Xterra Wetsuits Mission Bay Triathlon, 2018 – International distance triathlon
official time: 02:03:33
1k swim: 00:16:43
38k bike: 01:02:49
9k run: 00:40:12
overall: 23rd of 246
military division: 4th of 15
“If you ain’t first you’re last” ~Reese Bobby
I’m writing this while sitting in the waiting room at the radiology lab; it’s possible I fractured a bone in my hand during this race, though I have no recollection at all of anything that might have caused the injury. After the finish, I felt some soreness in the third metacarpal area of my left hand, but figured it might have cramped during the swim and I must not have noticed until after race adrenaline subsided. I tend not to feel much, or have gotten really good at ignoring pain, during a race. I also didn’t realize that my bike shoe had a rough spot that rubbed my ankle raw until I got home and unpacked my gear and noticed red blood stains down the side of the shoe. By that evening though, my knuckle started to swell and the pain worsened. In two days it hasn’t really gotten any better so I’m here to have X-Rays taken.
As for the race, this time around, the insult added to the hand injury was a strong shove off of the podium. As I headed into the finish chute, the emcee announced my name and added “one of our top finishers for the international distance.” I felt good about my performance and allowed myself to confidently hope for another podium finish. After a few minutes of recovery, initial division finish times were posted on a peg board and it listed my name in 3rd place in the military division. I was excited.
This was the last race of the season for the San Diego Tri Series and the final leg of the Triple Crown – three selected races of the series where the finisher medals puzzle-piece together to complete a design and those who finish all three also receive a display hanger to mount all three together. The first two events of the triple crown were the races I competed in aquabike and achieved third place finishes in both. My third place finish in this triathlon meant I would have a complete set of bronze triple crown hardware.
I texted my father-in-law to make sure it was ok to hang out and wait for the award, since he had done me the hugest favor and came over to the house at 4:30 a.m. to watch the kids for me while Melissa was at her cousin’s bachelorette party in Palm Springs. When I got the thumbs up from him, I headed into the beer garden for some recovery brews and to congratulate teammates and pass the time until the finish times were stamped official and the podium medals would be distributed.
Then, partly as an introvert’s defense mechanism when I didn’t see anyone else I knew to converse with, and partly to begin my self critical process of pace analysis and feel-to-performance ratio reflection, I opened the Gemini timing company’s app on my phone. Now it listed me in 4th place in my division.
Even though my swim was fast enough to keep up with the chase pack at a 1:30/ 100yd pace, only a few seconds slower than the race two weeks ago, and my ride likely would have been another PR if not for the long, narrow no-passing section at the start of each lap, and my run averaged out to 7:36 pace which bested my last race by 5 seconds per mile… I still kinda felt like I just lost the big game. It took until now, and trading a couple days off to recover for some good hard training workouts, to get over my disappointment – and the disappointment in myself for feeling disappointed about such an arbitrary result knowing full well that my personal performance was pride worthy.
The race itself was good. The soft sandy beach start into a calm, low-tide Ventura Cove as the sun started to rise was a beautiful way to start the day.
The bike course was disappointing; not good, but when pitted against the most recent frame-of-reference Rock The Bay Tri, not entirely terrible either. The track definitely caters to the newbie experience and is not designed with competition in mind. Many sections of it are unnecessarily dangerous and it leaves anyone who has done a Mission Bay area race more than three years ago longing for the days when we could grind out a real time trial around Fiesta Island instead of watching out for massive potholes on winding highway onramps, avoiding clustered collisions at multiple 180 degree turnarounds and losing all momentum to file in behind the flat-pedal-mountain-bike-riding first-timer on the inexplicably narrow bridge section where you could be penalized for passing.
The run, on the other hand, was enjoyable; flat and fast with a great finish line atmosphere against the backdrop of the iconic Belmont Park roller coaster. Although the course weaved through various residential sidewalks and public beach parking lots, it was well marked and kinda fun to share the boardwalk with Sunday joggers, dog walkers and rollerbladers who had no idea why the runners passing them were wearing spandex and numbers.
**The nurse called this evening with imaging results. My hand is not broken, the doc would “classify it as a sprain and you should treat it accordingly.” So I interpret that to mean a medium-long swim and a hard brick workout tomorrow will be the best medicine.