Vineman Sunrise at Showdown - TriathlonSprint

The race director was saying that we would be swimming with the current which would mean a faster race time for all of us. I was happy to hear this and will take anything that I can get to make my swim experience better.

My goal was to stay in the back and swim slow. The course for the swim was basically a "rainbow shape". You swim a quarter mile arc (marked by buoys) from one end to the other end of the beach. The swimmers needed to stay to the right of the buoys. The horn went off and everyone charged into the chilly bay. I stayed in the back and trotted into the water. As soon as I started stroking I realized that I was in the thick of it all! I was surrounded by an aggressive group and I had no opportunity to swim smoothly. People were kicking me, dunking me, hitting me, pulling my legs down, etc. I would often swim into people's feet making me stop for a split second. It was a boxing match/mosh pit in the bay! I wasted so much energy just trying to survive the madness. I made it to the end and was breathing quite hard. I looked at my watch as I exited the bay and my time was 5:42. It seemed much longer.

Next time, I will attempt to swim along the outskirts of the pack and see if that makes a difference.

This transition was much better than the first. I parked my bike, took off my cycling shoes and helmet. I then slipped on my running shoes, race belt, hat, glasses, and I was off.

The start of the run had you climbing up some trail steps that led to the main portion of the run. The race director dedicated these steps to the upcoming Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon that was going to be held the next day. For those of you that don't know, there is a grueling 400 step sand ladder in the run portion of the Alcatraz tri.

After I ran up the steps, it was flat and fast. My legs actually transitioned much better from the bike to run this time around (this is my second tri). The run course was a 3 mile out and back along the water. I had a constant view of the water and the San Rafael Bridge. I didn't give the run my all because I have been racing with them too much and wanted to give them a break. Furthermore I had to do a 19 mile marathon training run the next day. I did the three mile run in 20:05 and completed the triathlon in 1:06:34.

My official time came off strange. My swim and T1 times were mashed together (my t2 was not recorded either). No one else's times looked like this. Perhaps my chip was faulty.

Check it out:

Swim -- T1 00:09:52.5 Bike 00:36:31.9 T2 -- Run 00:20:05.9 Finish 01:06:30.4

That would mean my T1 was 4:10 (with a swim of 5:42 as recorded by my watch).




Next year, I will shoot for closer to an hour.