2019-20

Being a Minnesotan and primarily a swimmer, you may be surprised when you find out that being cold and wet are my least favorite things to be. The Iron Bruin swim was not so hot for me last year. In fact, I was so cold that I could not feel my extremities until the second mile of the run.  When I got the registration email about a month ago, I knew this was my opportunity for redemption. There’s no need to go into details about how the rest of the race unfolded, but the stars were aligning for this opening race of the season. Moving the race up to October meant that the shallow lake would be like bathwater and by actually training for triathlon I would definitely have a leg up on my performance from last year. Needless to say, when my alarm when off at 4:30, I was ready to rock and roll. I had packed my bag and laid out the clothes I would wear to the race out of paranoia from other race day debacles we also don’t need to revisit I rode over in the cool darkness to the ARC to meet up with the rest of the crew to drive up to LA. Lucas immediately offered peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, demonstrating that he is now the most thoughtful member on the team and that I am not to be trusted with my own race day preparation. I proudly, yet politely declined the offer as I motioned to two bagel sandwiches I had stashed in my transition bag. The ride to the race went without a hitch, beside the one holding Mark’s bike, and we rolled up to the race with over an hour and a half to spare. From my experience with our team, this is unprecedented. I would be able to warm up, set up transition, and triple check that my timing chip was indeed on my ankle prior to the race start. Mark and I tested the water, and it was in fact as warm as I had suspected. Knowing that the water would emulate the swims of my nascent triathlon days over the summer in Minnesota filled me with a sense of preparation I do not normally feel before my races.

Heading back to transition to check on my gear, I saw Jesse watching over our rack with a mother bear level of ferocity. Apparently other teams had been poaching our rack, but you better bet your bottom dollar that nothing of the sort was going to happen on his watch. Unfortunately, pre-race didn’t go completely without hiccups. Wilfred’s tire blew, which took him out of the race, but he soldiered on and took the opportunity for some open water practice and ran twice as far as everyone else. With the start time approaching, we went for a wam-up run and put our kits on. With the big UCI on my chest, I felt like Anteater Man. Ready to mash zotts and slurp some exoskeletons. Between Jesse, Wilfred, Mark, Summer and I racing, the support of Lucas and fans of UCI tri, and the race preparedness, the new face of UCI tri is looking fresh.

After a quick dip, we headed over to the swim start. I positioned myself on the outside, hoping to get in front of the larger pack before the first buoy, and we were off! The left side proved to be a good choice, since I didn’t run into anyone until about ten meters from the first buoy, where the guy next to me decided sighting was for chumps and kept crossing me as if he wanted to go straight into the buoy. He got caught up in the string and I hurdled myself over his back. I kept to the left side just behind the front pack to keep my stroke long and avoid unnecessary obstacles. The final part of the swim was around a peninsula. In the pre-race meeting we were instructed to swim tight to it and finish at lifeguard stand 3. I pulled in about as close as I could and scraped some moss from a boulder, which was stuck under my fingernail for the remainder of the race. Counting is not my forte, but also the front swimmers got out at lifeguard station 4. The lifeguards yelled at me to swim to the other station, but in my confusion, I just followed the swimmers in front of me. Transition is my least favorite event of the triathlon, but I suppose biking in my wetsuit would be nothing short of ridiculous. The bike was flat extremely flat and in view of the San Gabriel mountains and the Miller-Coors sign for 90% of the bike leg, so both my body and short attention span were satisfied on the race course. I was mostly alone for the bike, which was nice to focus on my form, but the two loop out and back format made me well aware of where the people behind me were at.

I pulled into transition two feeling surprisingly fresh. I bolted out of the run exit and took off. Until a race marshal yelled at me to run on the course, which went the opposite way. With an embarrassed “thank you”, I was actually off this time. I settled into a comfortable pace, but ghosts of swimming coaches past and Jesse’s instructions to play to my strengths encouraged me to consider kicking into gear a little more. The second mile felt fine, and I thought I was keeping my pace, but my watch notified me I had just gone 40 seconds slower on this mile compared to my first. Thankfully, other racers experienced the same effect from the sandy terrain. Coming around the lake in the final half mile, I was overtaken. I tried to hold on, but eventually yielded my position. I picked it up in the shoot for my final kick, and ran straight to the snacks table. A cup of water and the sourest orange I’ve ever met I was feeling pretty accomplished for 9:30 on a Saturday morning. Kudos to Jesse for smashing the course and taking top 5, Wilfred for making the best of any situation, Summer for making a strong showing for our women’s team, Mark for his first triathlon and the most inspiring kick I’ve ever seen, and Lucas for being the best team caretaker and cheerleader, couldn’t have done that run without his encouragement.

With one race under my belt, I can’t wait for the rest of the season. Stay tuned for Cove Skipper next weekend, where you’ll meet more of the team. That’s all I got. Signing off

-Robby

Post-Race Cheesing

We met at the ARC at 1 pm and loaded up seven bikes onto two cars! It was impressive to see all our bikes stacked up!

The drive to Santa Barbara with Justice and Megan included conversations about alternatives to single-use plastics, the Democratic nominee for president, and prayers for rain so the swim portion of the race would be in the pool instead of the ocean.

After we picked up our race packets at a bike shop, we went out to dinner at Los Agaves. It was about 5 pm when we ate, but everyone was hungry and looking to get to bed early, so the early dinner worked out well. Then we went to Trader Joe’s, and I had fun putting together my pre-race breakfast and learning from the other team members about the food they usually eat before a race.

The hotel was the Sandy Reef Inn and it was nice even though it was cozy. We all met in one room and listened to Jesse preview the route for each leg of the race and discussed strategy for optimizing each portion. Then I braided Megan and Victoria’s hair and went to bed!

I got up at 5:45 am, packed up, got some motel coffee, and we were on our way! The full moon was low, big, yellow, and bright as we got on the road. It was a bad ass way to start the day!!

We got onto UCSB’s campus as the sun rose. We parked and road bikes together to transition. The team set up our own cluster in the transition area near the bike exit. Then we applied body glide, shimmied into our wetsuits, and walked down to the beach. We all got into the water, and my butterflies kicked in! We did a cheer—which needed practice but it felt good to yell out some of my energy! After the men started, the women had a 5-minute wait. Then we were off!

I sliced through the water and made sure I could site and breathe without having to look toward the sun. Once I got into my rhythm, I felt like I was flying and really pushed my pace. The swim is my strength, so I my goal was to get off to strong lead during the swim. Everything went well until I swam to the steps to get off the beach and up the cliffs. I angled too far left, when I needed to enter the steps to the right. Luckily, a volunteer on a surfboard yelled “pull to the right!” before I wasted too much energy going off course.

I climbed up the steps with waves crashing around me and held onto the handrail. Three flights of steps later, I picked up my pace and ran to transition. I could not get off my wetsuit and eventually sat on the ground and finally got it off. Justice ran up and it was nice to see a friendly face! 

The bike started with a lot of tight turns on campus bike paths. Luckily, there were a lot of volunteers heling guide the way. After the turns, the route opened up to a straight, slightly downhill stretch. I pushed it and passed several competitors. Then, I road by a lovely nature preserve on campus. The beautiful sights and the smells made me feel so happy and excited about being there.

At the start of the second lap of the bike, I took a wrong turn and had to turn around! I was bummed because I knew some of the people I passed were beating me again!!! But I put on a smile and tried to find them!! The second lap went by much more quickly, and I just focused on pushing it!

My transition was quick because I don’t have clipless pedals, so I stuck with the same shoes for the bike and run. My feet were still numb from the swim and the first mile of run my feet felt so weird and unhelpful. I ran by Robbie (and apparently Justice and Jesse, but I don’t remember seeing them). A couple minutes later I saw Zack. I started wondering where in the heck the first mile marker was! It felt like I had definitely been running longer than a mile at that point!

There were some steep (though thankfully, short) hills on the run. It was really hard, but the scenery was gorgeous. Once I got to the turnaround point, I felt a wave of relief. But then I was guided to a different path and I realized I was not halfway there. Thankfully, the extra loop took me by a labyrinth on campus, and my love of labyrinths empowered me to push it and keep going. I also enjoyed this part of the run because the trail was almost as thin as a single-track mountain bike trail. As far as running places go, this course was fabulous.

As I got close to the finish line, I heard and then saw my teammates cheering me on. It felt cool to have fans!!! I was happy with my time, though I was pretty much destroyed by the run.

I joined the team in the cheering section, and we saw Victoria run up trailing behind a competitor from USC. We got really hyped up cheering for her and she BOOKED it and overtook the other competitor. It was a spectacular show of athleticism and determination. The whole crowd got amped up watching Victoria edge out her competition. Then, we all cheered on Megan and congratulated each other. After pictures, we collected our bikes and packed up in transition. Then we got Thai food in Ventura, and Justice, Megan, and I drove home. Many thanks to Justice for driving, to Jesse for coaching, and to the other team members for being so fun and supportive. 

Finally, shout out to Kendra, the person who UC Santa Barbara’s race is dedicated to. She was a member of UCSB’s triathlon team and was killed by a car while on a training bike ride in 2006. Her family was at the race, and it is sad an athlete died in training because of a car. Be safe out there, to cyclists and drivers alike!

-Katie Raitz