Santa Cruz International Tri

This morning I raced an Olympic distance tri over in Santa Cruz. Dave and I had this race on the calendar for the last few months but for some reason we didn't put a lot of thought into it. I think coming off Vineman and just focusing on training for Ironman, this distance race was just something I had on my training schedule. We headed to bed early and I didn't think about packing up until then! Luckily I only forgot one thing and that was my race belt. Dave let me borrow his since he's rather pin his bib on.

We woke up dark and early for a 5:45 pick up from our friend Mike. I had the normal english muffin/peanut butter/banana/coffee breakfast and off we went. I did forget one other thing: my I.D.! Luckily, we were only 10 min. from home so back we went.

We got to Santa Cruz, checked in and got our packets and set up our transition area. This is the 3rd year that Dave and I have done this race. It's in it's 6th year and is still pretty small so it has a really nice feel. Another friend, Joe, was also racing and we chatted with him for a while.

Me, Dave, Joe and Mike

My friend Mary was also racing but I didn't see her until we went down to the beach.

After the athletes meeting we put our wet suits on and headed over to the beach. I hadn't done an ocean swim since last September so I wasn't sure how the swim was going to go. Last year, the swim was short because of the heavy fog but this year is wasn't very thick so the course was the full 1500 meters. After a quick warmup I headed into the corral (this swim is a sand start) with Mary for our wave start. Dave, Mike and Joe were in a wave 10 minutes later. The swim was 2 laps and we had to come out of the water, run around a buoy and back in the through the waves for the second loop. In this area, waves come in, well, waves :) There would be 4-5 big crashing waves and then little ones for a while. We were going to either get pounded at the start or not. When my wave went off I think we were on the tail end of a series of big waves so I got lucky! 

Overall, my swim was better than last year. I felt a little more comfortable in the water and more consistent in my swim. There were a lot of swells out there. The swim is a triangle so on the way to the first buoy the water is pushing you back a bit, on the way to the second buoy you are swimming sideways alongside the shoreline so you get rocked up and down and the swells are coming in and then from the last buoy to shore you get some help form the water. It all evens out but I could do without the swells!

Swim 2011: 36:57

Swim 2012: 35:23

T-1 was pretty good. This transition always takes me longer because of the wetsuit and socks and shoes, etc. 

T-1 2011: 3:18

T-1 2012: 2:48

The bike is a 4 loop course that is flat and fast. The first half of the loop is through a residential/commercial area then at the turnaround you come back along West Cliff Drive that is absolutely beautiful and scenic. Fun course! I had 2 goals for the bike. First, I wanted to stay consistent in my pace and push a little. The other was to finish at least one lap before Dave, Mike or Joe lapped me! Did it! Mike lapped me at the beginning of the second lap. Joe lapped me in the middle of my second lap. Dave never lapped me. He didn't think he would. Since we ride together so much, we usually ride at the same pace so he thought my 10 min head start would be too long to allow him to catch me :) Mary and I leapfrogged all along the course and that was fun to see a familiar face!

Bike 2011: 1:28:20

Bike 2012: 1:19:25

T-2 was good. Quicker to change shoes and switch from my helmet to my visor.

T-2 2011: 3:15

T-2 2012: 1:46

Then off to the run. I had not been feeling my running mojo for the last couple of weeks. It has been starting to come back in the last couple of runs I did this last week. Good timing! The first half of the run I kept a steady pace and on the way back I looked at my Garmin and saw that I might break 3 hours. I picked up my pace and negative split the run. Yay!

Run 2011: 1:01:13

Run 2012: 1:00:06

Total race time:

2011 3:13:16

2012 2:59:31

1/3 AG Woohoo!

Broke the 3 hour mark!

Missed breaking the hour on the 10K by 6 seconds!

A nice 13:45 PR!

Coming in to the finish.

Always a happy time :)

Dave finishing.

Mary with a strong finish!

On the podium with Mary.

There was a 3rd place finisher but she hadn't come in yet.

Mike getting his 2nd place finish photo.

Happy to finish a good race.

Great day with friends.

My loot!