Sunday 4.2.2006 - over and done

well today was the day. my first triathlon came and went. here's the report:


LA Triathlon Championships #1
600m swim/12 mile hilly bike/5k hilly

ok.... what an interesting day. i got to the race site at 7 am and the race started at 830am. I talked to a couple of volunteers that had been there since 6am and it was only 36 degrees when they got there. i went over and set up my transition area and then when i was standing in line for the bathroom i watched some guy totally knock over my bike and trash my transition area. no worries... i set everything back up and then wet to warm up.

i ran back to my truck to tell my sister and nephew who were staying warm and sleeping, what was going on. so then i continued to warm-up and then jogged down a little dirthill and somehow tweaked my right quad. it immediately started killing me.. seriously. i was bummed but i continued to stretch and try to loosend it up. so i headed back to transition and put on my wetsuit while quad was screaming at me.

i went down to the lake and jumped in for a couple of minutes and warmed up. the lake was about 58 degrees and didn't feel too bad. i got out of the water and my quad was still aching. ok the time to get going....

and we're off it was now warming into the mid to upper 50's... there were probably about 40+ guys in my wave, kind of packed and i battled all the way out to the first buoy, which took a lot of energy. after the first buoy i got in a groove and that continued to the next buoy, and then to the shore. coming out of the water my sister informed my that i was about 15th... not too bad. jogging to my bike i could tell my quad was going to be an issue for the rest of the day.

T1.. quick.. bike shose strapped to pedals... in and out.

Bike:
got my feet in my shoes and started hammering on the 2 lap (6 miles each) course that included a lot of short hills. i was just ingoring my nagging leg and hammering and feeling good. i got to about mile 3 and there was a quick downhill, then sharp right, then steep climbing. i didnt have a chance to check out the course before hand and jacked up my gearing. i didn't down shift to my small ring in time and then i couldn't down shift... i was stuck on the big ring and then my chain came off... crap.. .bike .. killing me again. got my chain back on and then back on the road and up to speed in about 30 seconds after getting passed by a couple of guys. now my right quad was also knotting up...CRAP....9 miles to go. i just continued to give everything i had just trying to not think about the pain. i ended up passing a couple of guys and closed in on the leaders.

T2:
i got confuesed couldn't find my rack for a second, and my feet were completely numb. other than that i was in and out. as i was leaving T2 my sister told me that there were only 8 pople ahead of me. WHAT!?! i thought i was deeper than that.

RUN:
finally... not how i pictured it though, with both of my quads now feeling like somebody was stabbing me. i went out fast and didn't hold back passed a few of the guys ahead of me, the course was unexpectedly hilly. by the end i was all alone so i had no idea what place i was in, and there were some PRO/ELITE guys in the race, and in my wave, so i had no idea where i was in my AG.

The aftermath:

1:11:03

2nd in AG (25-29), 5th overall... i am stoked! First in my AG was 1:08:30, and he was some sponsored guy that i talked to afterwards. he rode for elite, powerbar, and zipp. The firest overall Eilte was in around 1:03. i don't know my splits yet but i am pretty sure my i was running about 5:30 miles and i know i could have been faster if my quads weren't killing me

i am not sure what happened with my quads. i think it was due to it being cold and not drinking enough water before hand. i drank 3 cups of coffee (stupid), becuase the hotel for some reason did not have any hot water at 5am and i am a wimp.