I thought I had done some tough races. Wildflower, Alcatraz, Vineman; I was experienced, I'd done some serious distances and conquered some difficult courses. Santa Barbara, however, convinced me otherwise; it put me in my place.1-mile swim, 34-mile bike, 10-mile run. Longer than an Olympic, but shorter than a half-IM. Piece o' cake (yeah, right). So, how do you pace yourself for a course like this? All out, fast and hard, like for an Oly, or slow, steady and deliberate, like in a half-IM? I don't think I ever really resolved this question for myself, and that proved my undoing.
Of course, it didn't help that I was fighting off a cold last week, feeling really rotten from the Monday night of race week right up 'til Thursday morning when we took off for Santa Barbara. I hadn't worked out since Monday evening, and come race morning, I was pretty uncertain of my readiness for the race. Oh well, what the hell, I'll just do what I can, I thought. No pressure. Even though this is one of only 4 races this season with a Clydesdale/Athena division, don't worry about placing, just enjoy the race.
Uh huh.
I decided to go ahead and hammer the swim, since it was basically the Oly distance swim. Then, I'll pace myself carefully on the bike. Driving the course the day before convinced me that relaxing and pacing was the only way to approach that bike; it was too variable, too much gradual climbing that could sap your energy without your even being aware of it. That would leave me with plenty to handle the run, which was the one discipline I'd really been trying to work on lately and actually had a decent amount of training in. OK, so that was the plan.
I will state unreservedly that the swim at SB proved to be the toughest I've done to date. Mama mia! The fog, the constant, rolling swells, the foggy goggles, the chaffing that resulted from constantly having to raise my head to navigate. And how frustrating to get out there and actually feel surprisingly good after more than a week without swimming, only to be soundly trounced by the conditions (not to mention the competition). Nearly 36 minutes for 1 silly mile! Well, it's comforting to realize that everyone had trouble with the conditions, and many others had remarkably slow times. Considering that I was swimming virtually blind most of the way, I oughtn't to feel so bad.
After an uninspiring swim like that, and knowing that Roxanne the Rabbit was two minutes up on me out on the bike, my plan to take it easy on the bike sorta went out the window. I started out intelligently enough, carefully holding back on the first long gradual climb, allowing hammerheads to blast by me. Felt reasonably good, and fully intended to ride conservatively. But then that bloody bee bzzzzted me, which made me mad, and I had that hollering match with #1420, which REALLY steamed me, and I got all pissed and emotional and said "To hell with a conservative bike!" I got to thinking how the bike was disproportionately short compared to the run for this race, and how hopeless my running is, and that my only chance in hell to do respectably was my (such as it is) biking ability. There it went, conservative bike out the window!
Someone asked me after the race, "So how does this bike course compare to Wildflower's?"
A good question. After a moment of deliberation, I stated that I believe the SB bike course to be harder. It's certainly much more technical than WF, where the roads, though rolling, are generally pretty darned straight nearly all the way 'round the lake. The SB course never allows you to relax and settle into a rhythm, because it is constantly changing pitch, surface, and line. The roads are narrower, curvier, rougher in places, and there's more traffic.
Because the SB bike is shorter than WF, and has fewer clearcut, decisive climbs, it can deceive you into thinking that you can and must hammer it. That's what happened to me ("Oh, it's only 9 miles more than an Oly, just go for it."). The pitch of the road never remains constant for more than (at the most) 1/4 mile at a time, so you're constantly shifting gears and adjusting your tempo. The descents are, almost without exception, curvy and technical, so there isn't even some free speed to be gained there.
In short, it is one deceptively tough bike course! I underestimated it, but will never make that mistake again. Take heed, ye who would blast that bike in future seasons!
I'm not sure if the run was really as tough as it seemed, or if the fact that it followed that obscene bike made it so. All I know is it HURT. The first and the last two miles are pancake flat, but the 6 miles in between are either UP or DOWN. Mostly UP on the way out, ouch. By the time they become DOWNS on the way back, you're too wiped out to care! I honestly cannot recall another race where I felt as completely drained in the last mile as I did here. Whew! This was definitely a case of "crisis management", to quote PNF, and I'm darned proud that I succeeded in managing my crisis! Now if only I could have skipped the portapotty stops, I coulda shaved off close to five minutes and.....
;-)
I must tell you, when I came over that line, I couldn't even speak. I was immediately surrounded by RSTers, but was in such a state of pain that all I could do was gasp, "Please, don't anybody talk to me. I can't talk." Pretty damned anti-social of me, I must say! But y'know, it was just one of those moments when the very thought of *thinking* enough to listen, pay attention, and converse is totally repugnant because you are SO exhausted!
The rest of race weekend was truly glorious. I was delighted to meet up with many RSTers in SB, including Bill Read (Silly man did that swim without a wetsuit, ay yi yi! I was teasing him at the start that I could already see him shivering...), Bill Mason (who finished about 4 seconds behind me), Steve Blum, Roxanne Scott (who kicked my big Clydesdale butt, going just over 4 hours in her first longer-than-Oly-distance race and finishing 9th in her AG!), Kurian Davis (finished in 4:19:xx), Tony Walsh (5th in his division at 3:17:xx, the stud! and his pal Kevin Joyce WON the whole shebang in a time of 2:55:xx, talk about STUD!!), Brent Swartzentruber and his lovely girlfriend Amy Bettencourt (to both of whom Skippy and I are most beholden for their various local restaurant recommendations, YUMMMMM!!!), and if I've forgotten anybody else, I apologize most heartily! Roxanne's pal Jim dropped out of the Long Course at some point, but I never found out what happened; all I know is I spotted him walking alongside the beach path as I started the run and he said he'd had some problems. Hey, Rox, didja ever find out what happened?
A *very* great treat for me was getting to meet at long last our own Timothy Carlson, who proved just as witty and intelligent in person as he is in writing. But Timothy, what on earth happened to you? We never heard from you after parting at the Radisson, wha' happen'?
The weather was spectacular, as was Santa Barbara itself. God, I wanted to stay a whole month, 3 days just was not enough, sigh. The race organization left a little something to be desired, but I think I'm getting a little less picky in my old age! Either that, or I was just so concerned with getting my butt around that course alive that I didn't fret much over small details. Postrace pasta and fruit were more than adequate, and it was basically a very safe and reasonably well-executed event.
One helluva weekend, I tell ya! One comical note: I fully expected that I'd been soundly trounced in the Athena division, so was none too concerned about being on hand for the awards ceremony. When they began, I was in the transition area collecting my gear and cleaning up a bit. I was wrapped, ignominiously, in a beach towel, discreetly changing out of my tri briefs into underwear and shorts, and I joked to Skippy, "Watch, they'll do the Athena division now, and it'll turn out I actually placed! Not." No sooner had I returned to a state of (slightly greater) decency than they announced my name as the "winner" of the Athena division! Timing is everything.
A final note: Ok, ok, so they also announced that I was the lone entrant in the division! However, in perusing the preliminary results on the web today, it turns out that there was indeed one other Athena contender, whom I handily beat by a margin of 40 minutes, so there!
:-)