09/22/2024
Another year, another Santa Cruz Triathlon, but this was the big #10 - if you include the pandemic run. Also the course represented yet another variation of the same-ish race due to both a new race director and more construction on west cliff drive.
08/16/2024
A week after racing Tri Santa Cruz, I was back up in Tahoe to run the Ragnar trail relay with a bunch of co-workers. This year they moved the race to August from July, which meant all the trails were snow free. Instead of a flatter simpler course from the year before though, we were climbing up two peaks on the yellow and red loops making for a much more challenging, though satisfying race.
08/11/2024
With the loss of Sandman this year, I wanted one more race to fill my small calendar. I had done Tri Santa Cruz years ago and remembered it was a congested but fun little race and knowing that the the road course was laps, decided to bet on doing the sprint. This year’s training has definitely waned compared to other years, but I knew I could throw down a reasonable race.
11/05/2023
Morro bay is always a favorite for our family as we get out of the house, hang around a giant rock, play in tide pools, eat lots of seafood, and wander through cute shops in the town. It has been a few years since I had competed in the race in its correct format due to covid, etc, so I had only vaguely remembered the course. What quickly came back was a relatively flat course with a swim full of grass and a run full of… SAND!
The swim was a bit chilly with 58° water temp, but was a nice smooth two laps around bouys. Unfortunately the sighting bouys were not lined up with the first turn, but thanks to the current I went around them anyways. Also, another race with another set of water leaking goggles, but by the second lap I quickly cleared them and swam much more smoothly! A much better swim than Santa Cruz and finally trying to recognize all that swim speed I get with grueling Saturday masters class.
The big was gorgeous and smooth as always. My new QR bike really sails and it was a total blast out on the course. And per usual of being not in the young male age group I got a chance to pass quite a few folks and didn’t see a ton in front of me.
Lastly, the run. The run was torture in the beginning per usual with a small stretch of very un-packed beach to maneuver through. Then half way in, I had a minor bout of GI, but for some reason the wave passed and on the turn back onto the beach things were much smoother sailing. Sadly I got passed by two people despite passing two others, but considering I had been sick the most of October with a cold I was still happy to be competitive. In the end I got 6th overall which was way better than I expected and a nice vindication from my two santa cruz races where the field was stacked.
09/24/2023
Last years rains did a number on the Santa Cruz triathlon bike course - eliminating the typical west coast drive bike ride before you get out to Highway 1. The run course did feature west coast drive though despite running around some tortuous barriers… it will be a mystery if they’ll even be able to fix all the damage though as it looks like the road may be permanently caving into the sea. The other major change was moving us out of a parking lot transition into a large turf field. The field extended the run in/out of transition and also included the wonderful rubber turf debris that got over our stuff.
Despite the changes, the race still felt as familiar as ever. The swim was an easy pass around the warf, though my goggles filled with water a few times which significantly slowed me down. Then after a very long run through transition (must have been close to a third or half mile run), the bike course was quickly remembered after getting through the dips of the new roads out to HWY 1. The bike course was also slightly shorter than before thanks to the re-routing.
The bike is where I reeled in the most time from last year. A whopping 4-5 min faster just by better bike training and fitness really paid off. Lastly the run was a game of pain as always. I’m still hovering around a 7 min/mile 10k and ever so slightly slower than last year. But still fun and hopefully I can focus on some long runs this off season to really bring these times back in to the 6:50 where I would love to be again.
So with a slow swim, fast bike, and average run, it was a great course to get back to with only one race left until the next age group!
