Pretty good swim for me, but I never got my breathing right. I've been working on BL3, but I find I have to fall back on left-only during the starting pandemonium. Last race (2.4 mi), it took me about 1 mile before I could swap back to BL3, but this race I never did. I was breathing too hard, and couldn't slow down my HR or breathing enough to swim smoothly.

Still, improved by 2 min over previous best, and more so if the course was long.

Work on switching from left-only (sprinting) to Bi-lateral. Need to be able to calm my breathing/hr while swimming.

Actual transition was about 4:30. I was doing this race with a friend, and waited at his bike for about a minute before heading out.

Nutrition side, everything worked great. Had a few sips of Perpetuem, but didn't overdo the stomach. Good.

Decide what to do beforehand. He's a faster swimmer, so I figured to catch him on the bike. But, this was his first tri, so he had a hard swim. It's hard to bike near each other, anyway, so best plan was probably to meet in T2.

Great ride for me. I held back, waiting for my friend for the first 10 miles or so, which cost me 3-4 minutes, but then decided to meet him at T2, and went for it. Knowing I had the downhill, I figured I could push pretty hard the first half, and stil recover for the run. I started passing lots of people in the mi 20-25 rollers. It was funny, though, I'm a climber, so I passed a bunch of people (on NICE bike) on the ups, and then they passed me on the downs. Probably should have backed off a bit from 25-27, but I hadn't driven the course, so I wasn't sure. Oh well. Slowed a bit on the first hill, but still rode well. Odd spot was the 1 mile gradual downhill between climbs 1 and 2. I found myself plugging away at 14mph, and said to myself, "what the heck? this is DOWNhill!" Added a few gears, and was right back at 19. must've been some weird kind of entropy, since another friend doing the race had the same thing happen. Anyway, I really did well on the second hill, and passed quite a few people. The key to climbing, for me, is to just do it. Chug along, and you'll eventually get there. Third climb didn't even register. Downhills were FUN, though I would've liked another gear or two. I did very well carrying the ups and flats for the last 20 miles; I think I had the right balance of pushing to the next down, and then recovering.

This was my first course where thinking, and strategy really played a part, and I enjoyed it that way.

1) Stay with my wing-man (see T2)

2) Gearing. My tri-bike is very well suited for road racing, with a 52-42-30 up front, and a 13-26 in back. This allows lots of small modifications for high-cadence pack riding, but doesn't have many gears at the extremes. I hate using the 30 (it hurts my knees), so I was limited to 42-26 for the climbs. I'd've really like the 27 from my commuter bike, or a 39 up front (ie, 39-25), but alas. Then on the downhill, 52-13 was nowhere near enough gear. I would've liked a 53 up front, or a 12 in back, at least.

So I learned a lot about how to choose gearing for a course. This set-up was great for CaliforniaMan (lots of small rolling hills), but less than optimal for Pacific Crest. Now, if I could just tune the engine...

Bottom line, if I'm going to be riding on a triple, I need to learn how to use the 30, or else I'm giving up too many of the climbing gearns.

This was the best I've felt going into T2, and it made for a smoother transition, which was nice. I jogged around the transition area, and both legs and stomach were great.

After I got my run gear on, I sat down to wait for my friend. (This was his first race, and my job was to help him through it. I figured to help him through the run...) So, I waited. And waited. And waited. I did find some shade for an hour, but then started hanging out near the entrance, in the HOT sun for the next hour.

Finally, he came in, on the sag wagon, carrying his bike and his (broken) chain. End of day.

Do not leave your wing man. This was not an A race for me - more like a C. My sole purpose for doing the race was to help Shervyn. I did help him get everytying set up before the race, but that's it. While in T1, it was really hard to stand at his bike, and watch everyone else go, so I went, figuring he'd catch up. But he never did. Now, I couldn't ride with him per se, but I could've helped when his chain broke at mile 34. See, he didn't realize you can take a link out and keep riding. Now, neither of us had a chain tool, but triathletes are helpful folk, and someone would've lent us one. It's not "outside support" if I give him advice and he fixes the chain, so we could've done that and kept going. Instead, I cruised on ahead, and he sat on the side of the road for an hour.

Well, I didn't do the run. By the time Shervyn came in, there was really no point. Yeah, I could've run the 13 miles, and a few years ago I might have. But why go out and run 2 hours when my friend, pregnant wife, and son are waiting? Instead, we went and saw some airplanes.

Nothing. It was the right thing to do.

Walked around athlete village a bit, then went to see airplanes (my son's a fanatic), had dinner, then hit the hot tub.


Well, the DNF, obviously. I felt great in T2, though, so I was ready for my best race yet. Race strategy (hard first half, then carry the 2nd half rollers) was right on. Training was fine (I was coming off of an iron-distance a month prior, so I took it easy for a few weeks, then hammered for 2 weeks, then rested 5 days.)

Good decision making re: race, but not so good as regards Shervyn.


Great race. It's a whole weekend festival, with a half-rion tri and du, olympic tri and du, marathon and 1/2 mary, 5 and 10k, and a kid's race. Crazy, fun. Excellent race on a beautiful course.