Chula Vista Challenge - Triathlon

A fun day. 1st place in my age group (F40-44). I felt really good. Stayed in control and didn't over swim, over bike, or over run. Raced, but stayed in a good zone.

Swim - Ocean bay. Water was said to be 76 degrees, but it felt a few degrees warmer than this. I wore speedsuit - way too warm for a wetsuit. The race did a good job with keeping a full 5 minutes between the wave starts. Each wave had a different color cap. I was in wave 3. Deep in water start. I took the lead in my wave fairly quickly. Mike said the 2 people closest to me were way behind. I caught up with some people in the previous 2 waves. 1 big swim rectangle. I had lots of open water. Mike said I was out of the water 5-6 minutes before anyone else in my wave. Gotta love when all those hours of college swimming pays off. ;-)

T1 - A little slow. My hair became twisted in the back strap of my helmet. Yes - I should have worn my race/aero helmet instead of my everyday one.

Bike - This was a tough course for me since it was very technical with lots of tight and 180 degree turns. It was 4 out and backs, but for each of the 4 half of the lap double backed on itself. It was not too bad the first two laps, but the course was really crowded by lap 3 and 4. They were racing an international distance and a sprint distance on the same course and these races joined the half that was already started. Part of the course was on some crappy road. Tight and technical course. Hard to really relax and find a good groove. This was great practice for me. I am not a technical rider, so although this was challenging, it was good for me. The race volunteers did a good job warning us of the rough road and turns. As confusing as the course was, they did a good job marking, coning it, and full volunteer/police support.

T2 - better than T1, but my hair was twisted and stuck in my helmet, again......sigh.

Run - 3 laps. I liked the run course. It was on a lot of paths and along the road. Again, it was a little confusing with all the different distance races, but it was very well marked and lots of volunteers to make sure everyone was going the correct direction. They had GUMMY BEARS (my fav). :-) Felt decent. Ran the entire run, but did slow down to walk at some of the aid stations for water and gummy bears.

Overall - A fun day. I am really glad I did this race. Great training. Hot day (high 80's). It is a nice, independent, local race.