The San Bernardino Tinman Triathlon is one of those races that all So-Cal triathletes talk about.
If you aren’t doing it, you know someone that’s doing it or you know someone that knows someone
that’s doing it, or whatever. This was a great follow-up to the UCI triathlon for Lucy, and
a nice relaxing race for me. An added bonus would be helping Lucy’s sister Paola through
her FIRST triathlon. It was definitely the perfect distance for a first triathlon. As with the
UCI race this was a reverse order race starting with a 5k run (though I am told by GPS-toting friends that it was more like 5.1k, 12 mile bike, and a short 100yard swim.

In any case, we finally arrived at the race site which was a bit of a drive from home. It had already started to get quite warm, and was sure to be a very hot race.
We gathered for a quick picture. You will notice that in this picture I am wearing swim jammers beneath the tri-shorts which was intended to prevent my tri shorts from getting
into the chlorine water. However, it was so hot, that I decided any extra clothes would
be a bad idea.

Lucy was very excited that she got her sister to do the race with her, and Paola looks pretty excited too.

This is a rare picture of me working on my own bike, even though it’s just inflating a tire.
Those of you that are regular viewers of the pictures may be more accustomed to seeing me
try to Mickey-Mouse some kind of elaborate mish-mash of parts onto a mountain bike… this is rare.

Paola was lucky to have Brian at the race to provide moral support and (sort-of) take pictures.
Though, when I found him, he was doing more “seeking shelter” than taking pictures.

The girls forced me to participate in their who can look stupidest in a pose contest. The good/bad news is that I think I won.

Brian did manage to get a good picture of Paola running off the start. I think at this
point, she was behind Lucy and I, but we waited for her around mile 1 and ran her in the
rest of the way. By that time, temps were approaching the 100’s, and we were happy to be
ready for the bike.

Now, here’s the part that there aren’t many pictures for.

After the run, things started to fall apart for us, and the entire rest of the field, actually.
I dumped some of our extra water (I always have a spare bottle in the transition) over my
head to cool off. It was seriously hot at this point, and I wish we had just come out
of the water so that we’d get a nice cooling effect on the bike. No such luck, however.
In any case, the water felt good, and kept me cool long enough for me to get enough sweat to
make up the difference. At this point, we had agreed to go our own pace, and I wanted to really push things on the bike.
Especially since I knew that I didn’t really have to save anything for only a 100yd. swim.

The girls set off at their own steady pace. I can’t really say what kind of pace they were
doing, but Lucy says that she was keeping things pretty fast. After a wind through the
parking area, and couple of miles we hit THE. HILL. This was, however, no ordinary hill.
It’s not the kind of hill that goes straight up, or really crests… just the kind that grinds out for a couple of miles and makes you wish you were dead.
The number I heard was 8% grade… I’m not really sure if that’s true. If it is, well, then
this would be considered a Cat. 1 climb. Whether Cat. 1 or 2, it was definitely tough and took
its share of victims. I passed one rider who was passed out and being helped by another
racer. I thought to stop and help, but there was really nothing that I could have done.
One advantage of doing the run slower is that I got to pass a lot of MTBers and weaker climbers.
Eventually I caught a pretty decent climber, and we talked a bit and worked together to get up the hill.
At the top of the hill there was a single man with a few cups of water. Luckily I brought
a bottle with me, and didn’t have to stop for that. It was pretty pathetic, actually, and I
feel bad for anyone who would have been relying on this support.

Of course, what goes up must come down, and descending is my favorite part of hills. None
of us really appreciated this climb until we realized how long and steep the descent was.
I have a simple math equation for you… 53×11. And it feels glorious. On the way down, I saw Paola heading up the hill. I now know that Lucy was somewhere near her, but I didn’t see her. Shortly after, I had to slow down to avoid the fire truck coming up the hill to help the wounded.

After the truck passed, I came across a very pesky man with a flat-bar roadie. This man had
determined that he was definitely faster than anything else on the road, and he was ready to
prove it. By this time, I had gotten back up to an nice downhill speed around 35mph, and thought it would be safe to pass him.
As I started to pass, he randomly decided to challenge. Simultaneously, we hit a hill.
Now, I don’t mind climbing, but I wouldn’t consider myself a particularly strong climber…
So, this was trouble. Seeing as he wasn’t in my AG, and I wasn’t anywhere close to being in
in contention for overall place, it didn’t really matter… But that doesn’t mean that I was
going to let this “flatbar” beat me. So, out of the saddle we came. We hit the top of the
hill pretty much together, but I was able to push over the top, and dropped him shortly
after. At this point, we hit the parking lot section again and had to weave around speed
bumps, and curbs and such. I thought I had seen the last of this guy, as I started to pass
some more riders in the insanity of the parking lot. It was definitely fun/annoying slipping
over curbs, and around all kinds of obstacles. I felt like I was in a messenger race.

Just as I was coming out of the parking lot, this guy came up and passed me on the right.
Now, I can take being passed, but not on the right! Right after his pass was a sweeping
left out of the parking lot. Now, if you know anything about bikes, you may know that Speedplay
likes to talk about how their pedals offer superior cornering performance. I thought to
test that out, as I noticed that he had regular BMX-style pedals. Consequently, he took the
corner quite wide. I was able to pedal through the corner and make a nice exit all on the
inside of him, and I finally dropped him once and for all.

There were a few rollers on the last section of the course, but nothing that really caused me to shift down too low.
I had some problems with cramping of my calves, and hamstrings. I’m pretty sure it’s
because I was only drinking water, and not enough. It was a very hot day, and I thought
that one bottle would be adequate. It wasn’t. I was riding past a nice older lady, and she
spun up a little bit… seemed like she wanted someone to talk to, so I slowed a bit, and
chatted with her about the miserable climb early in the ride, and how it had set us up
for a very tired last half. We also talked about how good the pool was going to feel in a
couple of miles. THE POOL!!! I had almost forgotten. With that, I said goodbye, and really
hammered it home, looking forward to that swim.

I got into T2 without incident, and even did a flying dismount, which I have been working on
for a while. (Though Lucy loves to give me crap about it.) I paused for a minute in T2, to
make sure that the cramping had calmed down before I jumped into the pool, since I knew
that wouldn’t really be much help to avoid the cramping. As I was running up to the pool, I
ran into my buddy Jason Lomheim. He was nice enough to cheer me on. With that, I jumped
in, and went for a nice relaxing swim. It really wasn’t long enough, and I wish I could
have stayed in the water longer. When I got out, I found Brian, and took the camera from
him.

Camera in-hand, I was now the official photographer. I managed to get a few pictures of Lucy riding in, but they weren’t very good.
The better pictures were of Lucy getting back into T2. Her story seemed to be pretty
similar to mine with respect to the monster-hill.

With that, she was off to the pool, and I was back to the course to try and get a picture of
Paola coming in on the bike. I got back to the Transition entrance just in time, and got
a nice picture…

After the race, I met up with Jason again, and he told me that he had won second place overall. That’s pretty amazing! Overall, it was a great race, and we definitely had fun.
All that was left was to pack the car, and be on our merry way.

Next up is the Camp Pendleton Sprint and our Century ride to San Diego!

Lucy had a great time at the Danskin Women’s Triathlon, which took place at Disneyland California Adventure. A this race, she was able to improve on her time from the Zot Trot considerable, posting a total race time of 01:16:22. This was much faster that Lucy’s first triathlon, even though the distance of this race was actually longer.

The official race start time was 6am. Swims started in waves of 100 athletes, spaced 3 minutes apart. With over 1,000 entrants, you can imagine how long this took. There were actually about 16 waves, although I don’t think that they all had 100 swimmers in them. There were still swimmers waiting to start when Lucy finished the swim at about 6:20. Lucy says that the water was not too warm, but also not “take your breath away cold.” She had originally planned on wearing a wetsuit, but a conversation with a woman at the start line made her think twice, and (with the help of an army of anonymous women) ditched the wetsuit just before her wave started.

Here’s a picture of Lucy’s wave lined up for the swim start. This was actually a boat ramp that is used to launch service boats into the lagoon. Lucy said the surface was pretty slimy and gross. The blue railing in the back is the launch area to the California Screamin’ roller coaster.

Chaos ensues as the wave gets started. There is a slight drop-off at the end of the boat ramp, so there were a lot of people pushing forward pretty hard to get a start. In actuality, the water was shallow enough to stand in. The lagoon drops off at some point further along to an eventual depth of 12′.

Lucy has found a nice place very early, and is making some space for herself. Nothing ever lasts for long in the water though…

Though the water was quite dirty, it really was quite a nice place for a swim. Water temp. at race time was reported to be 78ºF, and there’s a beautiful background of California Adventure.

I was very lucky to catch some pictures of Lucy actually in the water. She’s in the very center of this picture (click the image for a larger version). This is also the point at which a spectator said: “It’s like Titanic out there.” That’s my quote of the year.

It’s easy to get caught in traffic going around the buoys, but Lucy takes this turn nice and wide, and clears very nicely. She seems to have been in a good place in her wave, as there was not much traffic in front or behind her.

After rounding the buoy, Lucy seems to be settling back in, and showing some nice breathing, clearing the water quite nicely.

Lucy said to me after the race, “I didn’t know my shoes were going to get so wet.” I guess I never thought about it, because my bike shoes usually get the worst of this, but I can see now how that would be a problem. Note the balance and skill required for this type of sock application.

Helmet buckled and ready to head out of T1.

Coming in to T2 from the bike. This was a very confusing area for some ladies. Not sure why really. Lucy says there were volunteers sorting out those coming in to finish from those going for a second lap long before this area, but for some reason, this was a point of mass chaos. I should add that this area was VERY well marked with cones. Lucy didn’t seem to have any problems.

Lucy is all smiles as she turns the final corner into the finisher’s chute. She ran this race at a blazing 8:08/mi pace. That’s pretty fast after coming off of a bike. She said, “I felt like jelly.”

Still smiling, and having a great time as she strides in to the finish.

Lucy’s Mom was there with Ejiro to help cheer her on! Mom and Ejiro came with us at 5am to the race site. Considering it’s wasn’t even 8am when Lucy finished the race, I’d have to say that these are some dedicated fans! Thanks for coming, guys!

I had to get a picture with her, and her giant bottle of water. I’m very proud that Lucy posted such a great time, and showed so much more confidence this time out. As she said, she’s come such a long way. From not knowing how to swim, and being deathly afraid of the water to swimming in open water with a bunch of crazy old ladies… It’s really saying something. I’m proud to have her call me “coach”!

Lucy wanted to take one final picture with her prized water-bottle-trophy. They only gave these extra big ones out to the cute finishers!

Today marked a milestone for Lucy.  With two marathons under her belt, she set out to make one more notch in the endurance sports wall—triathlon.  So with that end in mind, we set out very early in the morning to UC Irvine to the Zot Trot triathlon.  This sprint tri featured a 5k run, 10 mile bike, and 250 yd. swim.

When we arrived at UCI, it was dark.

After checking in, Lucy took her bike to the transition area.  That’s the place you stash all the stuff you aren’t using, since you obviously can’t do all three sports at once.  There, she received the true mark of a triathlete—body markings.  (You can see in the second picture the other true mark of a triathlete, the knee-scar from a bike accident.)

At that point, it was time to pin-on the race numbers.  But first, Lucy had a key observation to share with me: “I match!” The ladies will appreciate this one…

Luckily, it was starting to warm-up, and just in time.  Time to wander over for the start of what Lucy called a very soggy 5k through grass and mud.  But, she didn’t know that yet… she’s happy and excited!

Lucy was clearly having a great time despite all the crap she allegedly had to run through.

I was able to capture this image seconds before she realized that this wasn’t water, but Accelerade.

Lucy kept up that signature smile on the bike… I forgot to tell her that you should keep your mouth closed to keep the bugs out.

After three loops of the bike course, she was back in T2…

After a quick change, she was off to the pool for the final leg of the race.

Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let us into the pool area to take pictures, but trust me when I say that it was amazing to see the display of human will to survive.  Lucy did great… put her head down and swam straight through.  But, we could really see that some people were more in “survival” mode than race mode.  Their mantra: Don’t Drown.  Luckily, she swam over the weak, and triumphed!

After the race, Paola and Ejiro offered their congratulations on a job well done!

And, finally, I was able to tell her how proud I am of her!  You are a triathlete!  Although, as I always say, there was always a triathlete inside of you… today you let it out.