Nautica Malibu Triathlon: Race Report

That dastardly, diabolical Jon Cryer has defeated me once again. Beat me by 2 minutes. Just look at him up on stage gloating about his victory. Makes me sick. I did beat J-Lo though. Great, I'm faster than a recovering pregnant lady.

The ocean was pretty calm today. I'm not good at estimating wave height, but I'd say there were some gentle 3-4 foot waves rolling in. Very nice, except for one bizarre moment. We were on shore getting ready, watching the men 35-39 who had just entered the water, when we saw a swell growing in the water. The entire crowd started oh-ing and ah-ing with the wave... Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..... I don't what happened out at sea, but out of nowhere this giant 10 foot wave simply engulfed the swimmers. Then the ocean was calm again. It was spectacular.

I thought I had a pretty good swim. It probable the straightest swim I've ever done (I tend to zig zag), and I was pretty much staying with my age group the whole time.

I felt good on the bike. Only a handful of people passed me - like maybe 5 - and I passed a ton of people. (Granted, one of the reasons why hardly anyone passed me was because I was one of the slower swimmers in one of the last starting waves, so there were very few people behind me to begin with!) My speedometer is broken so I couldn't pace myself, but I'm very familiar with the course and I felt like I was pushing it pretty hard without burning out.

On the run, I expected to do 8.5-9 minute miles, I did 8:15s so that was good.

I had the Best. Finishing Announcement. Evar. Better than Ironman. The emcee for the day was Konrad Ribeiro, who does personal training and has worked with our tri team as a group and with individuals. So he knows me. When I approached the finish line, I heard something like this: "And coming in now, Michael Pajaro from Glendale California... It's Wedgie from Disney... Neoprenewedgie.com, the original triathlon blog, for all your triathlon needs go to neoprenewedgie.com" Or something like that. But he went on, and on, and on. It was awesome. (Konrad has training programs and special training .mp3s for download at coachedrun.com He also creates personalized Ironman training programs and can train people for other distances. Check it out, cuz he rocks.)

I felt pretty good about the race, until the data started coming in.

I beat Jon Cryer by 45 seconds in the swim.
I beat Jon Cryer by nearly 3 minutes on the bike.
Jon Cryer beat me by about 30 seconds on the run.

Yes, The King of Ironman T2 lost Malibu in the transitions. But "it's not really my fault". Kinda.

Our tri team has a huge presence at Malibu, and all of the people who were waiting on relay teams or who had finished the race already formed a wall of clapping, cheering supporters. God Bless 'em. Unfortunately, they were standing in front of the signs for the rack rows and I couldn't see the numbers. I was number 721, and I happened to see a bike on one of the racks, number 724 or 729, something like that. So I ran over there - couldn't find my stuff. I looked at the rack to the left, the rack to the right, nothing. Luckily, teammate Jason saw me and pointed me to my area - 2 racks away. I don't know if I was racked in the wrong place or if #72x was wrong, but it cost a lot of time. I also had trouble putting the bike jersey on over my wet skin (I like to have a dry shirt for the bike) but Peter saw me struggling and gave me a hand. Oh, and I also put on my running shoes instead on my bike shoes.

In spite of my transitions, I should have done better on the individual legs. Given my current condition, I think I ran a pretty good race. The problem is I should have been in better condition. I skipped workouts. Others workouts I showed up to and just watched. And this is what happens. Funny how that works.



As usual, I parked my car about a mile down the run course so people could get a little Team Spirit along the way. This year I added the whale. And no, I did not drive to the race with the whale on the roof. (My car was covered with about 20 Go Disney signs, but I forget to take the photo before taking them off. So use your imagination.

More to come.