San Francisco Triathlon, CA Ending the season in the lively Bay Area is a treat. The international flair, the bridges, the water, the hills, the ocean breezes, the gloomy, foggy, rainy to sunshine all in 20 minutes weather, adds up to a corporeal experience. My wife and I always seem to tap into some extraordinary energy while visiting. The landscape is dreamy with its mix of land and sea tempting one to explore.
It can be hard to read one’s emotions for the ‘last’ race of the year. Are the emotions geared towards performing or being done? Tweaking your fitness here and there to finish with a good race is exciting. Having a reprieve from the day to day labor to enhance your body’s movement is exciting too. Having passion to engulf you in the sport mêlées with the passion of taking a step back and the conflict weighs out in the back of your head as you toil to the finish line.
Hortense raced early in the 25 – 29 age group and finished 2nd while placing 8th overall. She looked like she was riding well on the bike course and at the start of the run she looked quick. It was good to see her after she finished with her look of gratification. I would be joining her soon in celebration.
I was calm and confident moments before diving into the 56 degree bay water off Treasure Island. My swimming fitness was on fire and I was going to boil the water. The 40 or so pros were tightly packed on the starting block. Then, the starter said, “Take your mark” and the horn went off as he finished. I hesitated briefly and dove in with my buoyant wetsuit pulling me to the surface quickly. Both my right and left arms were being hindered from the swimmers on either side of me. I tried to stay in some open space but was getting bombarded from frantic swimmers. This struggle wasted energy and slowed my forward progress but I wasn’t anxious until looking up and seeing 30 plus swimmers in front of me with the leaders already pulling away. It was the water polo factor: where the suit grabbing, punching, wrestling and dirty play that goes on ‘legally’ underwater slowed me down. This situation is partly to blame on the condensed starting block, not giving us room to move. Rounding the first buoy (only 200m) I was disheartened to be about 30 seconds down. I spent the rest of the 1st lap moving through the swath of swimmers until coming up to the leaders of the chase group. By the time I arrived the first group was an unreachable distance ahead.
In the second lap, being at the front of the chase group gave me room to swim and I tried in vain to make some progress on the leaders. Brian Fleischmann kept the pace fast though, leading out his pack of 9 swimmers and coming out about 50 seconds ahead of the chase group.
I was in T1 with Matt Reed, Matt Charbot, and Bryon Rhodes who managed to bridge up the lead group while I wasn’t very efficient getting up to speed and just missed the wonderful draft that could have been big Matty Reed. Instead, I was in the dreadful zone of no-mans-land. Pushing hard to catch up to these three on my own was exhausting. Serrano (who was in a successful break-away on the bike at the Beijing Olympics!) and Garza caught up and the three of us charged ahead for the next few laps until Dhalz and Rhodes fell back from the first group. Then, at the end of lap 3 or 4 several guys from the 3rd chase pack bridged up to us.
With only a few guys willing to work I was easily sucked in to taking some strong pulls. We were gaining on the lead group and ended up being just under 20 seconds down to them by the 6th lap. The aggressive riding I had done left me guarded for how the run would play out. To my delight the first couple of miles felt effortless and I stayed in contact with all but a few of the fastest runners from my group. But miles 4 and 5 were slow miles and I started focusing on just being done and finishing at a comfortable pace. With a half mile to go and knowing the end was near I picked it up to finish strong and hold off a fast charging Ethan Brown.
I was neither happy nor upset with my race but satisfied; satisfied to have the fitness to race with some of the healthier people on the planet.
It was now time to take a step back and reminisce the season that had been eventful and action-packed. The year molds into a lively ball of success and failure, hope and disappointment but an overall satisfying experience that is life in search of broadening your abilities and knowledge of what it means to be alive.
