Started with an early wake-up (4:20 am), a bowl of oatmeal, picking up teammates, and a 90 minute drive to Sacramento. I'd been mentally prepared for cold water temps at the race, but I was not ready for cold air! When we arrived at the race site, it was low 50s, with the mostly Californian-born spectators wearing winter coats with hats and gloves. At this point, I was much more worried about freezing on the bike than during the swim.
Didn't have as much time as I'd like to mentally prepare and visualize on my own before the race. And no warm up. Got there plenty early but registration took forever. This is probably the biggest thing I'm hoping to do differently next week.
Getting into the water wasn't as bad as expected. Tough on my hands, feet, and face, but the wetsuit definitely did it's job keeping everything else warm. I felt pretty good about my swim. I felt like I got into a nice rhythm, had plenty of space, and sighted well. My split turned out to be pretty average for me - disappointing since I've improved so much (and spent so much time) in the pool. I know we were swimming against the current for most of the swim, hopefully that's the difference.
The bike course was an absolute dream. Completely flat. Felt like going downhill in both directions. Not much to say here other than I think I could have gone a bit faster. This is always a part of the race I struggle with mentally/strategically in the sprint distance. Over 70.3, the goal is clear - go as fast as possible while staying comfortable. In sprints I want to really push but am afraid of spiking my heart rate before the run. Something to play with next weekend.
The run was really fun for me. Didn't look at my watch once. For about the first 1200 meters I was just trying to keep my legs moving and get into a rhythm, get the legs switched over from biking to running. Wasn't totally in the race mentally. Then I ran past one of our coaches and he pointed at two guys ahead of me and yelled, "stay relaxed, pick those guys off slowly, one at a time!" And that was all I needed to get locked in. At the turnaround I realized my buddy Andrew was within catching distance and made a big push to get up with him. We ended up finishing 13th, 14th (3rd and 4th on the team) which was really fun.
Full results: http://results.active.com/events/uc-davis-aggieathlon
Overall thoughts on the day:
- It was incredible to be at a race as part of a team. To have teammates and coaches cheering us on. To have people yell "go Cal" as we went by. Really exhilarating.
- The sportsmanship between teams was great. I was expecting a little bit of anomosity (especially from Stanford), but it was like any other race I've been at - everyone cheered for everyone. This is something I think is unique and really special about the triathlon community. There's so much mutual respect and support.
- Cannot wait to race again next week!
Finally, a big thanks to Kevin Karr for shoutouts on his premier blog and twitter feed this week. If you haven't already, check this guy out at boston2boulder2015.blogspot.com
Congrats on a great first collegiate event! Sounds like you really had fun and all that training is paying off. Can't wait to see how next week goes. Oh and I'm definitely going to check out that Kevin Karr guy's blog.
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