Pacific Grove Tri
I competed in the Pacific Grove Triathlon, in Monterey Bay on Saturday the 13th of September. This was another triathlon that I competed in last year……I was 4th. Also this was the triathlon were we had to swim in kelp, aka. Large seaweed creating underground forests……thus makes it hard to swim normal and fast!
Ooooh, how I love swimming in kelp! Acutely, I really do because it favors the not-so-fast swimmers by slowing down the really fast ones. Sweet!
This Triathlon is part of the Tri California Series and is one of three races that will be added together at the last triathlon. Scott Tinley’s is the next on October 4th and then Treasure Island will be the last one on November 10th. www.tricalifornia.com
SWIM:
The swim was not so bad given the LARGE field competing (we decided amongst ourselves to not drown each other in the kelp….nice girls). There were 2 loops, and since we were last to go in this race in proved to be beneficial. All of the age-group racers (2,000 amateurs to be exact) went before us and I think they cleared up/tour-up most of the kelp. Because the day before it was much harder to swim and when it came time for us to race it was much easier than was to be expected. Sweet…again!
I led the first lap and this made is easier to maneuver around the kelp, but on the 2nd lap Annie Werner lead and I trailed on her feet. I wasn’t too worried. Although it was harder to swim on her feet because she kept bringing me through kept patches I hadn’t seen on the 1st lap (it probably was her secret plan).
T1: I came out of the water and into T1 in second place, and when I left transition I was in first. Compared to last year I came into transition in 2nd and left in 7th, I couldn’t get the stupid wet suit off…..noticing the tread in these last two races compared to last year!
BIKE:
We had 4 laps on an out and back, going out we went into a head-wind, coming back in with a tail-wind. Out of the 6 girls that started the race there were only 4 in our bike pack (Annie-6th last year, Alexis-2nd last year, and Becky). This is a good amount of girls. Despite the small field, we worked pretty hard. We would each take about 30sec+ pulls on the bike and then the person in the front would go to the back and draft until it was there turn to pull again. It worked quite nicely! Alexis thru in a few attacks for fun but she didn’t get away, we all came off the bike together.
T2: Not the greatest! The guys and girls were racked on the same rack and I had to move one of the guys bikes (Steve Sexton’s) out of the way. I was a little frustrated and came out of T2 in fourth; I lost only a few second…5ish.
RUN:
It was a 3 lap run, pretty much an out and back, except there was a tail wind going out and a massive head wind going back to the finish. I caught back up to the lead girl after about the first half mile and felt pretty good so kept right on going. Then I hit the turn-around and BAM! Massive-head-wind! I felt like I hit a brick wall…… Sweet…not so much! I got a little nervous at this point and was hoping I could hold on to the lead. Alexis started to come back on me after the second lap, but I knew everyone was going to be hurting going into the head-wind. Oh and did I mention there were 3 hills also into the head wind….even better. After the last turn-around going into the wind I saw that Alexis had not made up any time and knew she could not make up that much of a gap in the last mile.
I crossed the finish line in 1st! The second time this year! And made some travel money…SWEET!
An article form the race: http://www.tricalifornia.com/index.cfm/press_release_19.htm