Pacific Coast Race Report

So here it is, in gory detail, straight from my training group's race report e-mail:

This race was a big mental challenge for me. It was the reason I'd found Tridivas in the first place (I saw ads for the Pacific Coast Tri and wanted to do it, but knew I needed help), and for some reason I'd built it up to be this horrible monster that would take a herculean effort to overcome. I also had been fighting a losing battle with a cold since the start of the week, and no amount of Emergen C, Zicam, or Pomegranate juice able to hold it off entirely. Martha had given me a predictive time of 1:33:50 that I had questioned and considered a bit lofty. In fact, for this race, I was thinking that anything under 1:40 would make me a happy girl. With the cold, I reassessed my goals, like I love to do, and decided to just get out there and finish.

We met Lisa in Irvine at the insanely early hour of 4:45am, and made it to transition uber early. We racked our bikes, but it was a bit more segregated than Santa Barbara and I was all by my lonesome. I only managed to eat a bagel at 4:30am, and then sipped Vitamin Water for the hours leading up to the swim start. At 7am, they ushered us out of transition and down to the beach for the swim. The Divas got a bit split up here....there were hundreds of people parading down the sand to the swim start, and somehow half of us ended up South of the start "box" and the others were ??? Who knows? But my royal blue Divas were all in one place, so they made fun of me as I ran into the water to pee before the start. (If you saw the lines for the Porta Potties, you would've peed in your wetsuit, too) I was having serious second thoughts out there as I watched the firefighters and elites go off. Why am I putting myself through this? I don't feel too well. I really don't want to be here. I feel sick. Blah blah blah blah blah. Before too long, we were in the box and in the countdown. Here goes nothing! We took off down the beach and I was in the front with the speedy collegiate water polo player, since she wanted to be the first in the water. As soon as I hit the water, I tripped and fell and looked like a total moron. But not caring at this point, I trudged along and managed to get swimming before any waves headed in. The lovely part about starting in the front is that people have to go around you--- you don't have to tread water in no man's land until swimming space comes available. So I'd say compared to Santa Barbara, this swim start was a bit smoother. I didn't settle well, though. The water was COLD this time--- much colder than Santa Barbara-- and I was really lethargic out there. Couldn't find a rhythm, and all I wanted to do was count buoys. The in-head commentary probably wasn't necessary, but somehow it made me feel better to cuss out the buoy in front of me and trash talk the buoys behind me as I passed. Before long, I was catching some slow-moving pale blue caps, and being passed by some speedy pigs in red caps. (You will notice a trend here....men are being substituted with the title "pigs" in my race report, because that is how they behaved on course....I am not implying that all men are pigs, just the ones who acted like them on course yesterday) On my way into shore, I was held up by a line of sad blue caps (pigs, I might add) backstroking and breastroking and forming a formidable barrier to me! I had to swim parallel to the shore for quite a while before I could clear them and get back on course. It seemed crazy to me that these big strong men would resort to this at the end of the swim....Coach, again, was SO RIGHT!

So I made it to shore and was shocked to hear Coach and the spectators cheering as I made my way to Killer Ramp #1. And then there was my sister! I have to admit, I was pretty excited to see that she'd found her way. She said Coach was hard to catch! At any rate, I only took half of my wetsuit off and proceeded to conquer the hill, because to my surprise there was no transition mat before the hill. LOVELY. The flippin' hill was going to be in my transition time. So I headed up, resigning myself to a slow swim coupled with 1.5 minutes of hill walking.....and then I got to the top and not only was there no photographer (I was all primped and ready to smile), but there was no transition mat there, either! What gives? I love racing in T1. Give me my T1!!! Alas, no TI. Had an okay transition, then headed out onto the bike, dripping, hungry, and thirsty. I sucked down half a bottle of my Cytomax concoction on the way down the big hill, then regretted every sip on the way UP the Emerald Cove Hill. Martha said we'd hate it. She was right. (again) I stuck to the right, let everyone pass me, and then breathed a sigh of relief when I hit the turnaround.....but then after a little downhill, there was yet another hill. And then another. And then another. Seriously, it didn't stop. Eventually I pushed higher gears and got into a bit of a rhythm, but it was sort of dangerous out there! These men on their very expensive bikes were little daredevils....passing in between bikes whilst never announcing their presence, weaving like drunk drivers while going down hills slower than you, dropping their water bottles because they'd never practiced before, drafting and riding in groups....well, to say I was a little angry with them is an understatement. Yesterday felt like a crash course in defensive bike driving. Although it probably didn't effect my overall time by too much, it certainly earned their name for the rest of the race as "pigs."

On to the run. Transition was a bit weird because I didn't know where to dismount and slow down. So I didn't, which helped a bit. Coach and Co. and my little sis were there cheering me on as I came in, so that gave me a little energy! I had to push my neighbors' bike to the side to make room for mine when I returned, but otherwise T2 (or shall I say, the ONLY transition that counted) was a quick one. My legs were like bricks on the way out of transition, but that was my fault for trying to be She-Ra on the bike. (Hey, Jill told me to! :)) I managed to run four minutes out before needing my first walk break, so that wasn't so bad for me. One by one, I started picking off pigs as I WALKED. Seriously, they were like ants that had been sprayed with Raid. I don't know what the deal was, but the light blue caps had over-done it and were dying out on the run course. This made me feel better about life, so I returned to my run/walk strategy and pushed on. I'm going to leave out the part about me choking on the Cytomax coming back up to torture me, as that didn't really effect anything but my head....but suffice it to say my nutrition plan was a bit faulty for this race.

Aside from the site of pigs peeing on course, the run was gorgeous. So, so beautiful and actually pretty fun! I found my rhythm, and got a second wind through the little cottages when an unknown lady started cheering "Go Tridiva! You are doing great!" What fun! Total strangers cheering me on in the strangest of places. The beach run was awesome. Cool breeze, soft on the knees, and there was no more jockying for position on crowded streets and trails. I had no idea where the ramp was, but thankfully had a few people in front of me that paved the way. I managed to do an entire mile down there without stopping, so I let myself walk up the ramp. There were coaches scattered on the ramp telling us that it wasn't that far and that we were making great time, so that motivated me to attempt to run it the rest of the way in. Two little boys splashed me with some water at the water station at the top, and that got me to Martha, who was there with her blue lei and smile! I felt strong, shockingly enough, and hoofed it in. I had no idea what my time was, but I sprinted down the finish chute and it was done. I was SO happy with myself for finishing, and when I looked at my watch (1:34 and change), I wasn't too far off from Coach's predictive time! Not too bad for feeling like crud....and I actually enjoyed the run, which never happens. Ended up in the top half of my age group, out of 40, but not by too many--- my age group was full of speedy robots!

As usual, the best part of the race was watching the other Tridivas come in and finish. I LOVE the finish line. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and happy.....and everyone made it from our group. We're just so lucky to be out there and to have such an amazing support group on course. Everywhere you turn, you hear "go Diva!" Truly, an amazing feeling. A good race in a fantastic venue....and of course, I'm still addicted! Bring on Subaru -- October 14th!