UCSB Triathlon 2009
March 30, 2009
The UCSB presented an exciting olympic distance triathlon to start the season. This was their first olympic because they were hosting the West Coast Collegiate Triathlon Conference with Cal, Long Beach, Cal-Poly, San Diego, UCLA, USC, Stanford et al competing. The fastest collegiate time was 1:57 with two others close behind drawing sub 2 hour times. The event this time was divided into two separate races, Collegiate and Open.
The race started on time beneath cloud cover and cool conditions, the sun came out during the bike and back in again during the run. I was thinking the temperature would provide a small delta with the ocean temp of about 56 degrees, but I heard varying reports about the swim leg. Kyle Visin said the water was fine but when he came off the swim climbing the stairs a collegiate coed jammed him into the rails and broke blood. That brought fire to his engine to smoke the surprisingly hilly bike run and finish off with a blazing 37min 10k. Kyle was the first one of our club members to cross the finish line at 2:11:08, first in his age group 25-29! Matt Trost was the second club member to come in at a 2:25:01 and second in his age group 40-44. He said the water was warmer and calmer than expected, but the run was tough. More bricks in Matt’s future. Andrew Riley was third to come in with a very fast 2:31:00 with a third in his age group 40-44. Andrea Stouffer came in with a blazing 2:41:21and another tri club first for her age group 40-45. Andrea said the course was tough but showed love for Irwin’s timely gift of a thick wetsuit and booties. I saw her beautiful etched glass trophy given to all first place winners. Next up was Crissy Faulding with a 2:41:41and placed 32nd in the collegiate. I noticed her SB Tri top and Cal-Poly shorts so I decided to claim her as one of ours, she approved. Jerrett McFarland came in with his personal record of 2:49:59 with a 5th in his age group 45-49. Greg Russellsaid the water was soo cold that he never warmed up. He was shivering at the tri club table but came in with a nice 3:03:25and 15th in age group 30-34. I mentioned to him the people who had no problem with the ocean temp wore full wetsuits, booties and neoprene caps. Our third tri club first place winner was Fred the thin man Kass. I didn’t recognize him coming off the bike, he is lean, mean and ready for podiums all year with a 3:10:48. No one was even close to him in his age group. Andrew Duncan flatted his tire but not his heart and still came in at 3:19:09. Special kudos to Andrew for keeping on!
Special thanks to our SB Tri Club volunteers Craig Adams, Josh Shultz and Karen Egerman. They reported a few cases of carnage on the sharp left turn at the Goleta beach bridge. It was slippery and hard to hold grip with some ended up by the poles, however, only one ended up with a short paramedic visit. Ricky Hobrought the SB Tri Club table and banner. The sponsor that was to bring the water for the race didn’t show up so Ricky volunteered our ice chest full of fluids. He was popular.
I was talking to John the UCSB coordinator for the UCSB tri and he said they will be starting a “nite moves” type event the second week of May for the whole summer. It will take place at Campus Point (the tri swim start) with a swim to the stairs and then a 5K run around the lagoon every Friday evening. It will be called Surf and Turf. With Reef and Run, Nite Moves and Surf and Turf we have our Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays covered.
Can we include that in?
I did get an E-mail race results from Taj:
Thanks Sandy, should I also include in the stats how much we had to drink the day before?
International Triathlon – 3/4 mile swim, 24 mile bike, 6 mile run – weird distance, not quite Olympic.
| TAJ HUDSON | 37 | 20th overall, 6th in AG, | 01:59:19 Total | swim 18:22 | bike 59:17 | run 37:51 |
| JAYNA JONES | 31 | 8th in AG | 2:23:40 | Total | swim 22:45 | bike 1:13:45 | run 42:35 |
That is all from me for now. This is my first attempt to do these results and I apologize now for any and all mistakes; in some cases I relied on the kindness of strangers. Dave Groom volunteered me because I like to surf the Internet just short of getting fired at work. But I’m not good at cut, paste, excel, blogs and databases plus I’m a bit dyslexic from the 60’s and have a bad case of CRS. I guess I can’t blame the age card because Vic Birtalan did a superb job during his watch. As in racing I will always be a good distance behind Vic.
Sandy
Ironman Arizona….The Dave Parker Story!!!
March 2, 2009
Ironman
Personally felt pretty good till a week prior and I think the dust from T-fire initiated enough to get a sinus infection so that by Thursday morning my feet hit the floor in the morning and I got up and told Jake I was going to find a doctor, did, and got some antibiotics. By race morning I thought if I make it out of the water I should be OK.
The venue was pretty cool because of the proximity to ASU and the area itself. The swim venue had brown water and you can’t see your hand extended or people around so I think it was a bit easier to hit and be hit by others or I even nicked a kayak and grazed one of the bridge footings towards the end. The swim was a single loop out and back and it was in fairly flat and calm towards the sun rise and back to bridge. I did it a buoy at a time and started with a cough drop between my cheek and gums.
I got out of the water with the masses and the tent was too small and although they said they turned back volunteers, the tents needed more.
The bike course of three loops were out and back with a long slight up then back. The winds were favorable on the return and I was glad I rented race wheels and bought a new cog set with an 11 toother and I used it a lot with a lot of long rides in tuck it was well supported with a lot of theme aid stations. Four sinus pills and eight cough drops in the special needs bag.
The transition zone had people standing looking for something to do, but were not as helpful as other races. I really appreciate Gonzo in Kona more so now. A little motivation when you just want to lay down and nap is great.
The run had some modifications from previous races there. The run was a modified figure eight around the local parks surrounding the swim lake. Outside of bridge crossings most of it is on park grounds and a lot of it was cement sidewalk. I lasted well through six, after 10 it was power walks mixed in when legs cramped and the last 5 went well. It never got too hot, and in the loop to get a cheer from family and Josh, Karen, Craig was cool. It was also cool to get passed by Pro’s and get a good feel for the differences. Weather never got too hot, or cold before I got off, but I did get chilled later. Two sinus pills and four cough drops in the special needs bag, didn’t use all I put in bags, but the cough drops may be a keeper. I had a voice that evening and not the usual sore throat the next day
High points: Bike course is fast, run I pretty flat. For family and friends the “hot spots“ were easy to get too and see.
Low points:
Color of water
Transition help was undermanned or untrained. All but 1 Aid stations on run were blasting music or had some yahoo on a microphone so you could not here what the volunteers were yelling and I stopped or stepped back a couple of times to get what I needed.
Also 10 hours in, 2 aid stations ran out of Vaseline
They made a good decision to move this race to November the weather and winds were favorable. I would definitely recommend this for a first over Silverman after talking with Andrew.