LA Triathlon

Image of race shirt

As I mentioned in my last post, I signed up to do a 3 race series with Pacific Sports including the Long Beach,  Los Angeles, and Newport Beach Triathlons. Yesterday, I completed the second race in the series, the LA Triathlon.

Packet Pickup--Saturday @ LA Live

Staples Center

Nokia theater

This was my first time at LA Live, so that in and of itself was an experience. Parking was great, just pulled into the LA Live garage, and it was $5 for 2 hours...plenty of time to check out the expo and listen to the course talk. So I went through the packet pickup process, it went rather smoothly. When I went to pick up my swim cap, I was confused as to which cap to get, as this was the first time we got to pick our own cap colors (more on that later). I turned my T-2 bag, but a few minutes later, realized that my race number belt was in my T-2 bag, but I still had my race number bib with me, so I headed back to the T-2 bag booth and got my bag to put my bib on on my belt and turned it back in. I wandered around the expo a bit then headed to the course talk. I listened in for a few minutes, glad I did as the speaker mentioned the plethora of potholes on the bike course. I still had not purchased my ticket for the shuttle I would be riding to the race start, so I found the booth (happened to be manned by a friend of mine) and got that last piece of business taken care of, and headed out to make my way home.  Of course, I had to take a few pictures on the way out.

LA Live Plaza facing finish line area, taken from where race day expo would be.

ESPN Zone, now I feel at home.

Race Morning- Sunday- time - way to early

My Alarm- to wake up to Nothing
would be a nightmare to moste
for me it's just a song.

I set my alarm for 2 am so that I could be ready to leave by 3 as I was concerned about getting to parking by 4 and on one of the first shuttles. I ended up needing some of that extra time, I arrived in downtown LA just before 4 and went on a hunt for parking, no one was at the first lot I went to, so I decided not to park there, and drove around to find the other designated lot. Driving around was not an easy task as a lot of the roads were already closed to traffic. I found the other designated lot, and it was locked up tight, no way to get in, so I figured I'd better go to the first lot. I drove back around to the area of the first lot, but by now the street leading to that lot was blocked off. Disaster in the making. So drove back to the second lot, and just pulled over and waited, saw some race personnel and asked what was up, all they could say was that it was a private lot and no one was there. Then I noticed several people parked in another lot, this was the only open lot in the vicinity, but there was no one to take money. I was a little concerned, but by this time it was almost 4:30, so I waited until a few more people were parked in the lot, and got my bike and hopped on the shuttle to the race start. And when I say shuttle, I really mean "party bus" there was even a pole in the middle. It was a nice ride to the race start despite the distractions of the color changing lights.

T-1 setup

T-1 (pre-race)- Sunday- time- about 5:30 (still no sun and very cold)
I arrived at T-1, walked into transition, it was open racking according to race (both Sprint & Olympic distances were contested). So I quickly set up my gear and headed to the nearest porta-potty. Luckily it seemed as if I was only the second one to use it, so it didn't stink & there was no line. Had an apple pie (Bonk Breaker) and chatted with the people racked near me. Then once the Olympic distance started, I headed over to the water to get warmed up.


The Swim- .45 mi- 18:12
This year they decided to do what they call a "swim stream" start, similar to what WTC is doing with its Ironman races. Without wave starts, there was no need for them to have color coordinated caps for each wave. It was interesting to see the rainbow of caps entering the water with each start group. Athletes self-seed into categories based on their estimated swim time. Within these time categories, they divided athletes into groups of 25 to start the swim, your swim time did not start until you crossed the mat under the swim banner. I seeded myself into the 16-19 minute group, and was in the second group of that time span to be released into the water. It was a nice start, not to crowded, the only issue I had was running into some of the slower Olympic distance swimmers after I made my turn around. The water itself was a bit choppy, with the occasional 4 foot wave (which scared some people off). My final swim course from my Garmin showed a map the shape of a boot.

T-1-5:02
Got my wetsuit off, squirted off my feet, then packed everything up into my bag and then into the plastic bag. Got my shoes and helmet on and headed out to the bike. Probably added a couple of minutes to my usual T-1 time due to the packing of the bag.

Bike- 14.46 mi- 54:20
It was a good thing I went to the course talk, as there were a lot of potholes on the course, though there was a very nicely recently repaved section of Venice Blvd that we rode on for a while. It was a bit chilly to start as the sun was just up and I was still wet from the swim. Saw a lot of the usual on the bike, some drafting, some blocking, some crazy people on the side of the road. We had the entire side of the road, three lanes in which to ride. I tried my best to stay to the right, while still leaving room on both sides to escape possible potholes (as we were told in course talk). Try as I might, I got passed twice on the right within 15 seconds of each other, and I was moving right to allow people on the left to pass. I almost ended up taking out the second person who passed on the left. There is a reason there is no passing on the right,  so I just had to make it clear to these to boneheads who didn't know their left from their right , I screamed at the top of my lungs "NO PASSING ON THE RIGHT", that got me a bit of a fan club of the riders around me, who also saw these guys pass closely and on the right. There was plenty of room for them to pass correctly. That was the big excitement on the bike, the rest passed uneventfully as I made my way to T-2.

T-2- 5:09
This transition is usually slower than T-1 for me due to the fact I put on socks for the run but not the bike. I didn't have too much to put back in my bag, so it was an easy pack up. Took my leftover nutrition from the bike out with me on the run.

The Run- 3.14 mi- 39:16
Okay, I had been warned pre-race that there was a bit of a hill on the run. This made me think of the LA Marathon and the big hill in that race that the wheelchair athletes have to zig-zag to make it to the top. I'm usually fine with hills, as long as I know about them and don't see them coming too far out. In this case I knew about the hill, but it came into visual range a bit too early for me. At the top of the hill was the Walt Disney Concert Hall, then we did two tiny out and backs on the intersecting street, then back down the hill. I walked up the hill, but had to run down it, as my knees don't like walking down hills, and my lungs don't like running up them. I kept with an intermittent walk/run strategy, walking all the aid stations, as well as a few spots in between. I managed to run consistently the last  .3 miles, and crossed the finish line with a new 5K PR.

Who wants a golf lesson
after a triathlon?

Post Race-
After  I finished, I grabbed some food, some ice to put in my water bottle and headed to pick up my bags. First I headed over to try to pick up my T-1 bag just outside the finisher area, but there was no one there, no bags either. So I figured I'd head back to T-2 to pick up my bike and other gear. In T-2 there were still a few racers coming in off the bike (one of the things to deal with when hosting 2 distances at the same time), so we had to watch out for them. After I picked up my bike, I headed to check out the expo and maybe see if the bags had been brought back yet. No dice on the bags the second time around, so I headed back to the expo. I headed for the Tri-Lab booth and chatted with the
guys there for a while. Next to the Tri- Lab booth there was a booth offering free golf lessons, I'm to golfer, so I just passed that up. After a while, I noticed people with what appeared to be their T-1 bags, so I headed over to get mine. Once I had all my bags I headed back to the parking lot. Happy to see my car was still there, I happily paid the attendant the $10 fee and was on my way home.

Long Beach Triathlon

Okay, so it's been a while since my last post. I've been busy working...pretty much everyday during the school year as a substitute, then for 6 weeks during summer school. It took some time to really get back in the swing of training. My first race after Oceanside was Redondo Beach, a nice small, short local race that I did with a few of my friends. This was the second time doing this race. I like it because it has a long swim (for a sprint) of 0.5 miles, and a short run (2 miles). I ended up also working a swim meet that day, so didn't get to enjoy the post-race festivities with my friends.

So back to Long Beach, I signed up to do the Southern California Sprint Triathlon series put on my Pacific Sports. The series included LB, LA, & Newport Beach Triathlons. Three local races for $350, quite a deal, I thought. I had a few friends that had signed up for the race, so I decided to join them. For two of my friends (Jeff 1 & Jeff 2) it was their first ever triathlon.

Pre-race--
The usual breakfast, and I am off to the race site, parking near the LB convention center. Convention center does not come up on my GPS and I have no address, so I just go my usual route to the area That is, until I run into the closure of 2nd St. the best way I know how to get where I'm going, end up figuring out how to get around and back to where I want to go. Go park, get to transition, wait in long line to get into transition. I didn't arrive as early as I wanted to, so didn't get my usual end spot. Parked my bike and went to look to see if I could find any of my friends. Found the friends, kind of spread out in different waves, though Jeff 1 & Jeff 3 were in the same wave (racing Clydes). We all got set up and headed out to the water.

The swim-- 0.5 miles, with about 200 m sand run to transition area
The water was perfectly smooth. Had to watch for stingrays though, a guy next to me brushed one, and Jeff 3 got tagged during warm up (he still raced and finished with a faster time than his wife). Swim was wonderful, felt really fast, was breathing every 2 with the occasional 3rd stroke breath. Passed quite a few women from the wave or 2 in front of me, but a lot of them passed me back on the run up the beach. My calves were mooing at me for days, as they usually do after a sand run.

T1- uneventful, got the wetsuit off, shoes on and headed for the mount line.

The bike-- 14 miles, 2 loop T-shaped course, going over the Queensway bridge twice (each direction)

Me on the bike (thanks Lori)

I remembered pre-race (courtesy of Jeff 1) to change to the appropriate gear to go up the hill out of transition. So that hill was easy, as was much of the course. Felt amazing to be riding on a portion of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Course. The roads were mostly completely closed to traffic, the only exception was one way on the bridge, there was a lane of traffic, an empty lane, then our lanes to race. I was able to stay in my aero bars for much of the ride.

T2- sprayed water on my feet, tried to wipe off the sand before putting my socks and shoes on. Yes, I run with socks on, but don't ride with them, hoping the sand will get knocked off my feet during the ride and I'm ready for the run, but this didn't quite work as planned. Got passed by Jeff 1 (he was in the wave after me) on my way out, but passed him back up as we started the run.

The run- 3 mile, 2 loop out and back on the beach path.

Me on the run (thanks again Lori)

This was a very crowded run, especially the first lap, it was on a bike/pedestrian path, so not very wide for the number of runners on it at the time.  Did my usual run-walk and ended up averaging my fastest ever per mile for a 5K/3mi course. Crowd support was great, though Lori & Andy (our race supporters/photographers) seemed to miss me when I "ran" by them, only able to catch my backside in pictures. I crossed the finish line just ahead of Jeff 1.

Ahh, finally finished

Overall-- Hit the finish line, there were fruit and other snacks, though the Jeffs were disappointed by the lack of beer at the finish line. A great time was had by all.

Jeffs 1 & 2 wondering where's the beer?

Tri-Zone crew at the finish (missing Dr. Sean)
Jeff2, Me, Jeff1, Jeff3, Jeff3s wife Dawn

 Now on to the freak out about LA Triathlon, my first complete point-to-point race, where the transitions are more than a mile apart. EEEK!!