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2019- Stanford Treeathlon Race Report

The race: Stanford Treeathlon has no huge trees. To be honest, I thought there were going to be a lot of trees to run through but the course was actually right by the bay. A really nice course, though. The event began with Victoria and I cheering on the guys and taking photos as they did their draft legal race. They did a remarkable job, despite Jesse wanting to vomit once he got out of the water and Brody having a cold.

This was my first Triathlon race EVER and I enjoyed every part of it. Except the gravel before/after the swim.

Walking to the swim portion barefoot on gravel was not pleasant but the cold water of the swim felt great. The water’s temperature was bearable and thankfully not bad with my wet suit. When it all began, the swimming portion was chaotic with everyone being so close to each other. I like my space swimming so I made sure to drift towards the back. This one chick slaps my face, and unfortunately  I didn’t get a good look at her so I can’t hold a grudge for next year. My swim form was bad but I tried as best I could and kept going. I did go a bit off course but swam back and from then on kept looking up more often to make sure I was getting close to the end of the swim.

Finally, I finish the swim leg. I was super happy about that. Sadly, my feet were not numb enough to be impervious to the gravel as I set upon the lengthy run back to transition. Made it to transition, took off my wetsuit, slipped my feet into my running shoes and ran my bike out of transition to the mount line. It was time to begin the bike leg.

I realized on the first loop that I had my bike on way too high of a gear because I felt it in my legs and I was like ‘why are my legs already feeling it?’ So I lowered it. It for sure made things better for the rest of the race. First U-Turn, I hit a cone and almost fell off…but after that everything was sorta smooth and even fun. Finished my fourth loop, went back  to transition to begin the run.

I started my run at a nice race pace and my legs felt great. The run was pretty enjoyable despite the pouring rain. When I crossed the finish line, we took team photos and started heading to the car for some post race IHOP™. It was a fun experience. I’m pretty sure on the drive back we saw ALPACAS.

-Alexis Valdez