Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Triathlon – race story


October 5th, 2009 av



Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Triathlon –race story

 

I think I can say I’m on a roll right now. Everything works out to the better for me right now and I just never get a reason to wipe the smile of my face.

Today felt like quite a challenge with a small field but with great talent. Sarah Hasinks and Helen Jenkins 1st and 2nd in the World Chaps 08, well known for their riding abilities. Daniela Ryf and Nicola Spirig from Switzerland, well I guess swiss mountains speaks for themselves… Julie Dibens, one of the sports strongest cyclist…Liz Blatchford…well the list was pretty long.

We were met by big surf and dumping waves as we got off the shuttle. It was quite a dramatic scene with a big full moon over a still pitch black Venice beach. What time again is shark feeding time..?

Once through the break we headed into the morning sun and I could se absolutely nothing. Tried to stick to the bubbles from the feet ahead of me, hoping they were going to take me the right way. The kind of did. Except a couple of the times when the watersaftey stopped us and pointed us in the right direction…

I was out on the bike side by side with Jenkins, we could see Piersol and Haskins up the road but there were pretty small…(50sec gap out of water).

Diebens came by and upped the pace, then Ryf moved up as we caught Haskins and set the speed for the rest of the bike. For a while I though there was another girl up there and I tried to figure out who it was. Then when I came by I realized it was a guy… phu.

I was in transition side by side with Daniela and decided to take it out fast on the run. I knew I had been training well and that I’m pretty efficient even after a hard bike. I got the gap I hoped for, worked it hard for the first 3k’s then settled in to a pace that felt comfortable. I could feel small warnings of cramps in the torso region and didn’t want to risk pushing too hard. Also with the massive hill halfway out on the course demanded a lot on the downhill run and I didn’t want to damage too much already on the first lap.

But with the gap I had I realized no one was going to catch me. If I didn’t do anything really stupid. Out on the 2nd lap I was joined by Spanish boy Rodriguez who helped me with the pace for the next 1.5k. I enjoyed a little bit of wind protection and rhythm running until I had to let him go in the uphill. The lead had extended out o 60sec+ as I crossed the finishline 2hr and 20sec after racestart.

It’s great to know I standing strong in ITU races as well as Non drafting events. I have learnt to handle the swim/run combo demanded by the World Cups but still kept my strength over these more TT like races. I had a great day out there today and really enjoyed racing. I also met a lot of nice people, made new friends and been very well taken care of  all day long.

A special mention to Triathlon Lab and Sinclair imports for helping me with the bike and Joe for opening up his home for a homestay.

Now I will have a few days easier training combined with some LA sightseeing. Then on Wednesday I’ll fly over to Dallas to get cracking on my season finale for 2009.