Mermaid Santa Cruz Tri 2009 - Report

I went in to this triathlon feeling a little unprepared. I didn't train the past two weeks like I thought I "should" have. Heck, I hadn't been on my bike in almost two weeks. But I was going to give it my all. (Both of my personal photographers were out of town, so fewer pics than usual.)

I was up at 4:50 and quite surprised when Sara showed up early at 5am. But that was fine we were on the road at 5:30, over The Hill and in transition at 6:15. It was very dark but luckily Sara had grabbed some headlamps from the camping gear.


Setting my transition. In the dark.


Heading down 150 stairs (that we have to come back up after the swim).

Swim: I think I like the starts at ocean swims better than lake and river. More people are intimidated by the waves, but not me! They sent us off right as a set was coming in and I dove under a wave to begin my swim. :-) I swam and swam and swam. About 2/3 of the way through a jet ski came by and created a big wake. Lame. There were no waves as I was coming in, I waited for my hands to touch the sand and then popped up and ran for the mat.
Time: 11:25.8 (2008: 11:40.4)

THE STAIRS: 150 stairs done. Not fun, but done.

Bike: Made up all the nasty, gross hills and even passed people going up The Hill of Doom. Felt good on the bike and flew down my favorite part of Sumner. The course is a little trip down memory lane as I ride past friends houses from my childhood. When I made it up the last nasty hill I saw that my time was at 48 minutes and booked it to the dismount line.
Time: 51.37.5 (2008: 1:10:22.9)

T2: The only reason I mention this is I was faster this year then I was last year. What's funny about this is I didn't have to change my shoes last year. What was I doing?
Time: 3:02.9 (2008: 3:16.8)

Run: Well, its running. I was trying to keep a steady pace under a 14 minute mile, it came and went, I walked for 30 secs here and there. (Turns out that I averaged a 13:46 pace.) My legs were toast from bike. But I power walked up the long hill and at the top busted into a fast pace and booked it to the finish. Yay! I was done.
Time: 34:24.0 (2008: 36:18.5)


Heather caught my strong finish. (It looks like I am running for a change.)

Total time: 1:49:07.1 (2008: 2:05:58.9) It's amazing what a year of training and a new bike will do, huh?


Some triumphant Mermaids!

It was great and I felt like I finished strong and the tank was 99.9% empty. Very pleased with the whole day. They've started doing raffles at the Mermaid events. The prizes vary from water bottles, t-shirts, massages, and wetsuits. And I won a wetsuit!!! So stoked!