UCLA IronBruin Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

This tri, apparently, has changed swim formats almost every year. This year they switched from reverse order to traditional order, with a time trial start at the pool. The 5 sec. interval between athletes really wasn't enough and by the end of the 3rd 100m lap, there were terrible bottlenecks. (I was stuck behind two women both breaststroking side-by-side at about the 275m mark.) Always a problem when you rely on people self-seeding.

I started pretty strong and didn't feel like I really tired at all, but I think all the bottlenecks cost me a lot of momentum...unlike OWS, in lanes there's just no way to go around if you've got three people all blocking the lane in front of you.

Not do pool swim tri's. This was my second and I just don't like them. I like traditional competition swimming and I like OWS...but throwing 100 people in a pool and letting them sort themselves out kinda sucks.

Decided to go with socks once more...second one got a little hung up on my heel. Otherwise this went fine.

Not wear socks on the bike...but my feet were freezing on the ride and I can only imagine how bad it'd have been without the socks, frankly.

First tri on my new Kestrel Talon. I've been concerned about how the fit would work out in a race, since the bike is just a little small for me, but it was fine. I was hoping for close to 19mph and didn't come close...but this was the first time ever that I finished higher in the field on the bike than the run...very surprised by that.

Really wide variety of bikes, from bling tri bikes to ancient beaters hauled out of the garage. Equally wide variety of bike handling skills. Lots of passing on the right by quite a few people.

Each lap started with a big downhill that ended with an abrupt left turn...apparently there was a crash there in the first wave out of the pool. If you got through that in the big ring, you could really fly through the beginning of a series of small rollers. Then you got a long series of downhill sections...then the one long hill back to the top of the loop. Wasn't looking forward to four passes on the hill, but it got easier as I warmed up.

Train hills. I've been doing a lot more of them this year in anticipation of Wildflower (which is...gulp...8 weeks away)...but "more" means I've gone from "almost none" to "some". Still I was surprised and pleased by where I placed on the bike, both in AG and overall.

As so often happens in events with a lot of first timers, I got to T2 to find someone had moved my stuff, leaving no room for me to rack my bike. Had to shove that person's bike over on the rack. Why do people assume it's okay to touch other people's belongings? I'll never get that.

After shoving everything around to make room for my bike, I managed to tweak a muscle in my rib cage switching shoes. I was concerned about it, but it went away on the run.

Make a big announcement: "Don't touch other people's shit." Honestly, my wife came back to the same mess at her rack.

Didn't have as much gas out of T2 as I'd hoped. I put on my Garmin 205 as I exited transition so I'd have the "speedometer"...I was hoping for about 7 min/mile, but the uphill in the first half of the course probably ruled that out (though I came close). My injured arch was a bit sore, but not enough that I was concerned (it's worse now as I type this, though). Passed quite a few people, only one guy passed me--with a half mile to go (almost got him at the finish, though...but he heard me coming and hit the gas the last 50m and held me off).

Pretty good run in general. Just realized that this is the first sprint of the five I've done that had a 5K run at the end--the only other sprint I did with a 5K was a reverse order, which makes for a very different run, IMO. (Other runs were two 4-milers and a 4K.) So I don't have anything to compare this particular run to.

Might have spent a bit too much out of the box on the bike. Hard to tell: Could just as easily say I didn't leave it all on the course. But I pushed the run pretty hard...took advantage of the downhills on the second half.

Definitely need my new orthotics (scheduled to get them on 3/17)...my arch is taking a beating with the over-the-counter inserts.

Walked around. Duggar1 introduced himself and we chatted a bit, then I went out on the course to look for Liz. She came in sooner than I expected (I'd lapped her on the bike right at the end of my fourth lap, her third, so I had a good idea where she would be).

We checked out the expo, put in raffle tickets, ate a slice of pizza. Results were incomplete, but it looked like I was probably 3rd in my AG. No sign of Liz's results at all.

Due to large number of younger athletes in the collegiate race, the age groups in the open (AG) division were weird (17-29, then 30-39). I thought it was going to be 10 year AGs and I'd be screwed, but they did 40-44 and 45-49 in both genders. I got 3rd...my 3rd podium finish...but the first race with an actual podium to get up on for photos. How fun!

Then Liz was surprised with a 3rd place AG finish of her own...first podium finish in a tri for her. No medals...just sponsor prizes; Liz got the better of our 3rd place prizes--a really nice Nathan aluminum water bottle (I got a plain ol' plastic bike bottle with the logo of a local tri shop on it).

Headed home after we got our little podium appearances. Finally met Faeron as we were on our way out (she had a podium finish of her own).


Logistics were a little wonky...I've done a two transition race before (Vineman 70.3), so it wasn't unfamiliar, but the way they divided the field into two halves for two waves of time trial pool starts was a little odd. Kind of a Chinese fire drill when the time came for the second wave to bring our bikes into T1 after the last of the first half had exited the pool. Definitely let the logistics of the swim get into my head with the bottlenecks and all.

Handled my new bike okay, I thought. No granny gear made me swallow hard and HTFU a couple times (and get out of the saddle a few times), but I survived.


Fun event. Not all communication was handled spotlessly, but you have to cut the organizers slack because they are college students--and really took the event very seriously.

Only major complaint is lack of any water on run course. I didn't care--don't usually drink on 5K's--but with all the newbie entrants, I suspect there were people who could have used the hydration at that point in the race. Cool temps helped out there.

(Note: Overall results were segregated into "Open" and "Collegiate" races.)