This past weekend I drove 10hours down to Sacramento, just to race an Olympic! Why did I drive a total of 20hours just to do a race that was going to take 2 hours? Three reasons:
1- I love this sport!
2- I received a Comp entry from Gu as they were sponsoring the event
3-This is how the race directors described the race on their website (i bolded the important parts):
The Folsom Olympic Distance Triathlon will fill a void for the lack of Olympic Distance Triathlons in the State Capitol / Sacramento area. This event will attract racers from all over the State, but has become a staple in the Sacramento Area. Participants will range from the world's top elite triathletes to hundreds of age group and beginner triathletes each year. Athletes line up to attack one of the fastest International/Olympic Distance Triathlons in the USA. It is all about racing alongside the world's top professionals and celebrating at the finish line. Warm sun, great music, gourmet food, lavish awards and laughter are only to be found at FODT. Triathletes from all over the state will agree that the Folsom Olympic Distance Triathlon embodies everything that is great about the sport of triathlon. Triathletes and their families can come and enjoy all that Folsom has to offer from lodging and dining to entertainment and shopping
Um, wow these guys are really setting the bar pretty high for this race! I had to see it to believe it! :-)
It turns out, USA Productions did a pretty bang up job putting on the race. 387 athletes turned out for the race. The front of the field was stacked with dozens of elite amateurs ready to duke it out. Many of the fast swimming, strong Olympic Distance specialists from California showed up, not only to race for themselves but for the Club Championships that was going on. Post Race, they gave out a brand new BLUE road bike. And they gave out two new Blue Seventy wetsuits....awesome! Age group awards consisted of a free Safeway Grocery bag stocked with Medal, T-shirt, Wine (2006 Organic ), an 8-pack of GU Roctane! And Coffee Grinds!!! They also had all kinds of food post race and a Keg! They also gave a good deal off their website for rooms at the Marriott ($89.00/night and well worth it)
All in all I give USA Productions an "A". They would have gotten the "+" had they put a more detailed bike course map on the website! :-)
Swim- 24:48 (54th place)- Not sure what happened here. I was swimming hard. Nothing crazy happened like goggles popping off or anything. John Dahlz swam 18:57 but even he said it was a tad long. Regardless, I should be swimming 23:30 or lower. So i was a little disappointed. but its tough to measure an accurate swim course.
T1- 1:00 (11th place)- Actually put my shoes on in transition for this one since the bike mount line was 5 whole feet away from my transition space.
Bike- 1:00:43 (20th place)- This bike course is a little challenging. Lots of just short risers and rolling hills. There are two out and backs to take your momentum away a little. The one downside of the race was lack of detailed course map online. I turned the wrong direction twice in areas where volunteers weren't paying complete attention. This wasn't a problem obviously for the locals or returning competitors from previous years. I was within a minute or so of most of the top guys so I was pleased with the effort.
T2- :46 (9th place)- Would have been sub 40sec but struggled for some reason with my right shoe.
Run- 36:31 (2nd place, fastest out of top 20men)- I thought i had the fastest run split. But the 21yr old who took 24th place had a 20second faster run than me. Oh well, i still made this course my little playground on the day. The instruction from Ciav was to hold 6:30 pace for the first 5min and then turn on the jets after that. My run confidence has been sky high since running so well at Vineman. Not once did I question whether I was going to have a good run or not. I just knew I would kill it. When my watch said 5:00, I heard Ciav's voice in my head telling me to "GO" and i started ripping it! The course is a windy narrow bike path with little short risers all over to keep you honest. I felt very strong though and picked off quite a few top athletes on the run. When I got to a hill, I shortened my stride and increased my cadence and just pumped my way uphill. Once crested I really pushed and ran as fast as I could downhill. There is not a better feeling then when you are working hard but running fast at the end of a race. So many times I have felt like crap at the end of a race but I was still having to work hard just to run slow.
Final Time- 2:03:49. Good for 9th overall and 2nd in my Age group.
I crossed the line in 4th overall on the course. However, I had no idea what was taking place in the older waves behind me. Turns out two 48 year olds and one 45 year old went 1:58, 2:02 & 1:59 respectively! What the crap??!! Those guys ripped it in the swim. ripped it again on the bike and just had to run strong on the run. Pretty impressive.
Major props to PacWest Athletics Tri Club. They won the Club competition and had 6 or 7 athletes in the top ten. They are a seriously competitive Tri Club and would be curious to see how they stack up against some of the bigger clubs in San Diego, LA or Tri-Fusion in Spokane.
