October 16, 2010: I had heard about this event from another Breakaway athlete. After checking it out, I thought it would be a great idea to enter this race. According to last year’s results, it was a really small event, which would mean that I might actually have a good chance of placing in the top 3 in my age group.

Originally, I had signed up for the Olympic distance event, but then I learned another Breakaway Training coach (also in my age group) might be racing it as well. At that point, I decided to do the Sprint event instead to give myself a better shot at a medal. In the end, the coach didn’t race that day, but I’m still glad I did the shorter event. I’ll explain later. I was impressed with how easy it was to switch events; it just required a simple email request. And then I received an email confirmation.

The event was held at Lake Perris State Recreation Area, in San Bernardino County near Moreno Valley, which is a little more than an hour away. I woke up race morning at 3 AM to get ready and prepare breakfast so that I could be on the road by 4 AM. Transition was supposed to open at 5:30 so I wanted to get there early since I still needed to pick up my race materials, not to mention that I always prefer the end spot on the bike rack. I found the park no problem, but it was so dark that I could not see any of the little signs pointing towards the triathlon staging area. So after about 15 minutes of being lost in a campground area, I found my way to the race site.

Transition: This race is so small and low key. The transition area was pretty much first come, first serve. I was one of the first people there, so I picked out a good spot and set up my stuff. I then checked in to the race and got my bib number and stickers. I chatted with a former student of mine from when I was a student teacher in 1993 (!). This was his second triathlon. I scoped out the various exit and entry points. The run from the swim back to the transition area was much longer than usual, at least 1/4 mile if not longer. I figured it would be a good distance for me to catch my breath after the swim.

There was a pre-race briefing given by the race director. In addition to the national anthem, it had the usual information about water temperature, road conditions on the bike course with the construction on such and such street, as well as a brief profile of the three courses. But one cool thing about the briefing was that the race director began the meeting with prayer. I thought that was awesome. We bowed our heads and thanked God for the talents and abilities he gave us to be able to race and asked for his blessings of safety for all the athletes. Super cool. After the briefing, I went for a 10-minute jog, and then hurried up to put on my wetsuit to start the swim.

Swim: The water was amazingly warm, like 72 degrees. Freshwater, no salt. Awesome. I had the best swim of any of my preceding triathlons with a 10:42 for approximately 800 yards, a little less than half a mile. That put my swim pace a 1:21/100 yards, which would explain why I felt so tired towards the end of the swim. I was wondering if there was something wrong with me because it was puzzling to me why I felt so out of breath for such a short swim. I was very glad for the long run back to T1. It gave me time to catch my breath and recover so I could hammer down on the bike segment.

Bike: For some reason in my mind, I thought the bike segment was only 9 miles long. It had a couple of hills in there, one medium hill at the beginning and one short, steep hill near the end of the route. For a 20K (12 miles), I did reasonably well at 34:34, averaging about 21 mph. By the end of the race, I would learn that I had passed most of the people in the first swim wave.

Run: My goal for the run was to do the 5K sub-7:00/mile. With a time of 22:03, it was just a little over. I definitely pushed it for most of the run, but I clearly ran out of gas towards the end. Unfortunately, I learned that the guy in front of me was 3rd to finish in my age group, and I missed passing him at the finish line by 2.3 seconds. In my gut I knew I should have started my sprint to the finish line earlier, but I waited too long and simply ran out of real estate to make a pass before he crossed the finish line.

I was pretty pleased with my swim, which took away some of the disappointment I felt from finishing 4th place by only 2.3 seconds. Just some.

September 12, 2010: The Malibu Classic triathlon was unique event. It was an athletic competition as well as a media spectacle where celebrities raced to raise money for the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. As far as my participation in this event, it was obviously all about the athletics. In the last couple of months, I’ve noticed improvements in all three disciplines of triathlon.

Beach Start

Swim: 1/2 mile in 17:32. I guess the 9th time is a charm; this was my 9th tri. Beach starts are not my favorite thing. There’s something a little unnerving about running down the beach towards the water and diving into the waves. But I felt strangely confident. Not even that loud, annoying canon the race officials used to start each wave bothered me. I’ve learned to play it low key at the start of my swims. I find I perform better and keep my heart rate down. Because I’m not going to lead the swim in a race, I try to start mid-pack.

I cleared the wave break with two dives and began swimming towards the first of three buoys. The water was relatively calm and I just felt a little jostling around as some waves rolled over me. I don’t know what else to write about this swim other than it was probably the best open water swim I’ve had to date. Not once did I get nervous and have to stop to catch my breath or sight.

Transition 1: 3:14. I struggled with getting the wetsuit top off. Fortunately, the run from the water to my bike was pretty long so I had plenty of time to work through removing my wetsuit. My T1 time improved from Vineman. I decided to sit down and remove the last part of the suit from my feet instead of trying to step out of the legs while standing. I would still like to get my T1 time under 3 minutes.

Bike: 18 miles in 47:39. For my bike ride, I wanted to strike a balance between hammering really hard and saving some juice for my run. I felt that I could go faster on the bike, but I didn’t want to fizzle on the run. So I went as fast as I felt my quads would allow me to go without cramping. The course had a couple of hills, but they seemed negligible.

Transition 2: 1:23. Racked my bike pretty easily, put on my visor, shoes, and grabbed a quick sip of VITALYTE.

Run: 4 miles in 29:10. My entire goal for the run was to run it at a pace close to 7:00/mile and finish the run in under 30 minutes. The first two miles were fairly easy to sustain a sub-7:00 pace. As I neared the turnaround with two miles left to go, I reminded myself that I can do anything for two miles. It was really tough to keep the pace for the last mile, but I reminded myself that I can do anything for one mile. I had passed the only other person in my age group a long time ago, and so the thought that I might be leading my age group kept me going. In a sense, I’m glad I didn’t know my position in the race because I might not have tried as hard to keep my pace if I had known I was really out of medal contention.

You got rocked by someone 16 years older than you.

For the last two miles I chased a couple of people who weren’t in my age group. One guy was 28 years old and I stayed behind him for 1.5 miles. With a half mile remaining I started to push myself harder. Then with a quarter mile remaining I really started to put the hurt on that 28-year-old. I could see the race tents in the background and the finish chute. As we neared the chute, I sprinted. He turned up the heat as well and passed me for a brief second, but somehow I found another gear and sprinted past him again. I got a kick out of the crowd’s reaction as I crossed the finish line. They gasped when I rocked him. When I crossed the line, I limped because my right quad cramped up.

Afterward I was pretty disappointed at the awards ceremony. It seemed like I was the only Breakaway Training athlete who didn’t get on the podium. It was a strange feeling. I knew I raced a really good race. I left everything out on the course, and I don’t see how I could have gone any faster at my current ability level. It feels strange to know that my time of 1:39:00 was good enough to place 8th in my age group, but sadly I was not able to enjoy it at all.

In each part of the race I did what I wanted to do. So after a few days to reflect objectively about my race, I believe I’ll look at this race in a much more positive light. Oh yeah, this is Part 1 of the story. Right now, I plan to write Part 2 after next year’s race.