Triathlon

Today I was vividly reminded why I love living and playing in Southern California. After last week's rain storms and subsequent winds, today dawned cool, calm and crystal clear. My friends Mark and Bruce had planned to meet in Carlsbad for a morning ride along the coast and through the hills of North San Diego County. Since the McClellan-Palomar Airport (CRQ) is a stone's throw from their departure point, I decided to fly down and join them. Any day I can combine flying with any of my other passions is a great day, indeed!

I wrapped up my third triathlon season today with another great event at Bonelli Park. The day dawned very clear and comfortably warm - perfect conditions for the 700+ like-minded athletes who came to work off some of those holiday calories. This was a sprint event (1/2-mile swim, 14-mile ride, 4-mile run) managed by Renegade Racing from the south shore of the reservoir. This location is very familiar to me now, since the Bonelli series earlier in the year runs from the same locale. Renegade has a good thing going here. This is only the third Turkey Tri and each year attendance has more than doubled.

Society has a habit of picking on meteorologists. How many times have you heard someone complain about inaccurate weather forecasts? Personally, I believe our weather-folk generally get a bum-wrap in this regard, so I was happy that they got it right this past weekend when forecasting light rain for Saturday morning at Lopez Lake in California's Central Coast region. It may not have been the forecast I wanted, but at least I knew what was coming. The forecast mattered, because I was going to be competing in an international-distance triathlon that very same morning.

On the weekend of May 2-4, the magic that is Wildflower took hold once again at Lake San Antonio, CA for the 26th time. However, this was my first experience of this legendary event and I can say quite emphatically - I was blown away! It was two days of world-class competition on challenging courses, an eclectic music festival for kids young and old, an expertly-managed event at a beautiful rural location tailor-made for it, and a general celebration of all things inspiring about this amazing sport.

Yesterday I began my third triathlon season with the Los Angeles Triathlon Championship #1 event. As it's name implies, this is the first of a series of events at Frank Bonelli Park in Pomona, CA. The first is a classic sprint event, followed by an international distance event in May and an olympic distance event in June. I really enjoy this venue and participated in the entire series last year. The course is challenging, but picturesque.

I'm no marathoner, but triathlon has rekindled my interest in cycling. With a new high-performance tri-bike at my disposal, I've been looking for opportunities to test my improved speed. So, when I learned recently that there's a bicycle tour staged in conjunction with the Los Angeles Marathon, I decided to give it a try. Technically not a race, this "tour" is attended by all types of individuals on all types of bikes - literally thousands of them. What was not immediately apparent was that, in order to ensure the bike course is cleared before the runners arrive later in the morning, this tour starts at the crack of dawn.

So, I found myself rising at 3:45am for a quick breakfast and a traffic-free drive downtown in time to join the crowd somewhere reasonably close to the starting line. There we were, a swelling throng of bodies and bikes, huddling in the pre-dawn chill alongside the Coliseum, trying to keep warm and waiting for our anticipated release at 6:00am. Luckily, it was not particularly cold, but after 45 minutes, I was ready to get going! Overhead, I spied brilliant Jupiter and a number of familiar stars, but the gradually approaching dawn soon overpowered them. Suddenly, fireworks erupted from within the Coliseum and I knew the start must be close! Sure enough, a horn blared shortly thereafter and we were off - well, sort of.

Today, I competed for the first time in the Los Angeles Triathlon. The event is unique in a couple of respects. First, the course covers a lot of ground, with widely displaced transition areas across The City of Angels. You start at Venice Beach and end at The Staples Center downtown. Second, the event simultaneously provides both "sprint" and "olympic" distance gauntlets. I opted for the "sprint" distance, since I felt I wouldn't really be trained enough for the longer "olympic" distance.

Under an overcast sky, we launched into the waves about 20 minutes late. The "sprint" divisions were scheduled after the "olympic" ones and some troubles with earlier starts kept us out of the water until almost 9:00am. I'd spent a lot of time in the ocean during the summer and swam the 2-mile Pier-To-Pier course in August, but the occasional series of 5-6 foot breakers I saw earlier groups contend with had me a bit apprehensive. Luckily, my group managed to avoid a big set and I was around the course and out of the water right on schedule. It's a good 100 yards or so from the water to the bikes, but I covered the ground smartly and was headed for the T1 exit soon enough.

This past Sunday, I competed in my third triathlon. Held in Redondo Beach, this one was a bit short, even by "sprint" standards: 1/2 mile in the Pacific next to King Harbor, 6 miles down Catalina Ave. and The Esplanade on the bike, and a 2-mile wrap-up run through King Harbor. With a 7:30 start time, I was up at 5:00 to eat a light breakfast and start battling the butterflies. At these distances, I wasn't really stressed, but competition is competition and in the back of my mind lurked the ugly truth - I'd not trained as hard as I had for previous events.