Home Court Haven: Camp Pendleton Sprint Tri

Team Skil - 2012

We have a bit of a tradition in our family. Every year we do the Camp Pendleton Sprint Triathlon--which is held the first Saturday in August. The first year that I did it, we had 5 of us (myself, two of my brothers, a sister, and a brother-in-law). This year, we had two new participants my sister R. and my sister-in-law N.

I love seeing my siblings on the course and our Team Skil jerseys make us pretty easy to spot. I wasn't sure how I would do this year, given that I had not really had a chance to train. For example, I was at Scout Camp the whole week before the race and only got to do one afternoon of mountain biking (half of which was spent walking one of the YM's damaged bikes back up the mountain!).

My goal is always to improve my time every year, so I would have been bummed to not be able to improve on last year's time (1:41:48).

Swim:

The swim at Camp Pendleton is always a bit of a challenge. You start off on the beach and run out into the surf. You have to work your way out to the breakers and then swim around the buoys and back into the shore.

Swimming back in is not as easy as you would expect. I always like to think that you can body surf the waves coming back in to really speed things up, but those breaking waves can be really, really big. Last year, I got tumbled head over heels in the surf zone twice. Both times, my lungs burned as I struggled to figure out which way was up and to get a new breath of air.

A friend of mine--and experienced triathlete--got so turned around last year that he actually started swimming away from the finish line. He ended up with a terrible swim time and overall bad race because he got off to a bad start that he just couldn't shake.

I'll never forget watching the start of the swim two years ago during my first triathlon. The wave consisted of all the "young bucks" and they were young and eager to get the race started. They jumped in the water and swam with all their might. About halfway out to the first buoy, they looked up and realized that they waves and current had pushed them almost to the second buoy! They had to turn and swim into the current to get back on course.

I, along with a bunch of the older and wiser competitors, decided to run up the beach a hundred yards or so so that we could let the current push us toward the buoy rather than away from it.

This year brought a new challenge to the swim portion. I saw that a couple of participants managed to get stung by stingrays before the race even started. Their race was over before it even started. I'm just glad it didn't happen to me!

The swim portion this year, however, could not have been more perfect. Or maybe I'm just getting stronger in the water. The water was warm like bath water. The ocean seemed calm and I managed to make good time through the surf zone and into the finish line for the swim. My time for the swim (13:49) was nearly two minutes faster than last year!

The thing is that I know that I can go faster. I'm bummed that I was holding back a little during the swim. I cruised into transition and found my brother S. still getting on the bike. S. is the best swimmer in the family and I can't remember a race where I've been in the swim-bike transition with him.

Bike:

I was most worried about the bike portion of the race because I hadn't even been on my bike since the Ironman St. George experience. That was three months before!

I did do a short mountain biking thing with the scouts at Scout Camp, but I mostly rode down hill and then swapped bikes for the ride back up the mountain after one of the scouts crashed and ruined his bike.

(Actually, the bike was so bad that I had to carry it most of the way because the wheel had been ruined! That was easily one of the lowlights of Scout Camp!)

However, I got on the bike and took off. I made surprisingly good time during the bike portion. I think the major reason was not that I was in better shape for the bike ride--but rather that my biking technique has improved and I am more efficient on the bike.

I also credit my friend Royal for helping me come up with a great strategy for attacking the bike portion of the course in this race. I felt like it worked like a charm! One thing that I love about the bike portion of this race is that the last two miles of the course you ride past all your friends and family who are gathered on the tarmac of the base to cheer you on! It is invigorating and energizing.

On the home stretch!

I was really hoping to beat my bike time from last year, even though last year's time was really, really good. I didn't think that I had any right to have such a good time this year given my lack of preparations. However, my time was only 5 seconds slower than last year. (55:15).

Run:

Finished!

The run was definitely a challenge. This was where my lack of preparation and training hurt me the most. I started the run even though both of my feet were numb from the bike ride. I didn't regain any real feeling in my feet until I'd gone about a mile. My goal had been to finish the race in less than 1 hour and 40 minutes.

I did some quick calculations in my head and figured that if I could pull off 9 minute miles, I could hit that. Easier said than done! Also, I wanted to finish ahead of my two brothers and, even though I had passed S. on the bike, I knew that he was not that far behind me. I could feel him gaining on me during the run.

Part of me worried that he would catch me and pass me in the final stretch as well. Somehow, though, I managed to rally and increased my pace for the second half of the run. I finished the race in a new PR for me--1:39:50! I made my goal!

Also, S. finished just 17 seconds behind me, so I didn't really leave myself much room to spare! All in all, it was a good race and I had fun. And it was fun to cheer on my siblings who ran as part of Team Skil.

Here are the final times for the 500 yard swim, 18.4 mile bike, and 3.1 mile course:

G - Swim - 13:49; Bike: 55:15; Run: 26:15 -- Total Time: 1:39:50
S - Swim - 12:29; Bike: 1:01:06; Run: 23:49 -- Total Time: 1:40:07
L - Swim - 13:34; Bike: 1:03:14; Run: 23:59 -- Total Time: 1:44:50
R - Swim - 20:01; Bike: 1:12:00; Run: 32:55 -- Total Time: 2:10:04
N - Swim - 18:02; Bike: 1:12:48; Run: 37:57 -- Total Time: 2:15:06
E - Swim - 14:22; Bike 1:24:53; Run: 33:30 -- Total Time: 2:17:33