Great job on an unexpectedly tough course! Sounds like you made a wonderful day of it anyway, and, well, as for the shoes--that's just about the funniest thing I've heard in a race report. Congratulations!

It was so bizarre, you know you were there 25 minutes earlier, and now your shoes are gone. how could my shoes be gone? When the race worker and I saw the other shoes we just laughed. You should have heard me, I was swearing up a storm as only I can, but in a funny way, and I just put the shoes on and took off. The whole bike ride I was marveling at the fact that I was wearing someone else's shoes. and then I passed him on the bike, although I wasn't looking at everyone's shoes, but had I known I could have ridden up next to him and said "How are those shoes working out for you?"

Scone_Mason

I was also at the race this morning and we actually chatted before the race and before you took off to the pool. I didn't recognize you until I saw your tattoo on the way to the swim. We were watching as you asked that coed for her goggles and laughed when she gave you a nice pink pair!

I agree the run course was crazy! Luckily, I had run/walked the course yesterday and knew that my only chance was to run flat out the first mile because once it went off road, I got real nervous about blowing out a knee again! I don't think I will doing any cross-country runs anytime soon.

The bike course was just crazy with all the 180 degree U-turns! Anytime you built up anytime of cadence, it was time to slow down and U-turn!

Congrats on an awesome swim, my girlfriends family and I watched up and you did a really great job! I can only imagine what you could have done on the bike with your own shoes!

Take Care and see you at another race soon
Cheers
Brad

Last year at UCLA someone took my bike shoes home with them. No extra pair of shoes around. Fortunately it was after the bike part of the race was done.

Never did get my bike shoes back. Had to buy a new pair.

Brad! I had a feeling that that was you, but I didn't say anything because I was so flustered I was trying to remember everything. You were so right about that run. I don't think anyone was expecting that wacky course. I was talking to the guy at the Bike Religion tent and he and I agreed that on a course like that the aero bars are useless. I went down on them twice and then said the hell with it because exactly as you said, as soon as you had speed, you had to slow down. This is a nutty sport, but I really love it.

Great job on the race! I wasn't expecting the course to be so cross-country either and I found myself worrying about rolling my ankles - it was a pretty uneven course with the rocks and crevices, etc. I agree with you - I thought the bike part was much harder than expected...sounds like you did great so congratulations!

Maybe there was a rash of clepto's at this event. Someone took 1 (just 1!) of my socks that I had placed on top of my bike shoes at T2. Weird...

One sock! WTF?

I know one thing, from now on I'm spraypainting everything I own with some kind of bright color in a way that no one can mistakenly run, bike, or swim off with something. that's just nutty.

it didn't help that the transition area was a bit small and there weren't enough bike racks. We were squeezed in on top of each other.

Wow, talk about crazy transitions! Luckily for me, I wear a size 15 and no matter what my shoes look like, other racers will know that something isn't right!

Good race.

Did a lot of people think the run was hard too? My first duahlon last year in MN had the same thing...tough hills, ankle monsters, and mud!

Hundoracer, by the same token, there is no way you could cram my 10.5 onto your foot by mistake either.

I thought the run was very hard. I was being very careful on the last mile, watching where I stepped the whole way. At my first tri in December, my 5k time was 24:00, my 5k split for this race was 28:16, and I went by the girl shouting times at the 1-mile mark at 8:00, so as soon as we hit the hill and the rough terrain, I had shifted down a notch for sure. At the end of the run I was thinking "don't get hurt now" and just wanted to make it to the bike. I was last in my age group (46-49) with an overall of 1:27 but I also had a disastrous (and now well-described) run to bike transition. Even with that taken out I probably would have finished about 1:20 or so. I was happy that my performance felt good, I never had to stop, and thanks to Gina Greco, my swim coach, my swim was waaaaay better than before. I'm a true beginner, and when I decided to try tris, it was last October, I didn't own a bicycle yet, and was planning to debut at Pasadena on March 8. As it is, by the time Pasadena rolls around, I'll have completed two sprint tris already without having hurt myself, finished last overall, or had to walk, get off the bike, or touch bottom in the pool, so I'm happy with my progress so far. As for the benefits of just training for these things, I've lost 30 pounds, my cholesterol is down about 40 points, and my doc tells me I'm in better shape than 90% of his patients. That also makes my wife happy about it. Triathlon probably isn't for everyone, but it's working for me so far.

Edited by Scone_Mason 2008-02-19 5:44 PM