Fearless Triathlon: The Good, the Mud, & the Ugly

The Good:  the entire race, staff, volunteers, Fearless Races organization & communication
the Mud:  plenty
& the Ugly:  my performance... last or close to last. Seriously. I think I finished around 1:09

I've read race reports where people talk about wanting "redemption" or "pay-back". Now I understand. I was totally unprepared, mentally, physically.. and logistically.. for my first triathlon. But, it still ended up being such an awesome fun day! I'm hoping I can look back on this blog entry a year from now, and just be really embarrassed and laugh my ass off at my triathlon debut.

I started off on the wrong foot by getting a really late start. Stayed up late, woke up late. No time to eat, just grab coffee and go! I started driving down to San Diego at 4:45AM.. yes, stupid. (I'm in L.A.). Fueled by extra-strong coffee and panic, I was driving that minivan.. just-a-wee-bit-over the speed limit, and pulled into the Fiesta Island parking mud pit at 6:40AM.

Here's where the first leg of my quadrathon began. Ran to transition to find a place for my bike and duffel bag. No luck, packed, so left my bike and bag against a fence. Ran to registration table to pick-up my packet. Had to pay an extra $10 cash for race day packet pick-up. For what? Hmm.. seemed hard to justify.. but oh well. Race staff/volunteers were plentiful, and super friendly. Nice empty registration table.

Everyone was already in transition or heading to the water.

Transition Area, pretty packed!

Ran to get my arm marked. Ran to pee. Meanwhile, they are announcing that the transition area is closing, and all athletes need to go down to the water. I could not find any place for my bike, and finally I squeezed in next to a friendly Captain America & Wonder Woman. (did I mention that this was Halloween weekend and costumes were encouraged? My costume apparently was Jacka$s). Ripped open my $10 race packet and slapped stickers here and there.

No race report is complete without mention of porta-potties. So, here's my contribution.

These are outdoor stand-up urinals! I did not have time to wait for someone to actually stand inside the little curved door for me to snap a pic. But basically, the door only covers the mid-waist part. Everyone still sees the man's upper torso and below the knees. You can probably picture it, right? Hilarious. Finished peeing (in a regular porta-pottie, if you must know), and I ran back to my bike.

For an Inaugural event, there were lots of athletes, including several CAF challenged athletes.

Two-time Ironman Champ, and the current 2010 Ironman Champion, Chris "Macca" McCormack was there to greet us and send us off.

Friendly guy, easy going. Taking pictures and signing autographs with everyone. After the race at the Finish Line area, I got to chat with him briefly again. I congratulated him on an exciting Ironman victory. I asked him when he knew he had it won. He said something gracious, like, "it was pretty interesting right up to the end there, mate". Seems like a classy guy. I congratulated him again and wished him luck in the Oceanside Super Sprint Grand Prix, which was the next day.

Here's where my demise really begins.
(1) No time to set-up a transition towel. (also, no space). So, I was going to transition out of my duffel bag.
(2) Still no fuel. My sleeve of Clif Shot Bloks was safely tucked inside my race jersey back pockets, inside my duffel bag. At this point, I'm just running on adrenaline and caffeine.
(3) I threw any delusions of a respectable race performance out the window, and decided to just have fun, get the feel of my first triathlon, transitions, enjoy the costumes, etc. My original plan was to not use my Garmin or camera during the race itself. But, at this point I figured, "what-the-heck?!" why not try out some nifty gadgets? I'm a gadget and data geek, so I love trying things out.
(4) I grabbed my orange FR swim cap, goggles, Garmin, and my water/shock/dust-proof Fuji FinePix XP10 camera, and a bottle of water and ran to the shore.

Score: Fuel = zero,  Hydration = 24oz coffee + 16oz water


SWIM: 250M
13:20
The race director was pretty funny, and efficient. Good instructions (see video), and kept things casual, not-too-serious. I was reassured seeing that I was not the only newbie. A few had never worn a wetsuit and were doing their first-ever open swim! This would be only my 3rd time, and I inadvertently left my water-wings at home. The weather was overcast and cool, with a steady drizzle of rain. I waded into the water to get acclimated.

The athlete's packet describes the swim as an "enchanted cove". I thought it was kind of cold, murky, and not-so-enchanted. For some reason, my legs already felt heavy, and my breathing felt tight. Someone suggested I partially unzip the back of my wetsuit to help my breathing, but I declined.

I took out my camera and took a few test pics and video. The camera worked fine. It has a handy neoprene pouch and lanyard, so it was easy to bring along for the swim. (I'll do a quick review of the camera later, if anyone is interested). Pacing along the shore, I thought I recognized marathoner & aspiring Tri-studette, @MoniKool, (blog) but since everyone was in neoprene and orange caps, I wasn't sure. Besides, I thought she'd be doing the full double-loop tri. Turns out that it was her, and she rocked out her first Triathlon at the Fearless mini-Sprint, finishing at or near the top! Congrats!

Here's a short clip of the swim start.

GARMIN SWIM
For those wondering how I swam with my Garmin, there's an excellent how-to guide on DC Rainmaker's blog. Briefly, I use the Garmin Forerunner 305 with the quick-connect kit on my bike and/or wrist strap. I had the 305 unit by itself, inside a snack-sized zip-lock bag. I lay it down in proper orientation inside my swim cap, and I bend and put my head into the cap. Then I can adjust the unit on the top-back of my head (where a ponytail would come off, if I had a ponytail). Takes some practice feeling for the buttons, and knowing the sequence of button pushes. The 305 has an AUTO MultiSport Mode, which is for Triathlons. Press START/STOP and run into the water. Going into and out of T1, you push LAP. It will automatically mark T1 and switch to BIKE mode. Then push LAP into and out of T2. It switches to RUN mode. At the finish, you push LAP (not START/STOP), and you get this little victory music and it automatically ends your race. It stores all your data as THREE separate events (Other, Bike, Run), and you can view your Transition times on the watch. Works great.. too bad I was too flustered this race day. I got it all set-up on my noggin correctly, but I forgot to switch it from RUN mode to AUTO MultiSport mode.. so it recorded my whole triathlon as one big RUN, with lap markers. Actually, the data turned out kind of cool, as one big mapped race. I did not realize my error, until the very end when I was deprived of my tiny little victory serenade from my Garmin 305 watch. Bummer..

This is the actual Garmin tracking of my race. I changed colors in Photoshop for the various segments. Green = 250M swim, Red = 5mi bike, Lt. Blue = 2mi run, and Yellow is the transition area.

Major kudos and thanks to the race organizers for having swim buddies. I felt much better having someone to swim alongside me. As expected, I struggled mightily with the swim. On the final leg, I must have looked like I was on the verge of quitting. My swim buddy swam about 30 yards ahead of me and asked me how tall I was. Wha?? I told him, and he shouts back, "ok, so you're taller than me. I'm standing up right now. Just swim to here, and you are DONE!!"  OK! time to finish strong and at least look like I know how to swim. I reached the sand. This time, I didn't do my beached whale imitation. I knew I'd have a long sh*tty transition, so I could rest then. Once I unzipped my wetsuit down to my waist, WOW, what a relief! I felt like I could breathe again, and dashed up the sand to transition. I wonder if I would have done better if I zipped down my wetsuit like that guy suggested.

TRANSITION 1:   went bad. I think about SEVEN minutes!
I had to dig everything out of my duffel bag. Rain, oh how I love the rain. (sarcasm). The rain was really coming down now, and everything looked like this:

Grabbed my bike and ran out of T1. Jersey still had the sleeve of Clif Shot Bloks. Figured I'll eat on the road (nope).

Score:  Fuel = zero,  Hydration = 8oz water + 1 gallon murky enchanted cove water


BIKE: 5 MILES:
21:50
The rain is coming down, and at this point, I had an important decision to make. I seriously considered stopping. I felt great. Not sore or too tired.. obviously I had not over-exerted myself in the enchanted cove. But, with my mechanical aortic heart valve and being on a blood-thinner, Coumadin, I am very concerned about biking (or even running) in the rain. The roads were wet and muddy everywhere. There is a fair bit of discussion and controversy about cyclists on coumadin, and much of the recommendations seem to suggest AGAINST biking while on coumadin. The risk is cycling and crashing, leading to bleeding inside the skull that can compress the brain, or worse. But, there are also many competitive cyclists that are on coumadin that argue you are just as likely to get hit by a car while driving or walking in a parking lot, or fall down on the sidewalk.. when you are NOT wearing a bike helmet, and also bleed into your brain. Good point.. and there were no cars on this road course. Back when I first got my bike, I did promise my wife I'd be careful and not bike in the rain or at night, or bike too aggressively. But, I paid my $80 registration (+$10), drove a minivan like a maniac down here (without wearing a bike helmet), and that Fearless Tri medal looks SOOO nice, and.. my wife was busy working in LA... Hmm... I decided to just take it slow. My time sucked already anyways, right?
( click ~>  mechanical heart valve & why I'm on Coumadin )

The bike segment ended up being pretty exhilarating and fun. Took it easy and kept my eyes on the wet muddy road. Lots of road and tri bikes zipping by me, rooster-tailing water and mud behind them. My knuckles were white gripping the bars, and I did not want to take my hands off to reach back and grab food. Glanced down at my water bottle.. empty. SH*T! You know the score.

The bike course was a double-loop around the south island. I read the map last night, and knew it was a double-loop. Big signs, well-marked split with race volunteer sitting there, but still, I somehow missed the split and went right instead of left and almost rode into transition. Screeech.. stop, turn around, and bike back to the split and went left for the second loop. I started feeling more comfortable and relaxed on the bike. Loosened my death grip, and probably picked up some speed on the second loop. Felt great! The course went along the water, including the enchanted cove where athletes were doing their 2nd swim. Pretty cool to see from the bike! This time, at the finish, I noticed the same guy at the split waving people either right or left. What was he doing before? Maybe taking a break? I took the split right, dismount, and trot into transition.

TRANSITION 2:  better, but still pulling sh*t out of my duffel bag. Around 3 minutes.
At this point, I didn't care about fuel anymore. Besides, my hands were full with my camera and a water bottle.

Score:  Fuel = zero, Hydration = 16oz water

RUN:  2 MILES
23:00
The run was fine. The course was a single loop around the north island.. flat as a pancake, and blissfully short. The rain seemed to have slowed and the sky was lightening up. Shoes were soaked and heavy. My pace sucked, but at this point, I was more interested in the costumes. Lots of great costumed runners out there! Football player carrying football, Mad-hatter, some ghouls, fairies, superheroes, Gumby, etc. (see the short video clip below)

Fearless Gumby!

FINISH LINE!
Since this was a smaller event, the race director announce all the athletes' names as they ran down the finish chute. That was a nice touch.

It's all about the hardware! A great looking medal

They gave out special awards for Best Costumes.
For the Men, the best costume went to this obviously very secure and self-confident bumble bee..

The Women's best costume went to this lady. I don't know if it was just a costume or if she's really getting married. Either way.. congrats!

FOOD is FUEL, finally! Plenty of bananas, oranges, donuts, brownies, and muffins. And, they also had Halloween candy, of course. At this point I finally decided to pick up my pace.. nom, nom..

SWAG - I couldn't make it to the expo. Maybe I would've scored more freebies there? But on race morning, not much there.. a nice reusable Fearless race bag. The race shirt was a very comfy cotton blend t-shirt with a very cool design. Fit and felt nice. I liked it a lot, especially right after the race since it was the only thing I had that was DRY.

race shirt in mirror shot!

Overall, I think it was an excellent race. The double-loop triathlon format is unique and looked fun. Offering a mini-Sprint (only 1 loop), which is a 250M swim, 5mi bike, and 2mi run, makes it a perfect entry race for the aspiring or returning triathlete. Hopefully, next year, I'll do the full double-loop triathlon. Especially for an inaugural event, Fearless Races did a fantastic job. They were very prompt with emails prior to the race. Race day, everyone was very friendly and helpful. A few of the volunteers did not seem to know the course layout, and did not know that the bike was a double-loop. But for the most part, it was all very well-run. I would have liked to have done better, and I was clearly not prepared. I did not take this race seriously to begin with, but you know what.. neither did they. Don't get me wrong. The race organizers, Fearless Races, ran a great race for the competitive athletes. But at the same time, I think they did not take it too seriously, and kept it all fun and light, recognizing that this was a first triathlon experience for many of us. They really made us feel welcome, and not intimidated. I noticed, and greatly appreciated that. I think this attitude was also reflected in the weekly swim and brick clinics they held leading up to the triathlon (which I could have used!). I hope this triathlon was a HUGE success for Fearless Races, so I can return next year to redeem myself!

I'll end with this rough, short video clip I threw together of random spots during the race, including me getting dropped-like-a-bad-habit by a superhero and a beauty pageant queen.