California International Triathlon - Race Report

Yesterday was the California International Triathlon in Pleasanotn and I survived! Yay!

This was my first time doing this distance since the Silicon Valley International Triathlon in June of 2008. Long story short, I did this one 30 minutes slower than that one. But, 3 years ago was a different Jill.

A couple friends and I decided to stay in Pleasanton the night before since it was a 7am start. We went to packet pick up, browsed some cool shops in downtown Pleasanton, and ate at a super yummy Italian restaurant. One of these days I will do a race with proper nutrition the night before. This...was not that race.

The hotel was nice, except for the swarms of little kids in town for some sort of soccer tournament. Our room faced the pool and at 10:15 at night there was cackling, and hooting, hollering and the sounds of teenagers having fun. Yuck. I got upset and said, "They are in the pool past pool hours. This is not ok." My friend Diane called the front desk, "Excuse me, what time does the pool close? oh...11pm. Thank you." So, I got off my high horse and waited patiently for 11pm.

I will skip all the boring stuff about waking up, setting up transition, blah blah blah. Let's get to the race.

Swim: 36 minutes the swim was ok. The water was warm. My shoulders seem sore during the swim and I am wondering if it is time to switch to a sleeveless wetsuit. There were parts of the swim that got congested. At one point I felt someone grab on to my middle toe and deliberately pull it hard. What the heck? I kicked hard as if saying, "Not cool bro. Not cool." Or would it be, "not cool sis?"

Bike:1:41 minutes The bike was a little chilly with only a sleeveless bike jersey. There was a long annoying hill, and some sketchy parts of the road with glass and other fun flat-tire causing debris. I kept playing the "you pass me, I pass you" game with this one annoying cyclist. At one point I yelled on your left and as I was shoulder to shoulder with him he hammered on his pedals to go faster. Not cool bro. So I backed off, put my hand out in front of me and barked at him, "FINE! GO THEN!" And then I may or may not have mumbled some swear words. Sometimes I think the men don't like being passed by a pink bike.
I think I could have done the bike faster. I think going forward I will only have a garmin during the bike portion (past few races I have been technology free) as I think I can maintain a faster MPH.

Run: 1:14 OK...a slow 10k. But, I am a little out of practice running 6 miles after 25 mile bike. The run was hard. There were some hills, it got hot, and they did not mark any miles except mile 1. But, for the first time in a long time on a run I was enjoying myself. I mean, I was in pain, definitely need new shoes, and was drooling over a massage I booked for the following night. But I felt good (ish).

Overall time was 3:37. I am totally fine with it considering I haven't been religiously training. And, I think I kinda have a crush on International distances. They are just more interesting than sprints.