Nautica Malibu Triathlon - Sunday 9/25/2005

I completed my first triathlon! We arrived at Zuma Sunday morning at 5:30am. I set up my transition area, applied the body glide, took a group photo with the rest of the Dney Tri Team and then walked around chatting with fellow teammates. I felt surprisingly calm even as I looked out at pretty big waves. We headed to the beach for 7:00am greeting by the race director then watched the elites head out at 7:15am. My wave wasn't until 8:00am so I went back to the transition area, did a shot of gu then headed back to the beach to contemplate going into the water for a warmup. At 7:50am I went into the water - damn it was cold! 59 degrees! Yikes. So I went in and dove under a few waves just to feel the water, feel the current, get used to the shock. Then back onto the beach to wait for the cannon to signal my start. I lined up toward the back of the pack and on the left. 8:00am - BOOM!! and here we go! I ran out to the water, there were people everywhere - nowhere to dolphin because I'd get kicked. Dolphined a couple of times, dove under some big ones and then finally had fairly calm water and started to swim. Rounded the first buoy quickly and came up to the second one pretty quickly, too. The third buoy seemed to take forever but once I rounded that it was time to turn back into shore. As I swam into shore I kept looking over my shoulder for a big wave to either ride in or dive under. Unfortunately when the big wave came I couldn't make up my mind about riding it in or diving under it and mother nature made the decision for me when that big, bad wave crested on top of my head and spun me around like the spin cycle of a washing machine. Finally, I managed to get my head out of the water for a giant breath and then started swimming again. I kind of caught a little wave that propelled me toward shore and I realized the water was shallow enough that I could start running. Except that I could barely feel my legs. Everything was pretty numb. Did I mention how cold the water was? Anyway, finally got out of the water and started shuffling through the sand. It's hard to run through sand when your body is numb and you've just swam a half mile. Somehow peeled my wetsuit off my body and got my cycling jersey on, then helmet and sunglasses, socks and shoes, got the bike off the rack and off I went. It sounds so fast as I write it but it took me 6 minutes. Nothing eventful happened on the bike - it just took forever. You know, rolling hills blah blah blah. People passing me constantly. Then finally, I'm back in the transition area racking the bike and taking off the helmet, then off I go again for the run. My goal was to complete the whole race in 2 hours 30 minutes. When I looked at my watch after the bike I realized I was really going to have to run hard to make it. Well the first mile felt like I was running on concrete pillars - everything ached and burned. But at the first mile marker I started hitting my stride and feeling comfortable. I passed tons of fellow Dney tri teamers and hearing "Go Team Dney!" as you pass them really spurred me on. At the 2 mile mark I checked the watch and realized I was going to have to run really fast to hit my time goal. I kicked into high gear and before I knew it I was nearing the finish line. The finish area was lined with people cheering and when I came through they started yelling "Go Dney" and that just made me sprint home. I crossed the finish line with a time of 2:28:19! My 4 mile run equaled 42 minutes - that's the fastest I've ever run 4 miles. It was awesome! I can't wait to do it again.
Goals for next year:
1) Shave 1 minute off the swim
2) Shave 2 minutes off T1
3) Shave 15 minutes off the bike
4) Shave 2 minutes off the run

That'll get me closer to 2:10 and then hopefully the following year I can beat 2:00.

More goals for next year:
Besides Nautica, 2 other triathlons.
LA Triathlon - maybe Olympic distance??

Fundraising note: I raised $1775.00 for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the Dney Tri Team together raised $168,000.00!!