Back to the start though. The day started with my alarm at 4:30am. We were told to be there no later than 5:30am since the transition area closed at 6:30am with the start of the first wave. It was dark out then but once the sun rose, that only gave way to clouds that would last until the afternoon. The scariest part of the day was seeing the surf. One of the announcers told us the right things to do was, "Dive under the oncoming wave, grab the sand and pull yourself through, and then come back up after the wave has past!" Crazy! I was not feeling to comfortable before the race with some stomach discomfort. Nerves or bad breakfast, I don't know. Probably a little of both. Plus there was a current but thankfully it was heading in the right direction. This just meant we had to aim differently to get out to the first buoy.
Nevertheless, the announcer yelled go and we all ran to the water. we took it relatively slow going in to watch the waves and quickly duck under some. After fighting some waves, we were under way. The swim went okay. I got passed by a ton of people but beat my swim time from Wildflower. My legs were dead coming out of the water so I was only able to casually walk through the transition area. I got through the transition decently quickly and headed out on my bike. My legs felt better quickly and I was trudging along. The course was relatively flat with only slight uphills. Those were enough to keep my speed down but not kill me like a real hill would. Despite the clouds, the temperature was pretty mild so that helped. It was even a bit misty through Hollywood. Anyway, it was a blast to ride down Venice Blvd, and then past the La Brea Tar Pits, and down Hollywood and the Walk of Fame. There were plenty of people watching the race along the streets. Some were there to cheer on particular athletes but most just seemed to be locals out of their houses to see what was going on.
The bike ride ended in the middle of downtown. The transition was weird because you just gave a volunteer your bike and your run stuff was waiting for you in your preassigned spot. Got changed and headed out on the run. The first hill came right away coming out of the transition area. :( I'd heard a lot about how hilly the run was going to be. It was hilly but not as bad as I'd feared. Or at least I handled it better than I expected. I walked about a couple minutes worth on the very last hill but kept a slow steady pace for the rest. It was wonderful to hit the top of the run at 3 miles and know the rest was all downhill (at least almost all).
I'd originally been hoping to finish around 3:30 with the real goal to make it in before the pros were supposed to come through around 3:45 in. During the run though I could see that my pace was going better than expected and maybe I should rethink my goal. I first started thinking about breaking 3:15 but on the last couple miles it seemed evident that it wasn't going to happen. But I only missed it by a couple minutes. I came in at 3:16:57 which I was very happy about. Now I think about where I could have gone a little fast to shave a couple minutes off of my time. Oh well, still a decent result for me.
After finishing, I was hanging out with some friends and waiting for one friend to finish and to watch the pros come in. After that I was starving so I went to get some food on Olvera street. I remember getting taquitos there with my parents years back as a kid so that's what I wanted. And I found a delicious little taquito place that topped off a good day and race.
Overall, I'm very pleased with my result. I started off the day feeling horrible to my stomach and dreading the waves. Ultimately both weren't too bad and the bike and run legs went alright too. I've always dealt with leg cramps on my previous races so it was nice to get through without any of that. I made it a point of hydrating better and eating/drinking energy gels so I think that may have helped too.
| Swim | 00:41:58.6 | |
| Transition 1 | 00:03:39.798 | |
| Bike | 01:24:11.9 | 17.1 MPH |
| Transition 2 | 00:02:49.599 | |
| Run | 01:04:17.4 | 10:22.16 pace |
| Final Time | 03:16:57.299 |
My overall place was 1656 out of 1953 total. And 193 out of 214 in my age group. Not great but I'm happy with it.
You can see the course map here.