Treasure Island Triathlon - Olympic Distance - Duathlon

Nice non event. However, on the upside, my swim time was inline with the pros.

Swim

I struggled with clipping into the bike. That's been a while since, I've done that.

Swim

Going into this event I have been warned by many people that this was a very difficult course with many potholes and turns. This IS NOT my strong suit. My game plan was to take laps 2 - 3 easy with 4 and 5 harder and 6 strong without killing myself.

I went too hard on the first lap. I could feel my legs tighten-up too much. The first 1/2 of the lap had a lot of bikers due to the format, but it got much clearer after everyone got into their grove.

As I got to about the half way point of the first lap, I saw an ambulance crew attending to two bikers. One had dropped his bike and the other ran over him before hitting a building. Not good. They were still there as I completed my second lap. I was was very glad that I did a practice run through last weekend.

I was amazed that many people were passing at high rates of speed during the turns. After the first lap I started to get used to this. Frankly, this felt like I would imagine a crit to feel like.

On laps two and three I backed off of the speed and focused on staying alive! Laps four and five I picked it up quite a bit. It was interesting that at this point a bunch of us had found our speed and would pass each other back and forth and talk during the race. One guy in particular would pass me on the flats, but I passed him on the hills three times in a row. Another guy (who was 53) was in the same pack.

On lap 5 I thought to myself, don't kill yourself before the run. So I knocked it down a little. At about 3/4 of the way through the lap, the 53 year old guy and I were talking about the race. He got ahead of me by about 200 meters. On the final turn before the hill I saw him lose control and the bike wheels slip out from underneath him. He hit a police barricade very hard. I saw a police office get to him and tell him to stay down. It did not look good. At that point, my race changed to "let's get through this. I ended up heading up the final hill and did not crank it on the down hill. As I hit the transition, I was very thankful that I did survive.

Also, it was great to see my former teammates from Team in Training yelling for me. It was great!

Total elevation was 1,025.

I did not get enough nutrition on the bike. This is something that I need to work on. Additionally, I need to work on my gear work. I think more active management here would increase my speed.

This was a pretty good transition for me.

I need to get the quick strings for my running shoes

It was a decent run. My mile was pretty slow and tight was it took me the normal amount of time to get my legs underneath me. However it is getting easier.

About 1/3 of the way through the course, I saw a bunch of TNT people cheering for everyone. Boy what a great pick-up. During the second lap, I started to cramp a little, but I kept on going. At that time, I saw Chris "Big Sexy" pointing to his watch--nice!

My goal for the race was go open it-up on the third lap, but I did not have much left. I think my nutrition was poor and I paid for it here. I ran pretty well, but did not have it in me to do a stride at the end.

Better nutrition next year.

Walking around and caught up with Peter, Sean and Aaron. I ended-up getting a hot dog and wandering over to see the TNT people.


Consistent training. I have missed more workouts these last two months than I have the previous six. Also, I think I need to work more on my strength training.


This is a good race from many perspective, and has issues on others.

TriCalifornia does a world class job putting on events. The are true class acts. They handled the oil in the bay with grace and class. At the end of the day they did the right thing by canceling the swim. I felt bad for the athletes trying to qualify for the Olympics. Can you image being a swimmer and tapering for this event. Bummer.

The downside the bike course with the tons of cracks and pot holes. However, if you bike the course a couple of times before the event you should be ok.