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 Swim
Comments: Damn, I can swim slow. Its amazing I can stay afloat. If I were a shark, I would drown. I took a second to actually start my watch this time as in the previous nine races this year I have failed to do so in all but one. For some reason or another, I just have a problem with this. Too much of a hurry, i guess. Not today. Nope. Calm, Detached. So I enjoyed relatively clear water until just before the first turn buoy which was when the prior wave caught up with me. Not a huge deal as I really don't get too bothered with the contact. One time I got hit hard enough to flood my goggles. Momentarily irked by this but then quickly realized that my goggles were badly fogged before this and weren't now. Zen like in my stoicism, I keep swimming. If one is very observant, it is possible to sight off of the airplanes departing from sky harbor. They were pointing due east as they took off on race day. Like shiny little moving indicator arrows they were. Every once in a while, i take a breack from my detached, stoic race strategy to wonder about where the water comes from in this lake..... I mean, it IS in the midst of a bone dry river bed. Hmmmm. Its not like it could be filled with a whole bunch of garden hoses.... Hmmmm. I thought I heard the word "reclaim" and "effluent" out of the corner of my ear. Whatever. It seems clean enough. Swimming under all of the bridges reminds me of Vineman. Indifferent, detached. Zen. What a lovely day. This is a nice swim course, actually. What would you do differently?: Um. Work on my motivation? Learn to swim? Its a lucky thing this is my zen race or I would be damned dissapointed in my very very BOP swim results.  Transition 1
Comments: Ohm...... Repeat after me.... Ohm...... What would you do differently?: Not dawdle. I may as well have taken a short nap....oooh, look a butterfly.....  Bike
Comments: Not knowing how much to save for the run and in the general spirit of this race, I take off nice and easy. Maybe I'm still groggy from my nap in T1. I love this bike, I tell ya. I'm not even pedalling, i'm just passing people. Its all the bike, none of it is me today. I had a few problems with people blocking and I almost ran over a pedestrian who evidently thought we were to stop and wait for him to cross. Calm. Don't yell at him, detached, stoic..... I noticed an inordinant amount of flat tires on this course. I harken back to the Saguaros that litter the landscape, even in town. What did I call them? Majestic? chuh. Impassive. Mentally supine, really. What would you do differently?: Pedal.... harder. I can, If I want. But why? Compete? what for? Transition 2
Comments: Somebody has inconsiderately thrown my wetsuit on the ground..... How very un neighborly of them. Calm. Zen. I should stop and write a haiku about this. Afterall, Apparently I have plenty of time.. What would you do differently?: Move. I could go a lot faster.  Run
Comments: My pre-race strategy was to break the run into four - forty minute segments consisting of thirty five minutes of running and five minutes of walking each. In keeping with my stolid attitude for this race, I abandoned this strategy at the first aid station and slipped into survival mode. Running ten minutes and walking three. This strategy held up until the last three miles. Coming down the back stretch, thinking of the whole experience. All those flat tires....., my wetsuit laying dead on the ground....., the nagging question of what kind of water was used to fill the lake.... all those stupid cactus which are starting to look more and more like they're giving me the finger....Those bastards! With this I abandon my Zen aproach and manage to find my legs after ten miles or so of a miserable walk/jog and run with a pretty good pace to the finish line. What would you do differently?: I had not counted on it being so hot this time of year. I would train for the heat. I would also build more running base before ever attempting a half again. Post race
Warm down: Focusing on a quick T3. Run through the finish chute, get my finisher's medal, find Peedra. Forgo the massage, the pizza and the midical tent in favor of a fast escape. What limited your ability to perform faster: Attitude and run base. Zen is no kind of philosophy for this sport. Event comments: This, despite my mental unpreparedness, was a good race. Its supremely well organized, on time, good traffic control, safe, at least a thousand volunteers and almost as many aid stations. In blatant departure to my normal policy of no "potty talk" This race holds the distinction of the most porta potties per race entrant of any race I've seen. There were roughly a bajillion million-million of them (christian rope estimate) which would put the ratio of racers to porta potties at, i dunno, I was told there would be no math on this exam. I set the bar very low with a race goal of 6:45 for this, my first race of this distance and I beat my goal handily. According to my stoic approach, i should be pleased. Instead I'm indifferent. I signed up for too many races that were too close together this year. I trained really hard for Vineman and then threw the rest of the season to the sharks. Nonetheless, my blase attitude should not reflect poorly on this race as it is one of the best organized I have seen to date. I liked the course. I think it would be possible to train for the heat. IMAZ is held here. I would like to be back for that someday. Last updated: 2007-08-09 12:00 AM
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United States
The Red Rock Company
93F / 34C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 607/874
Age Group = 35 - 39
Age Group Rank = 97/119
Late season burnout. So this is what it feels like? I don't feel excited. I don't feel aggressive. I am utterly indifferent about this, I think as we're watching the Arizona desert go by at 70 plus mph. I am the Zen triathlete. This is my Zen race.
To begin with, Peedra and I opted to forego the stress of packing and shipping my bike and renting a car in favor of driving the six or so hours to Tempe, AZ from Los Angeles. Ah, meditation. An emptying of the mind. Let me tell ya, driving out to Arizona is one a$$-numbingly long ride out interstate 10. As an aside, I had no idea how much worse the fires were in San Diego than LA County until driving out through the Coachella Valley and witnessing the smoke first hand. Wow! I could hardly breath there despite the fact that I was in a car with recirculating AC and the fires were 100 plus miles away. As soon as we crossed into Arizona from california, its as if the designer of the landscape had changed. They don't make mountains like that in California, craggly and jagged, and the Saguaro cactus really do look exactly like in the Road Runner or Yosemite Sam cartoons. Very majestic though and bigger than you'd think. Peedra attempts to photograph both the mountains and the Cactus at 85 mph with predictable results. Even the dirt in Arizona changes color from blonde to red, pretty much right at the border. Very cool.
SOMA is a well organized race in a pretty nice little college town. When we got there, the expo had just opened. It was big enouth and well organized so it wasn't crowded.
For some reason they required that you check your bike in the day before the race. This made me nervous. I went by later and saw that they had uniformed security guards out. I shoulda checked to see if they were armed and had unpleasant dispositions.
We opted to pay the extra $50/night for a room with a microwave and a fridge so that I could eat a hearty breakfast consisting of instant oatmeal the day of the race. Three nights at $50/night. That was a damned expensive bowl of oatmeal in hindsight.
I arrived the morning of the race and did the usual 5 minute transition setup followed by the requisite 45 minutes or so of second guessing myself as to whether or not I should put my wetsuit on yet. Loud music and a good announcer. Generally a great, upbeat atmosphere.
This was a deep water start so a few stokes out to starting line is all. Calm. Detached. Why warmup? What for?