she borrow procedures from WTC and have vols giving directions at key intersections, along with signs.

As I was cheering Oly runners with a friend, one fast woman spontaneously mentioned that she'd done 3 laps on the bike rather than 2, so I'm sure a number of us got pointed the wrong way.

I haven't been training very much, and when I do my friends make me feel slow, but this ride affirmed that I'm a cyclist. I'm hoping to do it again next year to see how the TT bike does.

There wasn't much I could have done differently. I studied the course map, and called to volunteers for directions at the confusing intersection. The key reason I got sent the wrong way was there were two 90 degree turns, a right, then the split. With a fast bike, and waves timed so I was out of the water with Oly athletes, I was on the r/h inside of a pack of strong riders, so at 23 mph had to pay more attention to wheels than to the signs at the second turn. Thinking back, when I called to vols, I was on the inside of a group, and if they had they pointed me the correct way, it wouldn't have been safe to cross through to the correct route. Not only should there have been trained vols shouting directions, there should have been vols sorting people out before we got to the corner.

64th o/l

Run a little faster

I coasted since I'd lost that 4 minutes on the bike, so I could have gone at a 7:45 pace if I'd pushed. It was warm for San Diego, and I took water at the aid stations, something I don't usually do at sprints. It was a very pretty course, and very well marked with cones.

Water, strawberries, pizza and free beer. I cheered friends on the Oly run, and had a great time with them when they finished.


I'm getting my run back into shape, and did about like I expected. Very fun race.


A super, high quality event!

Here are the official results:

AG numbers

Overall results