UCLA IronBruin Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Though I wasn't expecting the swim to be easy, coming at the end of the tri like this, it turned out to be much more exhausting than I remembered it being when I did it last year. By the fourth lap I was really running out of gas, so I just focused on keeping my form smooth, balanced and as fish-like as possible. I was passing people easily all the way through. Only a couple people sped up as I passed them, but most were too tired to act competitive. Some people were even doing breastroke or sidestroke. Fortunately, unlike last year, I didn't get stuck behind any log-jams. With three laps to go I looked down the lane and there was no one in front of me for that next 50 meters. At the start of the last lap there was a guy way down toward the end of the lane flailing away. I couldn't believe he was still a few yards from the end of the pool when I passed him, then went up the steps and out of the pool to run the final ten yards to the finish. My swim time was 7:10 (40 seconds faster than last year), fastest time in my age group.

The bike portion of the tri was second, following the 4 mile run. The physical impact when going from the run to the bike was much like that dead-leg feeling you normally get when you transition from bike to run in most triathlons. I headed out onto the bike course, which starts up a fairly steep hill, feeling like I might have done the run too hard and would now be paying for it for the rest of the race. I has at least 2/3 of the way into the first lap before I was pedaling with any real power. My self-timed first lap split was 11:46. I was much faster on the second lap with a 10:59 and about as fast on the third with an 11:07, which actually includes slowing down and dismounting to go into T2. My self-timed bike course split was 33:52, but my official time was 34:28 (1:28 faster than last year) because you have to dismount as you get to the transition zone, but then you have to run your bike on the grass all the way around to the far side so you enter the transition zone where the timing mat is. (Actually they didn't have mats, just two parallel wires duct-taped to the ground.) So I guess that took 36 seconds. T2 was 59.8 seconds (1:30.2 faster than last year).

As a reverse triathlon the 4 mile run was the first leg of the race. The first of two waves went off with the WCCTC (college division) contestants, the second, about 20 minutes later went off with the age groupers and challenged athletes. We did a lap around the track in Drake Stadium, then headed out onto the course which has you either running up a hill or down one. Very little flat ground on that campus. Most of the run course follows the north campus perimeter along Sunset Blvd and the western parameter along Veterans and Gayley. From Gayley it cuts up the side of a hill by way of some wooden railroad tie and dirt stairs embedded in the hillside. Coming down off the hill where the dorms are, the course then snakes north, then back south behind Drake Stadium, down Bruin Walk on onto the Intramural Field and into T1. I made it through the run in 27:59 (4:33 faster than last year), and did a fairly wobbly and awkward transition to the bike in 1:21.5 (17.5 seconds slower than last year).

Walking and stretching.


The new timing company, Milliseconds Sports Timing, put together a very poor results format, with only a one view of the data listing everyone in order of finish. No age group or gender breakdown. They didn't even bother to clean up the results, often showing the same participant with two or three listings. The previous year the results were very easy to interpret and it was possible to compare times and splits with others in your division and to see your over all rankings per sport. With this company’s way of displaying the results, you pretty much have to look through each person's times to find out what your rank was. As much of a pain as this was in my age group division, it was too much trouble to bother with to find out where I ranked over all in each leg of the race. Very amateur.