Los Angeles Triathlon - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

This is a tough ocean swim. I had practiced at this site on this very course a few times prior to the race so I was not completely Homered (Doh!) this time as I was at Strawberry Fields earlier this year, but this swim, in no way, shape or form compares to a lake swim. Its way tougher. We started late as the lifeguards who monitored the swim course would only allow a given number of swimmers in the water at any one time. Additionally there was some sort of long shore current that was causing the incoming swimmers to drift en masse into the path of the starting swimmers. The swim stated a few minutes late. Not a big deal.

I started towards the front of the pack. I felt confident entering the surf this time as I had practiced plenty of ins and outs here over the last few weeks. Smooth sandy bottom and pretty steadily graded with no major drop-offs or obstacles. Getting out past the surf was relatively painless.

I started to realize just how big my starting wave was as I rounded the first buoy. There are close to two hundred sunsubitches out here right next to me. What? Is every guy out of jail competing in the swim portion of this race? Seems like it. I could never quite find a clean piece of water that I could call my own. My stroke suffered for it.

I sucessfully employed my now time honored technique of thrashing wildly and cranking up the RPM in a don't f*ck with me manner around the buoys which works well.

On the second longshore leg of the swim, i kept getting tangled up with another swimmer. I though to myself "Damn, I must be all over the place with my navigation" so I swam for a bit sighting every stroke. I quickly found out that it was not my navigation, but his that was errant as he was having his course corrected for him by a lifeguard on a surfboard.

Coming back in I managed to get severely pummelled by one wave and pinned, goggles first, against the sandy bottom for what seemed like an hour and fifteen minutes or so, but did manage to see the next wave coming in time to catch it and ride it in to the shallows.

I had the energy to run out of the surf and up to the transition area. I am a back of pack, slow swimmer, but still, this was a middling effort and result even for me.

I need to learn to swim faster. I am confident in my swimming ability for distance at this point and believe I can swim as far as I want, until I'm bored of it, but I'm still going to crusie into T1 fifteen minutes after everyone else has left. Gotta work on the speed.

This felt pretty good to me. I may have taken a few seconds longer than usual. The big advancement this time is that I managed to remember to WAIT to take off my cap and goggles until after I had removed my wetsuit sleeves. YESSS! after seven races and seven promises to myself never to do that again, I finally learn. Forward progress. Good Bill.

Other steps in the right direction. I have been training without socks and gloves. This speeds things up quite a bit.



I need to practice strapping into the shoes while underway if I want to trim any more time off of T1.

What a great bike course. A little sampling of most of LA.

I started out hard on the bike knowing that this was my only chance to make up for my swimming sins. Mashing away in my tallest gear for the first several miles, I then downshifted at about the 405 underpass and settled into a sustainable pace. The entire course is closed to traffic. Cross traffic is controlled at every intersection. Wow. I'm thinking I'll never have a chance like this again. I live in LA, was born here, I've been here all my life. I have never *once* seen Wilshire Blvd completely devoid of traffic. Wow.

Coming through Hollywood into the Silverlake area there were a few gentle uphill sections which I thought I was hitting pretty hard, when a guy pulls up next to me on an ill fitting road bike and tells me in a sing-songy conversational how-is-your-day-today? tone "Wow, this is fun! this is my first triathlon and I have never even trained for this....". Sunuvubitch, how dare your burst my bubble! I though I was doing pretty well.... In a completely winded and out of breath gush, I told him "It is? Well I had better hurry up and beat you then...." He laughed at this and we traded positions and raced towards the bike finish for the rest of the course.

I spent most of the time in aero and it felt pretty good. This new bike is a rocketship, it has added a few miles per hour to my average speed across the board. I only chickened out in aero at one spot going down Bunker Hill. Maybe I'll get it next year.

A few fast corners in full aero, right on 11th and left on Figueroa and its time to clip out and dismont already.

What a great course.



I think I could have pushed a little harder during the second half and gotten my time down a few minutes but beyond that, i'm pretty happy with it.

This is an enormous transition area. Remember also that the volunteers have set out your T2 bag for you. To their credit, T2 was well tended to with volunteers leading you to your bag. Its just that the distance traveled within T2 seemed longer than the actual run course.

Get after it more. Also learn to unstrap and leave shoes on the bike. I tried to run with no socks last race and ended up with a blister the size of the state of Texas on my right foot. Get a pair of shoes that do't need socks? that took a while. T2 should be faster than T1. I need work here.

I am a slow runner. My goal in this race being a.) don't walk, and b.) make it under an hour. I made my goal. It was close at times, Bunker Hill is very steep. Again as with Wildflower, there were run/walk/run guys who were doing better than I was.

The psychology behind two laps is tough for me. Running back past the finish line and realizing that I now must do it all over again... Tough for me to wrap my mind around. Peedra was there yelling and cheering. This helped.

I managed to find a modicum of energy and picked up the pace in the final few hundred yards.

Damn, It felt good to finish.

Work on my running speed. I suspect that I could pick up speed and exert little or no more energy for it by improving my technique.

Gladly accepted the wet towel offered at the finish line. Wandered around for 20 minutes with Peedra looking for the entrance back into T2 to get my bike. Picked up my T1 one bag which was transported to the finish line, checked the posted times real quick and made a clean getaway. T3, I call this. My goal being to get home and be in my undies in front of the television as soon as possible. I could have shaved as much as 20 minutes off my T3 time by not circumnavigating the T2 area looking for the entrance and just asking somebody.


Run training. My run training suffered as a result of my swim/bike focus as I trained up for Vineman Aquabike.


This is a great race. Its large, but well managed. It had its share of miscues, but not really worth mentioning (even the ones I mentioned, not worth mentioning, really) What a fantastic bike and run course. If there were races in other cities that offered the same slice of experience for them as this does for LA, i would definitely do them. I recommend this race, if for no other reason than to see Hollywood Blvd, in broad daylight, hell at any time, completely devoid of cars? wow.

I made a decision after Vineman to race a lot for the rest of the season but not to take it all too seriously. I have no A, B, C races, just races. This is working well for me. I'm momentarily bugged by my time, but just for a moment. I'm not trying to set the world on fire right now. I'm not trying to win my age group. Happy to compete, happy to finish. Happy to do a bit better than the last race of this distance.

This race, If I do no other, i will do every year from now on. What a blast.