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!