Rock The Bay Triathlon 2018 – Race Report

Rock The Bay International Distance Triathlon

Official Time: 01:56:17
1000m Swim: 00:16:26
20mi Bike: 00:49:31
10k Run: 00:47:41
Overall: 13th of 187
Military Div: 1st of 6

Rock the Bay was kind of like my Afghanistan deployment, in that it was a good experience overall, but I don’t feel like I ever need to do it again. The race management company that put on the event hosts around 15 races every year, so they have it down; the course was well marked, plenty of strategically located and helpful volunteers, decent support. My only complaint with KOZ events is the awards presentation – first wave competitors should not be the last group to be called to step on the podium. Otherwise, it was another solid event.

The course itself is why I won’t be returning.

Swim:

Deep water start between a cargo ship and a multi-million dollar yacht in the South Embarcadero Marina made for a pretty cool setting. However, access to the swim course was via a narrow set of stairs that end well above water level, so you essentially have to jump into the dark water with the MC’s warning to ‘be careful of sharp rocks’ on the mind, but no idea where those rocks are. Turned out, they were only a couple feet below the surface and they were very sharp.

The gun went off right at sunrise, which made it difficult to decide between tinted or clear goggles. The tall downtown buildings and big ships created enough shadow that the sun was only a factor for a very short section, but I had opted for the dark goggles so sighting was difficult and I’m pretty sure I added some meters to the course by taking a wide outside line and several course deviations. I also hit the wrong button on my watch again at the start, so I don’t know how far off course I went. Based on official time, my pace was about 1:30 per 100 yards, which is still in the top end of my better performances.

At the end of the swim, we had to climb back up the onto the staircase; essentially find footing on the sharp rocks and jump up to first step to pull myself up using my now-spent-noodle arms. The rock sharks got me, but I was on to T1 and didn’t notice until the race was over.

Bike:

This was the most dangerous and poorly planned bike course I have ever raced on. 4 laps up and down Harbor Drive between the end of downtown (Hilton/Petco Park) and Naval Base San Diego; each lap includes crossing two sets of train tracks at a diagonal angle, more potholes than you can count, dangerous quiltwork mix of makeshift, uneven road patches made with varying types of concrete, blacktop and tar, and two narrow 180 degree turnarounds – one at the bottom of the only hill to speak of, so at the only point you could use gravity to pick up speed, you have to slow to make the turn. The only positive things I can say are that most of it was flat… and I didn’t crash. But I did lose another aero bottle before I even got a sip of my primary hydration/nutrition source.

I threw caution to the wind though, and put down the third fastest bike split of the day and my personal best bike split by pace at any distance (2:28 min/mi). It was fast enough that I started to doubt my lap count when I pulled into transition and didn’t see anyone else around and there were only 2 other bikes racked. It made me wonder if champions like Jan and Angry Bird, who are always out in front of the pack, find it weird to race with no one else around.

Run:

The run course was two flat and fast loops along the waterfront of Embarcadero and Seaport Village. I felt strong, no indications that I’ve spent most of the season dealing with calf injuries. I was committed to negative splits, starting at about a 8 minute pace and by the finish was in the sub 7s, for a total average 7:40 pace. For how easy the course was, I probably should have pushed the pace a little more, but was happy to be in the range I was, considering I hadn’t run a race pace for that distance since back in early March.

It felt really good to take the top spot for the division, but even better to edge closer and closer to top 10 overall. I was also super proud of the EH Oside teammates who raced with me; together we took home 6 podium finishes. It was a good day.