San Diego Omegawave ITU Triathlon Race Report

The San Diego Omegawave ITU was the final race of my spring season and concludes a block of challenging races during the past month.  One week after my XTERRA race in Las Vegas and three weeks after the Oceanside 70.3, I was trying to stay motivated and hoped to have residual fitness from weeks of excellent training during April.  The week leading up to the San Diego ITU included some light training and a 40mi ride on my tri bike, which hadn’t been ridden since the Oceanside race in late March.

 

Oceanside 70.3 in Kinetik Tri Suit

The weather during the morning of the race was perfect—no wind, nice rising sun, and clear.  I’m glad I had my 90mm front wheel on my bike, as the wind wouldn’t be a factor.  I got my transition area set up quickly, since our bikes were racked the day before in assigned number spaces, then went on an easy two mile jog around the venue.  I came back to my bike after the warm up to find someone moved all of my gear to the opposite side of my bike and slid my bike down the rack a few feet.  So I had to rearrange my transition area a bit and made final preparations before heading to the start.

 

I was in the 7^th wave, so I was able to get a good warm up in the 60 degree water before lining up for a beach start.  There was little drama during the swim, with the exception of another swimmer in my wave who was swimming aside me at the exact pace and cadence.  At some points, our stroke rate was exactly the same while we were inches from each other so it felt like a three armed swim.  I exited the water at 24:35, which is one of my best 1500m times.  But I didn’t feel like I had a good swim and knew that I lost a lot of time mismanaging swimmer traffic.

 

The transition went smoothly and I was on the road fairly quickly.  I passed a friend just out of transition area who I knew could beat me on the run.  I tried for the duration of the ride to get some distance between us.  I saw the aftermath of two bike accidents along the course, perhaps a result of a crowded course with a lot of turns.  The bike course included eleven 180deg turns, several 90deg turns, and four “No Passing” zones which totaled about a mile of no passing.  The start of the zones was clearly marked, but there was no end of the zone marked; I assumed they ended at one of the 180deg turns.   I didn’t expect these no passing zones, although I expected the stop & go of the turns.  There was a lot of slow traffic in the no passing zones, as some slower riders couldn’t be passed.  I didn’t want to pass because of the possibility of a penalty.  So the bike course was very “choppy” and it was difficult to get into a rhythm for a long time.  Despite the stop & go, I managed a 23.9mph pace and felt okay on the bike, although I had building concern about a tightening hip flexor. 

 

Off the bike, I got through transition smoothly and tried to get a good rhythm started on the run.  At the first mile water station (which was on the right), I was lining up to get a quick gulp of water.  A woman who was running a lot slower ahead of me on my left, moved in front of me to get a drink so I instinctively put my hand up to prevent us from tangling our feet as I ran into her.  My pace was close to 6:00 and hers was probably 10:00, so there was some fair closing speed—I’m certain she didn’t see me since I was approaching her from her back right side.  She got her water and splashed it on me, saying “don’t push me @#$%”!  So I missed that water station, but was cooled by a splash of water on the back nonetheless.  I turned and said “sorry”.  I’m pretty sure she didn’t realize what happened so I unsuccessfully tried to find her after the race to explain.  I completed the two lap run relatively smoothly and noticed my friend approaching at mile 5.  He was running real well and passed me with about a half mile to the finish.  My pace on the run was 6:04, which was about what I expected and much better than my run on the same course last year.

 

There were some FAST athletes in that race—my age group in particular.  There were some incredible times from the 40-44 men.  I placed 29/667 for all men, but 7^th in my age group.  Compared to last year at the same race, I placed 49^th overall and 5^th in my age group.

 

It was nice racing in San Diego with a great group of athletes, but I left the race venue with a different disposition than I normally have after a race.  Maybe I’m a bit worn out.  Maybe I just felt bad about that lady on the run.  I just didn’t have a good feeling after this race.  I’ll put that race behind me, get some recovery time with a month off from racing, and will start to ramp up preparation for some big XTerra races in June.

Crossing this finish line will be my focus in October