7:40am (ish) jump -- 38:39 to St Francis Yacht Club beach 3.5 knot ebb tide.
With Waterworld Swim. 26 people - a few with no wetsuits
We met at Hyde Street Pier at 6:45 - 7:15am. Had a detailed briefing and then headed down the dock to the Dauntless. I used my windshield wipers on the drive over.. heavy mist? light rain? didn't matter, because the solution was the same.. turn on the wipers even though it's the middle of summer. Dog days??? I'd call the weather we've been having a "huskie's delight". Brrrr. But the good news is that the water is slightly warmer than the air.
We approached Alcatraz by 7:35 or so, and quickly filed through the ladder and jumped in to the Bay. The water was rough, sky was gray but visibility was great.. We headed towards the Fontana Towers.. then Fort Mason, then the Palace of Fine Arts Theater near the Exploratorium. I ended up sort of staying with a few people. I breast stroked, I back stroked and I free styled. The Ebb Tide seemed pretty darned strong, and once I passed the "A" bouy, I stopped trying to stay with anyone else, put my head down and swam for the beach. It seemed to take a long time to get there, and seemed to take a great effort.. but once I was on the beach, I felt great.. we all stood around comparing notes before swimming back to the Dauntless. Getting in the water the second time was kind of hard.. even though it was a very short distance to the boat.. we picked up the rest of the swimmers and headed back to the Hyde Street Pier. On the way back, I got very cold.. I, once again, didn't really bring the right clothes.. I Should have brought 2 towels, (one for the bay water and one for the hot shower after reaching shore), and an extra set of really warm pants and shirt and hat... live and learn!
All in all, a fun and safe crossing on a screaming ebb tide.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
Santa Cruz Sprint Triathlon August 8, 2010
750 yd S / 12 mile B / 5k R
1:19:07 #1/8 F55-59 | #19/135 F overall | #113/389 overall
The drive to Santa Cruz on Saturday afternoon was long.. lots of afternoon traffic, but we arrived by about 4:00pm. We tried to drive to Depot Park to check in to the race.. but soon realized that that would be impossible.. the traffic was simply not moving. We parked, pulled the bikes off the car and road to check-in. This was the fastest check -in ever.. no waiting, no mistakes, all good.. I think it took about 30 seconds total. Then we went over to our friend's house off of King Street where we stayed for the night. I had planned to go in the ocean and play in the waves.. but it was frankly too cold and foggy and windy to sound appealing. Even though, there were PLENTY of folks surfing, boogie boarding and SUPing all along the shore. We went for a bike ride instead.. just an easy ride up and down the coast and to the race venue (practice route for the morning). We did, however, end up getting lost on the way back to the house.. had to stop at one of the hotels for a map -- which, by the way proved to be a VERY good idea!!!
Dinner was at Avanti on Mission. Great restaurant! great food! we walked in and were able to sit at the bar after a 2 minute wait.. just perfect.
After 8 hours of an incredibly deep sleep, I got up, had coffee, oatmeal, banana, hammer gel, race caps, vitamins and protein powder before getting on my bike to ride to Depot Park.. It took about 8 minutes to get there.
The USAT rules are strict in this race.. assigned spots for racking your bike, specific way to hang bike, etc, etc. The space reserved for the people with numbers close to mine had been freshly watered by the automatic sprinkler system. As I looked down at the ground, assessing just how wet it actually was, I noticed bits of glass... yes.. broken glass in the area where I had just rolled my bike. Not good. I picked up as much as I could, cleaned off my tires and moved my bike to the other side of the rack. I later had to move my bike back to my rack space.. or face a DQ.... The race organizers cleaned up as much glass as possible and provided a USAT "mat" for my bike wheel.. thankfully!
Our wave was the last of 4, so we all have ample time to see what the current did to the prior swimmers.. it was a long shore current pulling people to the left of the first turn buoy. When our wave went off, I started at the right of the crowd, and headed to the right of the first turn, then powered up to the second turn. It was fantastic to not have anyone around me.. a clear clean shot. At about 3/4 of the way to the second turn, another Blue Cap swimmer from my wave joined me, I followed around the turn and into shore. After a short run up the beach, I took my wetsuit off at the usual concrete step near the sand, and kept running to Depot Park. The first bike loop was great, fast and without incident. I had an Espresso Hammer Gel at about mile 3, some sips of Heed during the rest of the ride. Second loop went quickly, then down the hill back to Depot Park and back out for the run. I didn't know if anyone in my age group was ahead of me or not, I just put the hammer down and did my best. I ended up coming in about 13 minutes ahead of the second person in my age group.. woo hoo!
Another great race!
1:19:07 #1/8 F55-59 | #19/135 F overall | #113/389 overall
The drive to Santa Cruz on Saturday afternoon was long.. lots of afternoon traffic, but we arrived by about 4:00pm. We tried to drive to Depot Park to check in to the race.. but soon realized that that would be impossible.. the traffic was simply not moving. We parked, pulled the bikes off the car and road to check-in. This was the fastest check -in ever.. no waiting, no mistakes, all good.. I think it took about 30 seconds total. Then we went over to our friend's house off of King Street where we stayed for the night. I had planned to go in the ocean and play in the waves.. but it was frankly too cold and foggy and windy to sound appealing. Even though, there were PLENTY of folks surfing, boogie boarding and SUPing all along the shore. We went for a bike ride instead.. just an easy ride up and down the coast and to the race venue (practice route for the morning). We did, however, end up getting lost on the way back to the house.. had to stop at one of the hotels for a map -- which, by the way proved to be a VERY good idea!!!
Dinner was at Avanti on Mission. Great restaurant! great food! we walked in and were able to sit at the bar after a 2 minute wait.. just perfect.
After 8 hours of an incredibly deep sleep, I got up, had coffee, oatmeal, banana, hammer gel, race caps, vitamins and protein powder before getting on my bike to ride to Depot Park.. It took about 8 minutes to get there.
The USAT rules are strict in this race.. assigned spots for racking your bike, specific way to hang bike, etc, etc. The space reserved for the people with numbers close to mine had been freshly watered by the automatic sprinkler system. As I looked down at the ground, assessing just how wet it actually was, I noticed bits of glass... yes.. broken glass in the area where I had just rolled my bike. Not good. I picked up as much as I could, cleaned off my tires and moved my bike to the other side of the rack. I later had to move my bike back to my rack space.. or face a DQ.... The race organizers cleaned up as much glass as possible and provided a USAT "mat" for my bike wheel.. thankfully!
Our wave was the last of 4, so we all have ample time to see what the current did to the prior swimmers.. it was a long shore current pulling people to the left of the first turn buoy. When our wave went off, I started at the right of the crowd, and headed to the right of the first turn, then powered up to the second turn. It was fantastic to not have anyone around me.. a clear clean shot. At about 3/4 of the way to the second turn, another Blue Cap swimmer from my wave joined me, I followed around the turn and into shore. After a short run up the beach, I took my wetsuit off at the usual concrete step near the sand, and kept running to Depot Park. The first bike loop was great, fast and without incident. I had an Espresso Hammer Gel at about mile 3, some sips of Heed during the rest of the ride. Second loop went quickly, then down the hill back to Depot Park and back out for the run. I didn't know if anyone in my age group was ahead of me or not, I just put the hammer down and did my best. I ended up coming in about 13 minutes ahead of the second person in my age group.. woo hoo!
Another great race!
Sunday, August 1, 2010
VINEMAN HALF AQUABIKE July 31, 2010
1.2 mile Swim, 56 mile Bike
#1/5 F (55-59) / #12/89 F / #45/166 Overall
Alarm set for 4:45am -- up and out of the house by 5:40am - I arrived to Johnson Beach, Russian River by 7:00am... this was a far cry from the LONG drive up on Friday to check into the race. I live only 50 miles away from Santa Rosa, but the traffic on Friday afternoons is almost always heavy. Once I arrived to the check in at Windsor High School, it didn't take long to go through the lines and pick up my race numbers and chip.
Okay, back at the river in the AM. The Half AquaBike racers had a designated spot in the transition area.. there were spots for the Full Ironman, the Full AquaBike the Vineman Relay and Barb's Race. I didn't really know who I was racing against for most of the race.. I finally figured out that (maybe) the Half Aqua Bike racers all had red race numbers... but that was late in the bike race.
The swim felt long, the water was somewhere in the low 70's, so I just wore my Xterra Speedsuit over my Hammernutrition singlet and De Soto shorts. It was a water start, I didn't hear a countdown... when the gun went off, I was behind the starting line.. I jumped into the chaos of a start which included 166 men and women of all ages swimming up a narrow river. Parts of the river were so shallow that many of us got up and ran in the water. I did a fair amount of this - which made my ankle strap holding the chip get loose. So, instead of taking the risk of losing the chip, I took it off and stuffed it in the top of my speedsuit. The swim seemed endless, but finally I reached the turn around buoy, the swim back to the transition area went quickly.. maybe there was a little current.. I'm not sure. In any case, my swim was 37 minutes... not a fast time for me, but I thought I could make up time on the bike. The bike ride was great -- very cool, rolling terrain, only one major hill - Chalk Hill - near the end. At about mile 42, a red - numbered woman from Chico Tri passed me.. I thought that she was in my age group.. but as it turned out, she wasn't. I chased her anyway for the last 14 miles. At the end of the race, there was a spot for us to rack our bikes, but there really wasn't much information about post race food or about how and where to pick up our swim bags (which had been transported from the river to the high school). I saw someone eating, asked her where she found the food - by the food, our bags were being unloaded from a truck by volunteers.. so everything was good.. for the moment.
The Half Aqua Bike awards were scheduled for 1:30 pm -- I finished the race before noon, the race results were expected to be available by about 12:30 or so. I really didn't know where I placed, it was so hard to tell who was racing who, with so many events going on all at once. I waited patiently by the timing tent, for what turned out to be 45 minutes to an hour. There was a problem with the wireless connection or something.. but the timing folks were not able to give anyone any results at all. As 1:30pm approached, I gave up on hanging around. I don't know when the awards actually happened, but I did find out later that I won my age-group. Yahoo!
#1/5 F (55-59) / #12/89 F / #45/166 Overall
Alarm set for 4:45am -- up and out of the house by 5:40am - I arrived to Johnson Beach, Russian River by 7:00am... this was a far cry from the LONG drive up on Friday to check into the race. I live only 50 miles away from Santa Rosa, but the traffic on Friday afternoons is almost always heavy. Once I arrived to the check in at Windsor High School, it didn't take long to go through the lines and pick up my race numbers and chip.
Okay, back at the river in the AM. The Half AquaBike racers had a designated spot in the transition area.. there were spots for the Full Ironman, the Full AquaBike the Vineman Relay and Barb's Race. I didn't really know who I was racing against for most of the race.. I finally figured out that (maybe) the Half Aqua Bike racers all had red race numbers... but that was late in the bike race.
The swim felt long, the water was somewhere in the low 70's, so I just wore my Xterra Speedsuit over my Hammernutrition singlet and De Soto shorts. It was a water start, I didn't hear a countdown... when the gun went off, I was behind the starting line.. I jumped into the chaos of a start which included 166 men and women of all ages swimming up a narrow river. Parts of the river were so shallow that many of us got up and ran in the water. I did a fair amount of this - which made my ankle strap holding the chip get loose. So, instead of taking the risk of losing the chip, I took it off and stuffed it in the top of my speedsuit. The swim seemed endless, but finally I reached the turn around buoy, the swim back to the transition area went quickly.. maybe there was a little current.. I'm not sure. In any case, my swim was 37 minutes... not a fast time for me, but I thought I could make up time on the bike. The bike ride was great -- very cool, rolling terrain, only one major hill - Chalk Hill - near the end. At about mile 42, a red - numbered woman from Chico Tri passed me.. I thought that she was in my age group.. but as it turned out, she wasn't. I chased her anyway for the last 14 miles. At the end of the race, there was a spot for us to rack our bikes, but there really wasn't much information about post race food or about how and where to pick up our swim bags (which had been transported from the river to the high school). I saw someone eating, asked her where she found the food - by the food, our bags were being unloaded from a truck by volunteers.. so everything was good.. for the moment.
The Half Aqua Bike awards were scheduled for 1:30 pm -- I finished the race before noon, the race results were expected to be available by about 12:30 or so. I really didn't know where I placed, it was so hard to tell who was racing who, with so many events going on all at once. I waited patiently by the timing tent, for what turned out to be 45 minutes to an hour. There was a problem with the wireless connection or something.. but the timing folks were not able to give anyone any results at all. As 1:30pm approached, I gave up on hanging around. I don't know when the awards actually happened, but I did find out later that I won my age-group. Yahoo!
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