Thanks...I was pretty psyched about the whole race since it was my first one. I was especially happy with my bike split, so "pretty happy" may have been an understatement. I have been training since October, but suffered setbacks on my running and bike training due to an achilles tendon injury around New Years. Thus, not many high intensity or hill rides, and very little running of any sort during January and February.

I'm a fairly strong swimmer -- at least in the pool. I had only done one ocean swim before this race though, so I was a little nervous about the current and surf. I was disappointed when they cancelled the swim, since it is a stronger event for me than the run, but I agreed with the RD's decision given the conditions. You were there, so you saw it first hand.

Unfortunately (fortunately?), I will likely be leaving the clydesdale division and joining the AGers (30-34) soon. When I started training, I was around 220, but I am now down to 205-210. As my long runs and long bikes pick back up, I anticipate that I'll probably end up in the 195-200 range.

Good riddance.. bye bye... leave the Clydes for us fat guys   LOL....  Did you see the guy who won Clydes?  The irony is that he is not a good swimmer, so this was great for him! (in case you didn't....... http://www.brightroom.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=10783&BIB=874&PWD=

Looking forward to more reports.  What other races are planned?

Edited by ChrisM 2006-04-06 2:10 PM

Nice race Matt! Nice bike spliat and congratulations on finishing your first race.

The winner looks like he is 200 lbs of muscle maybe they should institute a minimum body fat requirement for the clyde division.

Mike

Yeah, I saw him before the race (although I didn't know he was in the Clydes division). I definitely didn't see him on the course since he was in front of me the whole time!

I am sensitive to the debate about who should or shouldn't race in the Clydes division (and I don't have a good answer). Ultimately, there will always be athletes who are just over or just under the cut-off, no matter where or how the line is drawn. I remember that when I first decided that I wanted to do a triathlon, I thought it was pretty cool that there was a clydesdale division, so I wanted to get at least one race as a Clyde while I was eligible so I could wear the "C" bodymarking on my leg with pride!

I haven't signed up for any more races (YET), but I would like to do a couple more sprints over the summer and am shooting for an olympic at the LA Triathlon in September.

I understand the difficulty in determining who should or should not be a clyde. To me it doesn't really matter, if having a clyde division (no matter how it is defined) gets another person interested in doing triathlons then it has served its purpose. Personally, I race against myself. Yeah you are always racing the people around you as well, but the only person I have any control over is me and that is who I'm trying to beat.

The LA triathlon is a great event and was my first tri, 1.5 years ago. There is something special about riding the streets that are normally so packed that you can hardly drive on them. I highly recommend the event.

Congrats and good luck in all of your future races.

Mike