For me this was the first ocean Swim since Hermosa Beach in 2003. I started having flashbacks as the walk to the beach revealed 5-6 foot waves, but the water was actually warmer than the air temp. I stood back at the start and I worked my way out thru the surf pretty well diving under the waves. This was a case where you were certainly swimming uphill then being dropped of the other side. I angled well to the turn and stayed to the outside. It was very hard to sight when the horizon kept disappearing as the waves rolled by. I ended up diamonding the turn to stay out of the mess and let the waves help me back to shore that much sooner. The current gave a nice push as well. Coming back in, I really didn't catch any waves but as soon as I felt the sand and stood up, one caught me. I stood up only to have a breaker slam me back down, a second quickly followed that up, but I kept moving forward and got out of the water in one piece. Then a long run thru the heavy sand to transition.

I used to be pretty good at body surfing, but I need to work at regaining that touch. Don't relax until I'm fully out of the water!!!

Long run to the transition area in sand. The timing mat was in the middle of this stretch so it added time to both areas. I decided to go with my bike shorts so that took a little extra time, but pretty good all things considered.

Buy a tri suit.

Pretty good bike leg. The wind was in your directly in your face for most of the first 1/4. I was stuck in the small ring yet again, but since the duathalon had started early, I had plenty of targets to focus on and work past to keep my mind off the wind. The road in the park were very rough and sandy so I was afraid to push it and bite the asphalt. I got going pretty well once we got in town and started a back and forth with a couple folks. One guy even had a great sense of humor about it. We encouraged each other as every few miles we flip flopped. (He ended up dusting me at the end of the bike, but I took him on the run) I had a hard time getting in a good rhythem. I think this was due to the wind, and iffy pavement. but all in all it was a pretty good ride and my legs felt great when I hopped off.

Fix my front derauler. It seemed like everyone else was pushing a huge gear on the big ring and I had to battle with a higher cadence on the small ring.

Had trouble racking my bike, mainly since someone had their bike over my stuff and I had to figure out whose it was so I wouldn't mess anyone else up. Besides for that no bike shoes=fast T2

Not much, stuff happens.

I thought the run went pretty well. My legs felt good out of transition and got into a comfortable pace pretty quickly. I caught my buddy from the bike pretty early on. I was pretty disappointed with how I let myself slack on the hill up to the water stop, but I recovered on the second half and on the downhill. I cruised along for the second mile slowly picking up the tempo. The last mile I pushed it pretty hard and worked hard. I'm pretty sure the course was a bit longer that advertised since I went 7:48, 7:41, then 9:16 for the last 1.1 miles. Either the mile markers were off or the course was longer cause I know I picked up the pace. Oh well. Still had plenty in the tank at the end.

Attack the friggin' hills. Hills are all about attitude and I let that hill back me down.

Walked my bike the half mile or so to the overflow lot, load up then walked back for the post race ceremony.


I thought it went pretty well overall. I didn't have any specific goals or expectations and this wasn't an 'A' race, but I finished top half in overall and in my age group (Well Piranha keeps putting me in the 30-34 age group since I was 34 when I signed up.) Good way to finish off my Tri season.


I thought this was the best race Piranha did this year. It had a very relaxed feel to it and was very friendly to the numerious first timers and novices. They did a very good job and everyone seemed to have a good time. Great location, the weather cooperated (especially after the torential rains of the previous days), and a very energizing ocean swim.