Long Beach Tri Race Report
I'm gonna have to go light a few candles at the local church, or sacrifice a goat or something. Maybe both.
I took my second DNF in a row at the Long Beach tri this past weekend. Which really sucks considering I had an extended taper due to my bike mishap in training a few weeks ago and had been posting some really good numbers the last few weeks. I decided to put the long slow stuff on hold and really tune up the speed since it had been so long since I had raced, and I really, really wanted to go fast at this race. Like, top 10 clydesdale fast. I was figuring I could go 1:15 without much problem, maybe 1:10 if I could HTFU and take some pain on the run.
Well, suffer I did. I went to bed the night before with a little stomach discomfort - this worried me, as I had dinner at Steve's and he was not feeling the best either. I woke up at 4:00 AM without the alarm clock, slugged the ensure and vitamins I had set out, and laid back down for another hour, stomach still rumbling. Woke back up at 5, loaded the truck, picked up Steve, and headed down to the race.
The GI issues got a little worse as I set up in transition. This race is always fun since there are so many newcomers, and I love introducing people to the sport. I met Ally, who was doing her first tri, we chatted about her wetsuit, about how the various T1/T2 entry/exit points worked, the timing chips, and her expectations for the race. She thought, like most folks, that she might just stick to sprints for her tri career. I remember thinking that too, I told her, and here I am getting ready for IMAZ.
I went off in wave 6 of 8 - after everyone save the oldest competitors (50+ men and women). In this race, that means slugging through lots of bodies. Sure enough, the first waves had people hanging on the first buoy and on kayaks no more than 200 yards from the beach. My planned tactic was to use my new-found swim speed to stay with the front-running swimmers in my group, catch a draft out around the first buoy, then go wide to minimize contact with folks who might be breststroking or floating in the water. This worked out well - I rounded the first buoy with the first two or three in my group, then went wide. A little too wide perhaps, as I found myself about 40 yards outside the buoy line. This ended up being ok as the course makes a slight outward turn just before the last turn buoy back to shore, and i just sighted straight for that. And, I only hit two folks - one guy got a pretty hard recovery stroke to the back of his head, and the other got a bit of a goosing.
As I turned the last buoy, the stomach decided to let loose. Puked twice, and I somehow managed to swim through it - on this particular day after the first rain of the year, I probably improved the water quality with my deposit. By Kristy's count, I was among the top 10 in my wave out of the water, with an 11:35 swim for 1/2 mile - a huge PR, and an 8 minute imporvement over two years ago.
I stumbled across the beach back to T1, where I dry heaved a few more times and tried desparately not to load my pants. Ultimately I decided to try the bike leg, but I only got one leg in before that too became unmanageable. I spent the rest of the race in the port-a-john.
Steve had a huge day - 1:15, 181st overall.
So, what does it all mean? Well, I'm still getting over the stomach bug, and I'm down 10 pounds from Saturday evening. It's been tough to stay hydrated through workouts this week. And, it also means that I'm most likely in for SOMA and the San Dimas Turkey Tri - I've got to do well at a race soon just for my psyche. But I can take some consolation in the swim performance - an indication that more is really more.
