Mission Bay Triathlon - 2007

Ahh...Mission Bay. Where it all began. The first triathlon ever was held here! My first triathlon ever was here! (well, kinda...I did a club race the week before as my first). This race will always hold a sentimental place in my heart, despite the mucky MB waters. This was my 4th year in a row doing this race. I've definitely come a long way since the fall of 2004!

Pre-race

Pretty normal except for the fact that Pat set his alarm to NPR, and at 4:30 am, NPR had nothing airing. Blank. That means no noise when the alarm goes off. For some reason, I got up and looked at the clock. 4:45! Oh Sh*t! Not too bad. We rushed out of bed, dressed, and headed out the door.

Swim

Supposedly there was a favorable current. I felt it at the start as it was pushing us past the start buoys. I swear it ended just after those buoys. I felt like I was swimming through mud the rest of the distance. I just couldn't get into my groove. One of these days I really need to get into a masters program....

T1

Pretty quick. I'd say about 40% of the bikes in my wave were gone when I got out of the water.

Bike

The bike course takes you out of ski beach, into the Sea World parking lot (lots of sharp turns), back out onto Sea World Drive and onto Fiesta Island for a loop before heading back. Since they paved the big loop on the island earlier this year, the race took advantage of it, making the bike course almost 2 miles longer. Advantage: ME! This is the only part of triathlon (other than transitions) where I can hold my own. The longer the better! I passed a couple of girls in my wave within the first mile, and then a couple more on the island. And then I started passing the boys. That was fun! I felt good on the bike. There were a couple portions where the wind held be back to 18/19 mph, but for the most part I was riding around 20 or 21 mph. For about a half a minute on the west side of the island, I thought I had a flat. Something just didn't seem right. Wheel looked ok though, so I powered on (I found out later at home that my tire really was flat...must have been a slow leak).

A couple of the 25-29 year old boys passed me on the bike (they started 5 mins behind). One guy passed me as I rode through Sea World the first time (must have been a wicked fast swimmer), a couple passed me on the island, and then 4 more passed me on the return trip through Sea World. Unfortunately they passed me just as we were heading into some water hazards (puddles). I was sprayed w/ muddy, dirty water and was speckled for the rest of the race. Oh well, you don't win races on looks.

T2

Quick again. There were very few bikes on their racks when I returned. I love that.

Run

Usually this is where I get passed by half of the people I passed on the bike. For some reason, that didn't happen too much today. I started off strong, and ran my first mile in 7:30. 7:30!??!?! Wait...there's no way in hell I ran my first mile off the bike in 7:30. Concensus is that the mile marker was placed incorrectly. I hit Mile 2 at 16:30, so my 1 mile of elation on how I had suddenly become a fast runner, evaporated pretty quickly. From what I can remember, only 3 or 4 people in my age group passed me on the run. I had passed Michelle Panik on the bike, and she passed me again at mile 1.5. Not too shabby. Clay, who started 10 minutes behind me, passed me at about the same time. I was able to hold off Pat (who started 5 minutes behind me) for another 2 minutes, and then he blew past me. I never saw Becky. She was ahead of me the entire time. How's that for some Ironman recovery? I was able to finish strong, and feel good at the end of the race. Sprints are great....my stomach can usually be ready for beer within 10 minutes :)

Post Race

My wave was the third to go off. That meant I finished early and was able to make it to the beer garden by 8:30 am. Nothing like Mich Ultra for breakfast! :) It was a beautiful sunny San Diego morning. Couldn't ask for anything better. By 10:30 am, I was pretty buzzed. Pat and I were able to check another "Thing We want to do" off our list when we joined Paul, Erik, and Clay for breakfast at the Museum Cafe in La Jolla. I had the Asparagus Scramble. Yum!

Results (from my watch since Koz only does 3 splits)

Swim (500m)--10:24 (ugh)

T1--2:15

Bike(10.4 miles?)--31:21

T2 --1:12

Run(3.1 miles)--25:23 (ugh)

Total: 1:10:35

16/119 W25-29