Strawberry Fields Triathlon 2010 - Race Report

This was my first trip up to the Strawberry Fields Triathlon. The Breath of Life triathlon was just up the coast a month before and I used that primarily to get used to the flat courses in this area. It actually shared a large part of the bike course so I really felt at home with this before we got there.

This would be my first proper ocean based race of the year. Breath of Life was in the ocean but was sheltered inside the Ventura harbor.

So back to this one. I actually nearly pulled out as I managed to pick up a cold since the "Keep LA Running" 5K. My head was bunged up but I seemed to be just about holding off a transition to a chest infection. I decided to go for it anyway as a friend of mine had told me that you tend to feel better during activity and it will come back afterwards.

My wife Sam and my son Ben, were packed into the car and off we set up the coast. We were staying just down the road from the venue with a beautiful view of the marina so I was quite excited.

I had new wheels for this event and for the first time ever, I was racing with a disc wheel. It was actually going to be a set of Zipp 808's with a disc cover at the back. This is an affordable alternative to getting two rear wheels to cope with different wind conditions. As it happened, it was really windy by the race venue when we checked in on Saturday afternoon. It is typically less windy early in the morning so after a discussion with race director Jamie Silber, I decided to stick with the disc.

That night we chilled out at a local restaurant. I had been told that the transition is fully allocated which means that there is no fighting over prime spots. You have your space allocated and you go with it.
Other than having less of a scrabble in the morning, it also means there is no rush to get to the venue.

A relaxed and very quiet night meant that I was feeling pretty good in the morning. I was to ride to the venue on my own and Sam and Ben would have breakfast at the hotel and walk down later.

The ride in went well and I still arrived pretty early but things didn't go quite to plan with regards to pre race preparation. I rushed down a small energy bar and half a breakfast cookie. I intended to eat a lot more than this but I didn't feel like eating and I was rushed for time. I also missed my usual GU gel and only just squeezes in a GU just before the swim.

Due to a long toilet queue, I was now running really late. I was using a new wetsuit for this race so I had been hoping to allow a good amount of time to warm up and get used to it. Unfortunately at this point, I was rushing to get into it with only 5 minutes left before the start. I ran down to the beach and jumped straight in. The water was really cold. I'm normally good with cold water but this was really really cold. I submerged myself quickly and took a couple of strokes. For some reason I just couldn't adapt. I needed much longer and I didn't have the time.

We all lined up for the start. Luckily they were running behind otherwise I don't think I would have been able to get into the water at all. The countdown started and the gun went off. I don't feel I got off too fast but at the same time, it wasn't too slow.

As we hit the water, the cold hit hard again. As usual, it was much better the second time but I didn't navigate the surf particularly well. I seemed to go from being near the front before the waves to seeing at least 20 people ahead of me. Not a great start. Once I was swimming, things calmed down. The first buoy arrived really quickly and wasn't even clear of the surf. I went slightly wider to avoid the break and arrived at the second buoy really quickly indeed. After the final turn to shore, I heard a panicked shout before being hit by a big wave. I didn't have time to react and got tumbled but I stayed in the wave and finally got released right in the shallows. I stood up and looked across to my left to see Josh, my training partner, also standing up. We exchanged a funny hello and set off up the beach.

My run up the sand towards transition was solid and I had a good pace going. In past events I have felt that this was a really weak part of my race but Breath of Life was a real turn around for me and I kept this going into this race.

The clock showed that I pulled out 10 seconds on Josh just running up into transition. Josh made up a bit of time during transition where I had a slight fumble getting my wetsuit off over my timing chip. I think I had it too low where it should have been under the wetsuit. Something to remember for next time.

I left transition just before Josh and just after the lead pack. Unlike Breath of Life, I could see all but one of the riders ahead of me. One rider passed me while I was still securing my feet in my shoes but once in, I was able to hold him about 20 yards ahead of me. We seemed to be pulling away from the rest of the pack which felt good but at the same time, I didn't feel like I had the zip in my legs like the previous race.

On the back of the course, I put in a slight push. I was able to take the place away from the other guy. At this point, I was wondering whether I was leading the race. This was soon corrected by a motorbike and the leader passing us going the other way after the turn around point. He was about 1-2 minutes ahead. It did mean we were running a close 2nd and 3rd with another pack about a minute behind. I didn't see at this point, but Josh was in this one.

The rest of the bike course went smoothly with the other guy just passing me again. I had a great running dismount taking the place back on the way into transition. This transition was really fast and I grabbed my stuff and just went for it.

We left transition together again and set out on the run. My legs didn't feel great at this point and the other guy quickly passed me. Unlike the bike leg, I didn't feel like I was able to hold him.

This is still a problem for me but it is one of the main focus points to my training now. About 4 minutes into the run, another guy passed me. He was going really fast and passed both me and the second place man pretty quickly. I was now in 4th on the road but luckily I was fast enough to hold on to this place to the finish. As I came up to the final turn, I saw Sam cheering me on with Josh's wife Leandra. It's always nice to see this and I gave Sam a high five as I passed.

Josh was still a minute back and we did a near identical run. I think Josh was 3 seconds faster than me.
The good thing was that I was the first to finish in my age group. Josh was second just a minute back at the finish. We had talked about this being our goal for the race and a 1-2 finished meant a good race for us both.

Overall, I was pushed down one place by the time the later waves had finished, but I was pleased with my 5th place finish.

With better pre race preparation and a clean bill of health, I am pretty confident there is a better performance in me for next time.

Next stop, Malibu.

Keep LA Running - 5K - Race Report

So technically this was a training day for me, but I decided to spice things up a little and enter a 5K road race that was located close to where I live in Playa Del Rey.

It was a perfect morning. Slightly damp in the air and overcast. The start for the race was about 2 miles away so I decided it would be a great warm-up for me to run there.

I was due to start at 8am so I tried to time it so that I  wouldn't be hanging around too long but this backfired on me a little as the race organizers delayed the start at first by 15 minutes but eventually by 30 minutes.

I must have warmed up 4 or 5 times that morning. In contrast, I normally do not warm up enough at all and really suffer in the races so this actually wasn't that bad. It was also somewhat closer to the situation in triathlons so it was great practice.

The delay also allowed me to meet one of my running heros growing up. The great Zola Budd (Pieterse), who was at the event as a special guest and would be participating in the 10K.

Zola is a middle distance runner and has some very impressive times under her belt. Check these out:

1500m - 3:59.96
1 Mile - 4:17.57
3000m - 8:28.83
5000m - 14:48.07

She also won Gold at the 1985 and 1986 IAAF World Cross Country Championships.

For more info on Zola, please check out Wikipedia.

I had a really good opportunity to chat with Zola before the race and we talked about our new love for Newton running shoes and also my travels around her homeland, South Africa. I also managed to get her to sign my race bib and a fellow LA Tri Club member, (Thanks Beth), kindly took a picture of me with Zola.
As you can tell, I was already having a great day.

So, finally it was time to head up to the start of the race. The expo was in the beach car park where the finish line was but the race would start up on the main road that passed along in front of the airport.

While warming up, I bumped into my good friend Simon Gowen, who has coached me on my running and really helped me realize my potential. He was scheduled to run in the 10K but due to the delays, switched to the 5K at the last minute. At first this was great but all of a sudden I realized that I knew someone racing against me which put the pressure on. Simon's friend Brent was also there next to me on the start line so this was turning into a real race for me. In previous training runs, both Simon and Brent have been faster than me, but this was last season so I had no idea where we would stack up.

I felt like I did a great warm-up. I ran to within 1 minute of the start. The clock counted down and the gun went off for the start.

I felt good right away. One guy was clear at the front but I was keeping at the back of the front pack. Even though I felt good, I has a feeling I wasn't going to be able to sustain the pace so I slowed slightly. My Garmin watch later told me I had started off at a 5:30 pace but slowed to 6:00.

Just before the first turn around point at 0.75 miles, first Simon and then Brent came past me. It was a steady pace but it was still hard for me to latch on to their heals. As they started to gap me I felt that I had to stay in contact with them. This was just like my last triathlon. I knew I had been able to hold on before so I made an effort to catch up to their heels.

I was able to pull in the gap, but at the same time, Brent was catching Simon so I looked up the road and decided to but in a push to catch the next runner ahead. This was about 10 yards further but I was able to close the gap fast.

At this point, I was afraid that Simon and Brent would have seen this move and as I slowed to a steady pace, would jump on my heels again. I spotted the next couple of runners and decided to repeat the move. One at a time, getting on the heels of the next person, recovering slightly and repeating the process.

These burst of speed were around 5:30 pace with some as low as 4:45. Each one felt good, but as the lead pack disappeared, it left fewer and fewer runners to track down that were in my range.

As the 2 mile marker came into view, I slotted in behind the last runner in range. My breathing was a lot heavier now so remaining at this pace felt good.

At the entrance to the parking lot, a volunteer cheered me on and told me to up my cadence. They were right of course. The first thing I do when I get tired is drop my cadence which creates a snowball affect which makes me more tired.

We had dropped down on to the beach parking service road. This was the last stretch and I felt like I wanted to finish strong. I was still right behind this one last runner with the lead pack way ahead, probably already finished.

I decided that I was going to stay with him until the 3 mile marker and then make my push for the line. I glanced at my watch and I realized the pace was dropping to a 6:20 pace and my average was reading 6:02. I decided to go earlier and picked up the pace with about 0.2 miles to go. I wanted to make sure I was not followed so I made sure the pace was fast for me. It was under 5:00 pace with a maximum pace of 4:18 reading on my watch. It felt good and I have realized that as long as I know where the finish line is, I could probably keep that pace going for longer if I needed to. Something to remember for next weekends race.

I finished in a time of 00:18:56 with an official average pace of 6:05 but my watch measured the course to be slightly long at 3:17 miles this worked out to be a 5:59 average. This finally beat my all time best and broke the 6:00 mile mark I had targeted for the season.

I have also never been competitive before in a road race. Although the really fast guys were nearly 4 minutes faster than me, I still finished 4th in my age group and 21st overall. This was my best 5K by far.

In comparison, the last 5K road race I did, about a year earlier, had me finish in a time of 21:13 and placed 13th in my age group and 102nd overall.

Things are looking up for me in the world of running. It was fun.

Incidentally, Zola said this was her fastest 10K time in 10 years. She finished second overall in a very fast 36:41. Good work!

The full results can be found here:   5K  10K

Next up, Strawberry Fields Sprint Triathlon.