Toyota Desert International Triathlon (Page 2)

• First Timer- Novice Cliinic and Open Water Swim
• The very popular first timer and novice clinic hosted by triathlon legends Pam Galbraith and Bill Bell will take place at 3:00pm at Lake Cahuilla on Friday and again Saturday.  If you are new to triathlons this is a must clinic to attend.  I promise you will feel much more relaxed on race day if you attend. Pam and Bill have been a part of the sport of triathlon for a combined 50 years. You will learn so much.
• From 4:00pm to 5:30pm on both Friday and Saturday,  the lake will be open for swim practice.  This is the only time you will be allowed to swim in the lake before race day.  NO Exceptions!!  We will have lifeguards there from 4:00pm -5:30pm on both days.

The perfect color for crushing the hopes and dreams of youth. May I refer to you as Darth Geezer?

(me=50)

That was a fun race.  Random thoughts......

Venue - Nice little spot for a venue.  Parking not too bad, bit of a walk but not a biggie.  Seemed to have adequate restrooms between the bunkers and portapotties, but I found an open Starbucks on the way so went "in style" 

There was a LOT of high end tri bling gear, almost like an IM race.  I guess the flat fast course and early season race brings everyone out

Swim - that swim into the sun is brutal, but it was actually pretty easy because there was a set of double palm tress, as long as I was heading for them, the buoy was there somewhere underneath.  Return leg easy to site off a dip in between two peaks.  Swim times seemed a little slower than the posted results last year, which had numerous 16s and below, so course was a little longer.

That swim is like a mini - Tempe Town Lake.  A bit cool but perfect temps once you get used to it.  Murky, can't see your hand in front of your face.

Bike - Flat flat flat, until that little tiny hill coming back into T2.  ouch.  Intersections were well controlled.  Seemed to be a bit of a false flat on the backside, the road up to the high school.  Or at least I started losing power back there both times. 

Why oh why do they have a botle handoff?  It's 24 miles.  I saw a post on ST so I went way left when I came by it, and saw more than one racer weave wildly across the road only to miss a handoff leaving a bottle rolling in the road.  Unnecessary and dangerous, IMO.  Then there was the guy that tossed his bottle to the side of the road at the next left turn after the handoff.  That was like a 1/2 mile away.  WTF. 

I am glad they didn't enforce the drafting death penalty.  I never intentionally drafted, but there were times where people were bunching up into small pelotons taking up the whole road, and trying to get them to stay right or pass, which very few people were doing.  I had to cross over the yellow once and got yelled at by the moto, but no penalty.

Then there was some obvious drafting going on, very intentional.  Starting in the last wave, with the narrow roads, I did a lot of leapfrog legal drafting.

Run - Looked hot.  Didn't do it 

I noticed this specifically too. There were a ton of sick bikes out there.

Ah, double palm trees lead my way as well.

Drafting was ridiculous. Also people riding out of position...so annoying. I understand when things are so packed there is nothing you can do. But one guy I was riding with would just sit next to me on my left. I wasn't going to say anything because I was dropping out of the race as well.....but it's just so irritating. Dude, you can't do that....move back or pass...geez

I enjoyed the race and the venue.  The swim start was kind of weird in the way that there was a start area but people were choosing to either start on the land behind the line or already in the water and stepping out deeper with the countdown to the gun.

Since I started in the first wave, I got to experience the bike and run courses in two ways.  The first loop was spread out and you knew who you were racing, but when you start the second loop everyone else is on the course and you have to deal with the bunching and drafting. 

Personally, I had a good race and was right around my time goal.  My swim was weak, but I made up for it with a good ride and a great run.  I'll work on getting a race report up sometime today. 

Congrats to everyone for getting out and kickstarting the season.