The tri season ended today with Santa Cruz triathlon. I missed to report the Folsom triathlon that happened a month ago, and which was a great race! I got my PR at Folsom with 02:22:xx. With little over a month to go I was still unsure about Santa Cruz International. I finally registered for the race one week before. My training was going well, but hadn't improved beyond Folsom. I wanted to aim for 02:20:xx, but didn't feel very confident about achieving it.
The morning was slightly chilly, but the very familiar enthusiasm and excitement was in the air. I parked the car in the parking space of a surf shop ($10), used their restroom, and walked to the transition area. The transition area was a chaos. The layout of the bike racks was random, and the space was super congested. Some rows were so close to each other that there was barely any space to move in and out. I found a spot near the "run out". After setting up my gear, I ran the drill in my mind making sure I had everything I needed. On the way to the beach, I reviewed all the entries and exits just so I wouldn't have to think during the race. The walk to the swim start was ~0.5 miles from the transition area --part of it being on the beach, and so was not as frustrating as walking with bare feet on the pavement. The ocean was blanketed with a cloak of mist which prevented the race from starting that the scheduled time of 8 am. Apparently, the life guards assess the weather conditions and give a green light when they think its safe to swim, i.e. when the swimmers can clearly the buoys and the lifeguards can see the swimmers. So finally after 40 min of wait, which actually seemed surprisingly short, the first swim wave was flagged off. I waited patiently for my wave start watching the swimmers from the previous waves as they plodded their way to the first buoy. Even the 5 minutes wait between waves seemed much longer now.
I positioned myself on the extreme right of the pack as we ran into the ocean. I dashed hard with high knees until the water was deep enough, and dived into the water over a small wave riding towards the beach. I wanted to sprint for the first 50 meters or so, but in hindsight, I don't think I quite did. But soon enough I settled into a nice relaxed and long stroke. I first buoy came very soon, and then the second. The stretch from the second buoy to the exit felt a bit long. Overall, the swim was uneventful except for a few swigs of salt water. It was extremely hard to spot the swim exit. There was not prominent sign, not even a buoy at the exit point, which made it impossible to track yourself. The best I could do was to follow the swimmers in front of me. Anyhow, once I was out of the water, there was a long transition run form the swim exit to the bike. I was a bit disoriented upon entering the transition area, and had to take a few seconds of detour, which was not a big deal. I had already peeled my wetsuit down the waist, so pulling off the rest of it was quick. I put on socks, helmet and shades, and was off on the bike. I strapped the shoes after mounting the bike, which worked out quite well. The bike leg started off pretty well. I was feeling strong and was looking forward to pushing on the bike a bit. And then suddenly the first hill hit. "No biggie", I thought to myself. This must be the only hill, and once I am past it, it will be a nice flat course. Ofcourse I was wrong. The whole course was quite challenging with hills and long patches with gentle climbs. The race description said the course was challenging and I should I believed them instead of by buddy, who is pretty strong on the bike. But again, I think I believed what I wanted to believe, and I wanted to believe that the bike leg would be flat and easy. Well, unfortunately that wasn't the case, and it definitely took its toll on my legs. Although I did 01:12:xx on the bike, I think I could have been 2-3 min faster if I had prepared for hills. The bike dismount was a fail. As badly organized as the race was, there was no one to tell that bike dismount point was approaching. I didn't get enough time to take my shoes off, so ended up doing the amateur dismount and then taking off the shoes later.
The run was fun but boring. The fun par was running the race itself, but everything else was boring. The whole run route was paved -- I hate running on concrete -- and not properly marked. There were a ton of casual weekend runners, joggers and bikers who were getting in the way all the time. Worst of all, the 10K run route had only 2 water stations, with the first water station at mile 2. I was already a bit dehydrated after the bike and was hoping to hit the non-existent water station at mile 1. The second water station was that the turn around. The run was very flat, with no ups and downs, which is how I usually like it, so that you can hammer it on the tiny down hills. Fortunately, the run was cramp-free and I was able to finish strong in 00:44:xx. Yet, I wasn't entirely happy with my run. I could have gone atleast a couple of minutes faster if I had properly hydrated myself before the run.
Overall, it was a fun race, but the organization was very poor considering that fact that they have been running this event for over 10 years. One would think that they now know everything that can go wrong, but apparently they haven't learned yet. Although I had lots of fun, I don't think I will do this race again next year... or maybe I will, to beat this year's time.
Overall result:
Swim: 00:25:03, Rank: 71/781
T1: 00:02:52
Bike: 01:12:15, Rank: 198/781
T2: 00:01:01
Run: 00:44:08, Rank: 86/781
Overall: 02:25:19, Rank: 89/781
Age-group Rank: 16/60
It was a an amazing triathlon season starting with Wildflower in May and ending with Santa Cruz. A performance analysis for the season coming up soon... Cheers!!!
