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May 14, 2006
CITY OF GOLD TRIATHLON REPORT
This is the third time I have participated in this event. The first year I did the running portion only, as we did it as a relay with some co-workers. Last year I did all three legs, and really enjoyed it. The course is beautiful, and the race organizers do a great job of making sure everyone has fun.
My pre-race routine consisted of staying up way too late again (this seems to be getting to be a habit), getting up at around 4:30 AM, and getting my gear together. Normally I have all my stuff together the night before, but that didn’t happen due to other social engagements.
A cup of coffee, a bagel with peanut butter, and a banana and I was pretty much ready to go. I arrived in Oroville about 6:00 AM, and drove the bike course, to make sure I knew where any hazards were. Going 40 miles an hour down a hill is no time to discover a new pothole in the Road!!!
Arrived at the race site about 6:30, got all my gear together, and set up my transition area. Checked out my bike, made sure I was in the correct gear for the hill we had to immediately climb, and mentally went through the transition process several times to make sure there would be no mishaps.
At around 7:30, got ready to put my wetsuit on. If you’ve never watched a triathlete get ready to swim, it’s pretty darned funny. First, we spend about an hour staring at all of our stuff, trying to mentally figure out the sequence of every step of our transitions, to make sure we do everything in the correct order. Then, when we get ready to put on the wetsuit we use a product called “body-glide�, which coats the skin with a slippery surface, to prevent chafing. Next, we pull out a can of spray PAM (yes, the non-stick cooking stuff) and apply that liberally to our necks, legs and arms. This helps keep the wetsuit from getting stuck when we are trying to get it off in a hurry.
Once the wetsuit was on, then I grabbed my goggles and swim cap, and headed down the ramp. I did a couple of 100 yards swims to warm up, and get acclimated to the water. The water felt to be in the high 60’s this year, which was much warmer than my previous experiences. The water felt good, and with my new wetsuit I was not cold at all.
The first wave was the men under 30, and then my group was second. Once the horn sounded, we were off in a pack. I started a little closer to the front this time than I normally do, but didn’t have any real problems with other swimmers crashing into me. Started off at a pretty quick pace, but after a few hundred yards the pack lengthened out, and I just set into a good swimming pace.
It always seems that the first buoy is the hardest – once I reached it, I knew that I was a third of the way there (and still swimming strong). I kept a good pace to the second buoy, and then headed back to the ramp. For some reason the last leg I had a real problem with staying on course, and veered into the shoreline a couple of times.
I got out of the water, headed up the ramp, the officials pulled of my tag with my race number and I headed up the ramp. I was able to get the top part of the wetsuit down while running up the ramp, found my bike in the transition area and started my first transition (T-1) just as I had practiced. Everything went really well here, and within probably less than 2 minutes I had my wetsuit off, my feet washed, socks, bike shoes, and helmet and sunglasses on.
Grabbed my bike and took off running towards the bike course – again, no problems mounting or getting up the hills. I realized once I headed up the hill that I had forgot to put a gel into my jersey. I told myself that I would just have to consume more accelerade then to make up for the lack of calories.
The bike ride went very well. I am still a little weak on the hills, and I had a couple of people pass me on some of the steeper ones – but as soon as we leveled off, I was able to retake them. I figure I probably passed about 15 people on the bike – which was a really incredible feeling, especially knowing that many of those were from the under 30-age bracket. The downhill stuff was incredible – I am now comfortable enough on my bike that speed does not scare me – and I was able to tuck into the aero position and let gravity pull me past the other riders.
The second transition (T-2) went just as well. They have not put up the split times on the changeofpace.com website yet, but I would be surprised if my time was more than about a minute and a half to change from biking to running.
I pushed really hard on the bike – I told myself early on that I wanted to push my limits a little this race. Once I got off the bike and started running, I was a little concerned that I may have pushed too hard. I had to do a lot of walking on the initial steep uphill portions, to try to keep my heart rate in check. This strategy worked, because I was able to recover pretty well, and once the course flattened out I was able to crank up the speed again. Overall, this was a pretty hard run for me – I had a combination of a side stitch (I haven’t had one of those in years) and an upset stomach (again, from a pretty hard bike ride I assume). I was able to pass probably 5 or 6 runners on the run, and was only passed by two people. Made it through the finish chute without incident, and they took my race number and gave me a finisher’s medal to add to my collection.
My finish time was one hour, 36 minutes. The overall winner finished in one hour, eight minutes, the last person came in at 3 hours and 4 minutes. I was the 98th person to cross the finish line, out of 204 finishers. I was able to cut 3 minutes off my time from last year, which I attribute most to my new wetsuit.
After the race, they had a great selection of food and drinks, and then a series of raffle prizes. One of my co-workers won a $50 gift certificate to Sierra Nevada, and I won a huge (4.6 lbs) bottle of Endurox Recovery Drink.
Posted by Dennis at May 14, 2006 03:52 PM
Comments
Sounds like the entire day went even better than planned! Nice time as well - especially two weeks after a century ride. What's next on the agenda - half an Iron-man in the future? Keep up the good work and let me know if you want a riding partner anytime.
Paul
Posted by: Paul at May 14, 2006 07:28 PM
Hi Paul,
Yes, the day went really well. I was just a little disappointed that I only had a 3 minute improvement over last year - but with doing both a marathon and a century in the last couple of months, I probably am not quite fully recovered yet. I guess anytime that you are a year older, and even a little faster, it is a good thing.
I toyed with the idea of a HIM this year, but I think I will put that off until next year. I may try to find an Olympic Distance to do in September/October time frame.
See you later,
Dennis
Posted by: Dennis at May 15, 2006 06:10 AM