Redondo Beach Triathlon - Sprint Course - TriathlonSprint

Probably the best swim I've had here. There was some wave action and a funky lip drop off about knee deep water, causing a weird surf section and giving lots of folks issues (47 people pulled on the swim, a record). We didn't get any sets so I just barreled through.

Looking up, it was just me and a couple other guys past the surf zone. I was surprised as I didn't see the AG winner, but looked ahead and there he was. Was fourth in the wave (all males 35-49) at the first buoy. Finally FINALLY caught an excellent draft and just tailed the guy the whole swim. And I was towing Dana as it turns out.

Never felt gassed on the swim, and because we were wave 2, not many people to navigate through. Just kept a steady, sightly uncomfortable rhythm. I usually take the swim a bit easier than a typical sprint as it's .5 miles so bit of a haul.

Turned into shore, and looked for a wave to catch. My draftee took a line to the right, i decided to take a chance to the left, maybe a wave would break on my side and not his (or, I'd lose out if he got the wave, but I didn't want both of us getting it). I didn't catch a wave but we stood up at the same time, began the slog up the sand to the long uphill run to .....

Dana and I finished the swim at the exact same time. So it was going to be a repeat of last year

Swim was a little longer than last year, everyone in the top was 1-2 minutes off

Happy with result, tied for 2d ag and 18th OA (always seems to be some fast swimmers in this swimmer's race)

T1... long uphill. I looked back and Dana was there but he soon gapped me up the hill. Just tried to get to my bike with my HR somewhere on this planet..

However, somehow I exited before Dana

This course is so short there really is no place to back off and catch your breath. Dana came by me early and I just paced him (legally). On the false flat downhill a mile in I passed him. After the 180 and return I looked back and he was pacing me. Maybe that's a good idea. He passed me on the climb and I fell in behind him, letting him set the pace.

But on the false flat I had enough momentum to come around again. In retrospect, I should have adopted his philosophy and stayed there and gotten a little more comfortable. I was hammering pretty hard, and my placing shows that. But I don't feel like I overbiked it.

The hill comes right at the end of lap one and the end of the ride, so you start lap 2/finish pretty gassed and with legs burning.

AP 267
NP 288 (was 289 last year)
max 633
last year went 16:04 so a bit longer, but a much better placing

And Dana and I had the exact same time,,,,So tied for 2d AG agan, but 7th out of 523 OA, very happy with that.

maybe back off a little....

Thought I was efficient but al the top guys are sub 1:00, and Dana ran out before me

I ran out a few yards behind Dana, but knew he was gone, although he ran away from me a bit slower than last year. So I knew at least two slots gone. But I kept on in the hopes that perhaps I'd pull it out. Coming to a corner saw a couple guys coming from off the pier (not the course), they'd run off course and were coming back. No one knew the course. Well, I did, anyway and I pointed them in the right direction. Perhaps I should have... never mind :) Dana kept receding further in the distance. Got passed by one guy, but in a few yards passed him back.

This was the same course as last year so I knew it, but scouted the day before and was glad I did. There's a 180 turnaround that was further than before, that would have f'ed with my mind on race day.

I also SO wanted to see at 14:XX split.... My running has improved a bit in the last year, but running fast off a bike like that is so frickin hard. I thought I should be able to hold sub 7:30s, and did for the first mile at 7:24.

But I started lagging a bit in mile 2. I saw a male 47 pass me about 1.25 miles, so knew the podium was gone (didn't know another one had passed me somewhere in there...), so had to find other motivation to go on. I got the feeling that the 14:XX was also gone, so that wouldn't work. Just don't let anyone else pass me. That worked. Mostly.....

The last .25 mile of the run has the same little nasty hill you bike up, but then it's flat and fast for 100 yds to the finish. I heard someone encouraging someone behind me and didn't want to get caught, so just ran as hard as I could.

6 seconds faster than last year, but again think it was slightly long. Garmin was started a few feet in transition and shows 2.12 for a 7:30 average.

run faster?

Hung out, ate some pizza, checked results, cleaned up transition, helped break down the race, had breakfast.


run


Great local race that is very safe and well run, and good for swimmers :)

Ended up 5th, better than 7th last year, and better than the 1st through 7th or so I've been as a clydesdale here. Grateful to have gone from being clyde competitive to AG competitive. The kicker is that other than Male 16-19 I would have been on the podium in every other male AG, including a first place. Them's the breaks kid.

As for going sub 50, last year 43 folks went sub 50 (and guess who was 44???). This year only 14. So slower course this year.