Run for the border

Imperial Beach Triathlon

So you basically drive down the 5 south till, oh, the border. Take a right and go to the beach. Ta da! Imperial Beach! Now Tijuana is renowned for their pristine water - or sewage spills, so I'm glad that fence along the border keeps all the bad bugs out. I checked in for the race on Sat and immediately hear rumors that the swim could be cancelled due to bacteria counts being too high. Sweet! The race directors run a good race and wouldn't put us in harms way, so I would just have to take their word on the water quality. Personally I suck at beach entries/exits so I'm not sure that I would be too upset if the swim were to be cancelled. But alas.. it the water was fine and the swim would go on.

But it sucked in any case. I haven't seen the splits yet, but I'm sure it wasn't pretty. Just as my little toes hit semi-dry sand and stopped ('cause I was just about walking at that point), stripped out of my wetsuit and then ran into T1. One of my goals was to quicken up my transitions, so I'm glad I ran right past my bike in T1. I've always known that swimming provides me serious oxygen debt in the pool, but now I get an open water-demo of oxygen-debt-brain-loss. Goody!

Once on the bike things start to look good and blood once again returns to the gray-matter. The bike felt pretty good, even while viewing the Mexican houses on the other side of the hill.

Then comes the run. It always hurts, no matter how good you think you feel. I guess that's part of the "fun"... one day it won't hurt! Only a 5K run, but with an average heart rate of 188 on the run, at least I can say I gave her a good old fashion try! It wasn't quite as fast as I would have liked, not bad, but I was hoping for a little better, and not quite fast enough the close the gap to first on such a short distance.

I have to say, I'll take 2nd! If I counted correctly, I was 5th overall. I can't wait for a lake swim again!

After the race I was standing by the score board and I hear "damn, he beat me again!" from somewhere next to me. It just got me thinking - that's what brings us coming back... for yet another pain fest. That feeling that you can do better next time, it's like crack...

Next crack... Nationals..... wish me luck, I'll need it!

Happy riding!
Raja

Bella grooves & moves

OK, so this is the first time I've had 20 unread emails in my email box! Haven't written much and already blew my rule of thumb when it comes to writing race reports... write them within the first couple days after racing to get the full effect. Oh well!

This morning I attended a meeting of new Velo Bella triathlete getting ready for the US Women's Triathlon series triathlon in October and it was so great to see so many new faces! Triathlon seems formidable at first, but then after you do your first race you realize it's a ton of fun and the sense of accomplishment when you finish will get you signed up for your next!

Since the Mouse Attack, I've been to Coeur D'Alene to watch Bella Stacy Dietrich (left) and my husband Dave McMahon (right) race at Ironman CDA. Dave came in at a fantastic 10:40ish, taking 20 minutes off his Ironman Canada time (even with a swim disaster!), and Stacy finished in an astonishing 11:28 and was sporting a HUGE smile the entire time... sick!

Then I went to Napa for my girlfriend Leticia's wedding... ahhh.. a beautiful bride and fine glass of wine are always a good thing.

Since I had been away for the previous few weeks, what's 2 more!.... Back to living in a hotel for a couple of weeks as part of training for work. Get up early, run, shower, change for work, work training from 7:30-5:30, then back to the hotel, change and jump on the trainer for a couple of hours.. or zip off to the pool for a swim. Luckily my work partner (Stacy D. above) is also a tri-geek bella so my cohorts were already prepared for the equipment I moved into my hotel room.. bikes, trainers, swim cords, too many shoes and a bag full of Power Bars.

Then I raced Pendleton International and hoped I'd be recovered enough from my work training "graduation" class.... I wasn't going to expect too much since I really haven't had time to put in the solid training I would have liked to. Since I didn't have too many opportunities to swim for the previous month (except for a 25 yard pool at about 80 degrees), it was no surprise the swim sucked. Or the quarter mile run through deep sand to T1. But alas, I survived. I finally felt good on the bike. While I was at training for work, I dropped my TT bike off at the shop with a suspicious noise coming from my cranks. Of course I had heard it for awhile, but never thought it was an issue. Turns out my bottom bracket had more or less disentegrated. Oops! So ya think that's why riding that bike has been soooo hard??

Needless to say, the bike felt MUCH better and I finished in 1:10, right where I should be. (T1 & T2 were in the bike time for a total of 1:13:49). Out of T2 I left the legs turn into rocks. The deep sand was coming to haunt me. I just tried to stay steady and see if the lactic acid would miraculously disappear. Coming around to the second lap I was at about 23 minutes, I took some salt tabs & a motivator and within a half mile I had found my legs. I could hear Lesley "come on Raaa-yaaaa" like she does in your workouts and tried to focus on what I would I if she were there staring at me... she's really the Scottish Devil that one! And I mean Devil in the fire & energy that she exudes. I set my sights on a local TCSD racer who has quite a good run and if I could catch her I knew it would be a good run. Every hundred meters I got closer, and closer and I knew if she heard me coming, she could possibly out sprint me to the finish, so I used a little stealth and a whole lot of surprise to edge her out in the last 100 meters. Unfortunately with triathlon, you never really know who's in your age group so you just have to aim for someone in front of you and chip away.. then cross your fingers there's not too many you didn't see. There always is!

I ended up 3rd and really was quite happy with that. As soon as I get my swim back on and perhaps attempt to trim up a bit more, I think Nationals will be a better show this year. At least I hope so! It would be oh soo nice to race in Australia next year.... we'll see. Not sure if it's possible this year with the career change taking so much of my time, but I know it will all work out for the better.

Next race.. Imperial Beach Triathlon... see you there!

Happy Riding!

Raja

(Stacy in her post-Ironman daze...)