Malibu Tri race report with photos

Finished! Where's the booze?

The Malibu "International Distance" (since I guess we can't call it an Olympic any longer), was the first race I've done longer than a sprint.

The clock makes it look like it took me longer than it really did.  My overall time was 3:31:26, which, since my goal was to finish in under four hours, was pretty good.

First off, this was the biggest transition area I've ever seen. Yowza. It was crazy.

The swim was really wonderful, if a bit cold. The water was really clear, which is unusual for Southern California. It was a 1500 m parallel to the shore swim, and I went wide to avoid the crowd. I was about 20 feet further out than most of the people, which was really nice because there was no contact, but a bit difficult because I had no idea how to gauge how fast I was going. I had to pop my head up several times to get my bearings, but I swam pretty straight, which was good. I wasn't really concerned about the swim, so I just took it easy and swam at a moderate pace and enjoyed myself.

I ended up passing many of the breast strokers from the previous wave, but since we were the last wave, there was no one to overtake me. 

Swim time: 41:07

I staggered out of the water, took a few seconds in the showers, and then wobbled over to the bike. I'd gotten a camping sink - sort of a collapsible bowl and used it as a footbath, which worked great. I rinsed off, tried to dry off, put on my bike shoes, and was off.

T1: 8:26

I have no idea how that happened. It felt a bit slow, but not 8 minutes slow. I guess I took a nap that I don't remember or something. I know I didn't make a phone call or have a drink. Oh, well.

Gary and I head out. Gary looks considerably more fresh than me.

The bike was wonderful. I just love riding on PCH and with one traffic lane closed and right-of-way through the intersections, it was just fantastic.

I felt good on the bike and Gary rocked the house, except that I'd somehow gotten sand in my shorts on the swim and had some chafing issues since I'd forgotten to use the lube cream that I'd bought. Oh, well.

At the turnaround, they had bottles full of Accelerade, which I can't drink as it gives me a potty emergency, but I still grabbed a bottle just in case since my bottle of Perpetum was running a bit low.

The main problem I had was what to do with the bottle since I had two on the frame already - I ended up sticking it down my bra, which surprisingly didn't bother me at all, I just had to remember to pull it out before the photographer took my picture as I was heading back into transition.

Looking at this photo, you'd never know I have a water bottle shoved down the back of my shorts.

Bike time: 1:30:31, average speed 16.4

I can usually do 40k in about 1:15, but that's when I haven't just been swimming for a mile.  The main problem that I had is that for the last half of the bike I had to pee like crazy and I just can't bring myself to wizz on the bike (although it might have washed out some of the sand), so I just had to suffer.

T2: 5:10

Again, I don't know where that came from. It didn't feel that slow, but I guess it took me a while to put on the compression socks.

The run is the part I was really worried about - I'd anticipated having to run/walk it and having it take about 90 minutes.

After a break to pee at the first restroom I came across (my bladder was so full I'd stopped caring about time), I felt pretty good on the run.

The Malibu tri run is really gorgeous - it's along the beach path, and there's a wonderful view of the water and the sand. There was one area where the ground was flooded and it was slippery, but other than that I just ran along and didn't have to walk very much at all. I cheered my friends and drank water at the aid stations (and stopped completely at one to eat a Cliff Bar and chat with the volunteers), and felt really good, but not particularly fast.

A surprisingly un-forced smile

Imagine my surprise when I completed the run in 1:06:10 (10:50 pace).  It's not that fast, but it's way faster than I've been running all season, so I'm extremely happy with it.

After I finished, I hung out at the expo (sadly, rather small), ate something and cheered for the people coming in behind me.

We'd gotten a hotel, so I went back, hung my wet/sandy stuff up to dry, and then took a shower.

luggage rack used to dry wet stuff

I had trouble staying awake until after dinner, of course.

I got to bed about 9:30 and slept like the dead.

Sunday morning I woke up, and then went down to the hotel's pool, where they had a continental breakfast laid out by an outdoor fireplace. I ate a well-earned pastry, and sat for a long time with my feet up, just watching the clouds.

I was sore for about four days afterwards, and I had a fantastic time.