Race Report: Auburn Triathlon Olympic Distance - May 31, 2009

Well, it may not be flattering, but good god damn, I think that stupid suit actually made me faster.

UPDATED with official times:

Overall: 3:55:25

Boo-fucking-yah!

That is only 3 minutes off my Olympic distance PR at Pac Grove on a MUCH tougher course. But I am getting ahead of myself...

Pre-race

A group of us that train with Terri were all doing this race, so we headed up together on Saturday. We grabbed some lunch at the Auburn Alehouse Brewery then drove part of the bike course.

Taken by an older woman at the restaurant that was not super familiar with using a digital camera. She almost succeeded in taking a picture of herself three times before we got this one. This cracked Jane up. Obviously.

At our pre-race dinner I was openly coveting a HUGE piece of chocolate cake that was being delivered to the next table. Apparently, I was so pathetic the girl offered us some of her cake (yeah, yeah, my mother would be horrified. Whatever. Did I mention, FREE CAKE?)

Well, lucky for me this tiny, little gal was 1. Tiny and obviously not equipped to handle cake of this proportion and 2. Recovering from a broken jaw and her already tiny, little stomach was even more shrunk down and well, ... tiny. I think she cut off about a 1/10th of the cake and gave us the rest.

We were on that cake like flies on...

Race morning

The Auburn Triathlon is a point to point race with two different transitions. Which, with limited parking, is a logistical nightmare. We decided to get to T2 early to leave my car and then go down to T1 to set up there.

Best laid plans and all.

We did get there nice and early and even got rockstar parking, but Jane soon discovered that she had a problem with her tube valve and needed to change it. This was on her brand new tire, and we all know that it SUCKS ASS to change brand new tires. (I got to learn this little lesson in the pouring fucking rain at Grizzly Peaks, so I win in the sucks-ass-to-be-me contest, but right before a race is a close second)

Let's just say that the tire changing was not going well and at one point I asked Jane if it was time for me to start offering sexual favors for a tire change. Of course, because it is me, a nice guy in his mid 40's was riding by at that EXACT moment. (Again, with a would-be-horrified mother moment.)

Super classy as always.

I don't know if the look he gave me was one of disapproval or if he was weighing if he had time to change the tire for us, but it did stop him in his tracks.

We did eventually get to T1 and had plenty of time to get set up and do a warm up swim before our wave at 7:05.

Swim 1.5K (43:09)

That is 12 minutes faster than Pac Grove, but before we get all excited it is a MUCH easier swim than Pac Grove.

However, here at Run Bitch Run we celebrate ALL swim victories, real or imagined, so...

WOO HOO!!

T2 (No idea)

They lump the T1, bike time, and T2 all together, so I have no idea and I did not self time, but the tri suit made this transition easy and I felt pretty fast.

Bike 40K (1:58:48)

Includes T1 and T2 times. (that makes the time for both transitions combined about 5:28!! Go me!!)

Boo yah, baby!!

It is only 14 minutes slower than Pac Grove, but MUCH harder course. 10 times harder in terms of elevation gain, as a matter of fact.

In the Auburn course there is 3,200 feet of climb in 24 miles (the course is a little short, but what it lacks in 0.8 mile of distance it makes up for in hills.) PLUS, since it is point to point, you have a net gain in elevation meaning you do not get to descend all of those 3,200 feet you climbed.

Elevation profile for Auburn Olympic Distance

For comparison, I will post the profile for the Pac Grove Bike course. This is from the internet I have not used my Garmin on that course because it is FLAT as a pancake.

This is from the MotionBased website, which is LAME. If my students turned in a graph without the axes labeled I would give it a ZERO. Total elevation gain is 385 ft. which is different from total climb, but I bet it isn't much more than that.

Even though the course is hilly and winding, it is beautiful and there was a plethora of adorable farm animals that I would have LOVED to photograph. Including, but not limited to: a miniature horse, a miniature donkey, an emu, and lots of pygmy goats, cows, and horses. Sadly, I had serious business to attend to and did not bring my camera. Rats.

One animal encounter was not so pleasant and nearly gave me a fucking heart attack. On a downhill section at about mile 20 a squirrel decided to play chicken with my bike and shot out of a bush in front of my wheel. I thought for sure I was going to hit it and braced myself to go down hard, but somehow I didn't. It took me a good 10 minutes for my heart rate to return to normal after that. I bet it took longer for the squirrel. That close call would have worked out much worse for him had it gone the other way.

T2 (no idea)

I think it was pretty fast, but I am not sure. I had to pull a shirt over my tri suit because 1. I needed to put my race number on something since I don't have a race belt and 2. there was not nearly enough pink and I need pink when I run.

Run 6.2 miles (1:13:27)

8 minutes slower than Pac Grove on a much harder, much hotter course.

Auburn Run Profile

Again for comparison, the Pac Grove profile from not-worth-a-shit motion based website, but at least you can see that the course is flat.

Seriously, Motion Based, I am begging you? In who's world are graphs like this useful or acceptable?

I was ok with my run. As usual I felt pretty happy and cheerful on the run, but I was hoping for a little faster.

At one point on the run, one of the half iron triathletes passed me (let's be honest. LOTS of the half iron people passed me despite the fact that their bike was over twice as long as mine, but at least they were all hard core.) Anyhoo, back to the runner, he was GORGEOUS and not wearing a shirt. My response was "Day-um!" as he ran by. He responded by waving and saying "Thanks, love the pink!" (I don't know what is wrong with me, maybe I need my hormones checked)

The Finish

As I ran to the finish I was seriously hoping I would be under 4 hours. Before the race, knowing the terrain I would have never thought I could have even been under 4 and a half, but some calculations on the bike made me think I could possibly be sub 4. AS I ran to the finish the clock read 4:00:20 I thought, shit. Oh well. Still way better than I expected, but after checking the results I remembered that the woman's wave started 5 minutes after then men and I had really finished in 3:55: 25 I was thrilled!

Unfortunately, they ran out of medals.

No, I am not fucking kidding.

Now, there are two things that are ridiculously important to me on these things: 1. I like to know the numbers and 2. I like the medals.

But, no medal for me.

What pisses me off is that they were doing late registrations like mad at the expo, and I am sure that they only ordered medals for the pre-registered people. So, me and everyone after me (seriously, the woman that finished right before me got the last International distance medal) get fucked over.

I emailed the race director. Hopefully, he will make it right. I will let you know.

Post race. Note: Jane was the only one fast enough to garner a medal.

Sugoi tri-suit

I wore it and honestly there were things I really liked about it and some things I was not crazy about. I will write a more detailed review later, but the one stand out compliment I have for the suit is a biggie for me

The chamois was comfortable for the whole ride. As a matter of fact, I didn't even think about it.

Yep, THAT comfortable.

I have NEVER said that about a tri short or tri suit chamois. I am EXTREMELY picky about chamois (how the hell do you pluralize "chamois"?) and live by the motto "If the girl parts ain't happy, ain't NOBODY happy."

But this little tri suit chamois gets a vote of approval that four pairs of real bike shorts in my only-wear-under-extreme-laundry-emergency pile could not attain.


FYI: For you non-cycling types the chamois is the pad that you sit on in bike shorts. Tri suits and tri shorts usually have a bullshit panty liner looking thing that serves no purpose, but to make the shorts more expensive.