The Day at the Beach Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Our wave started an hour after race start. Sand was FREEZING walking to the start. I had to go to the bathroom and got a little cold waiting - and more nervous as some people were being brought out by the lifeguards (by their choice).
Haven't been in the ocean since late '03 when we left so cal. Wow - big swells. had to get through about 10 - 12 sets. felt sick so just kept flopping around - backstroke, sidestroke - humbling experience for a decent swimmer like me. Started at the back so I could be close to the lifeguards bringing up the rear. They were great, but I'm pretty sure a couple of them thought I wouldn't make it. I was determined not to stop even though I was pretty pathetic. Tried to swim free and dive through waves but got dizzy, so took the inefficient route of riding the top. Interestingly this felt better then going under. After first buoy and getting past the swells was able to swim free and breathe on left looking out toward horizon w/o feeling yucky. didn't swallow any salt water :) swam from about 1/2 past 1st buoy to second and put head down as much as possible going in. Was hoping for better body surfing in, but couldn't catch a wave - out of practice I guess. I think nerves and the cold water both factored in here with never feeling like I got going. Long distance from the water over the sand to transition - I walked, this was included in swim time.

I'm excited to do this one next year. Will try to train in Lake Wa and some choppier/colder conditions prior to race so I can maybe be more ready.

I thought I took MUCH longer, like 10 min. They had the 40+ women toward the end by the bike exit - which was fine with me. Didn't have my handy stool with me to sit on. brought a bottle of water to rinse sand off feet - worked well. Going to find a slightly smaller bag to use for next year.

Maybe push a bit harder. I really wasn't trying to break any records on this though and was chatting with one of my friends which was more fun then trying to cut off 1 - 2 mins on the transition :)

I was riding my friends hybrid - it's a heavy bike compared to mine and just different. I had a chance to go on a 23 mi ride on sat with it, so that was good. Had a little trouble shifting but since there weren't hills to speak of it was no big. She doesn't have clipless so rode in my running shoes :)
Took it easy on the first loop and tried to push a little harder on the second and third.

nothing really - maybe next year I'll try to push a pinch harder on this part

Well - this was kind of funny. It actually would have been ALOT shorter except I was waiting for my friend. I forgot she had told me she wasn't running and our other friend was already out on the course running for her! I think I stood there at least 1.5 minutes waiting/chatting because I already had my running shoes on and i just racked my bike and took off helmet gloves :) oh well...

Do more Sudoku to exercise my brain so I have better memory? :)

normal for me. I was shuffling along and got to the mile mark and thought "You've got to be kidding - this feels like it should be 2 miles" I felt like I'd been running for 20 minutes! :) In talking to one of my friends after she said she felt the same way - so we had a good laugh over our patheticness (is that a word) :) ... Since our wave was last I was already pretty much at the end so not too many passed me and I actually passed a couple of other shufflers. Stopped at the midway point to go to the bathroom. After the 1/2 point I tried to pick up the pace but felt my HR start to spike up. Ran with a lady doing her first tri with about a mile to go - that was fun. Chatted with others along the way and a couple of guys just out exercising kept passing me (cloning?) so we were joking around. :)

keep running outside to build better speed/"endurance" (can I use that word on a 3 mi run?) :)

It was warm by the end of the run to me - grabbed an orange and some salty crackers - and water - YUM! A couple of my buds were there at the finish cheering me on - fun! chatted and watched the awards ceremony and waited for other buds to finish.


I guess I should pick a race or two next year to to push on. I'm thinking that will be Clear Lake and Maybe the Womens tri. This was more for fun so while it would've been nice to go faster and I probably could've shaved 2 - 5 min from the bike/transitions I'm not really that concerned about it. I'm hoping to be a faster shuffler and maybe even a runner next year, so maybe that will help.


I really enjoyed it. It was more about the social and getting through that ocean swim then racing per se. It's a fun casual race and marketed that way. A really nice event to end the season on and if at all possible I want to do this next year - will be pressuring a couple more friends to join us. There is also a longer race in Malibu in Sept I'm hoping to be the swim leg of a relay! Afterward we went for Mexican food YUM - so canceled out any caloric loss from the race.