Best Buddies Century

Well, a fellow triathlete, Suzi, who expressed interest in the Hearst Castle/Volvo Challenge, approached me. Suzi was forming a Best Buddy's cycling team and asked me to join. Best Buddies International hosts a fund-raising ride from Carmel to Hearst Castle in San Simeon annually. (Now, clearly if one's ridden 60 miles then 100 should be no problem, right?) I thought about the adventure momentarily then responded emphatically, yes, sign me up!

The minimum fund raising requirement is $1,200.00.

I had the excellent opportunity of being down in San Diego for business the week following the Carlsbad Triathlon. I conned my family into joining me for a long weekend visiting friends in San Diego before I went to my conference which started the following Tuesday. Conveniently, there was this nice handy sprint triathlon on the Sunday of that weekend.

For some reason, I happen to have a love of all things "Carlsbad".

Background:
The SJMB tri is a small, fun little tri held at Lake Almaden the day before SJIT. Since I have only completed 2 other races and trained for my first year on my mountain bike...it was an easy choice when I won the the race entry. And, of course, the race wouldn't be complete without asking my training buddies Amy, Kelley and Monica to sign up too.

Intro:
Since it was a relatively small event (approx 200 people), we picked up our race packets on race day and began to set up in the SVTC racks in the transition area.

This race was the third of a series of four mountain bike triathlons put on by the Redwood Trails Association, a race director and group of people who love all things off-road. This year, I decided to sign up for the series having done several of their off-road trial runs in gorgeous venues and also having done last year's Angel Island Mnt Bike Triathlon.

My first Olympic distance race in my first year of racing tris. I have done 4 sprints so far this year. I am in last wave for dudes 40-49, start at 9 a.m.. We run from the beach for 100 yards into the surf and start swimming. Pretty hectic, get kicked and swum over pretty good, can't settle in, not warmed up enough I guess. Water is cold, 56 degrees or so. Clearing the pier and heading for the beach again, I start to hit my stride, get loose and feel good. Why did it take so long? (lousy warmup). I am done w/ swim in 30 minutes and change, run up the hill to T1.

Conditions: It was clear, sunny, and relatively warm, a bit windy on the bike and sunny and pleasant on the run. The water temp was a frigid 52.2 degrees and all but one competitor wore a wetsuit! He came out pretty pink, but was given a hearty round of applause. Many of us also elected to wear neoprene bonnets, me included. It was an unusually relaxed morning in that we were allowed to putter around our transition area as long as we liked – they never kicked us out … and I assume it's because the Pros raced after the amateurs.

On Saturday, October 8th I arrived in Kona. Waiting for me at the airport were my dear friends Marian Davidson and her husband Michael Miller. They helped me with my luggage as I waited for my bike box to arrive. It was surprising to see how many bike boxes were on the same plane... some were simply cardboard boxes!... My bike box seemed to be one of the last to arrive... but I was happy to see it!

I prearranged the Speedi-Shuttle Service to transport me and my bike box to the hotel. After some room-changing (originally had me in a "smoking" room!), I got settled in.

Davis in September. Oppressive heat. Strong steady winds. Cow-tipping fraternity pledges.

Not one such phenomenon was evident on September 17th 2005. In fact, Davis was a almost a triathlete's paradise that day. Take all the elements of a near perfect race-day - temperatures peaking in the low-mid 70's, no humidity, a race-supportive town and an extremely well-run, uncrowded event and…ok, a little wind but not much. Add these elements together, and the result is a great, fun day.

The Half Caliman was not my "A" race this year.

The 100K route, left from the Vets Hospital on Foothill Exp betwen 6-9am, I did not have any body to ride with, so I got there at 8:00, I knew that I would catch somebody to ride with.

My friend DP and I arrived in Davis on Friday afternoon to prepare for the very long day ahead, the CaliforniaMan iron-distance triathlon. This was to be his first Ironman race, and it was to be my third attempted Ironman race, and hopefully my first Ironman finish. I had gone out to Lake Placid in 2003 and Madison in 2004 for both of those Ironmans, but I had DNF'd in both. The Lake Placid failure was attributed to a mechanical failure at mile 2 of the bike; the idler pulley in the rear derailleur fell out.