2013 Vineman Monte Rio and Redondo Beach Sprint

I raced the past two weekends at Vineman Monte Rio on June 2nd and at the Redondo Beach Sprint Triathlon on June 9th. Right now I am sitting in the jury assembly room at the Los Angeles Superior Court waiting to see if I get selected for jury duty.  This is fortunate for the blog, as I have some spare time to write race reports. So, here's a two-for-one report:

Vineman Monte Rio

Swim
Just like Vineman 70.3, the swim was an out and back in the Russian river.  The water was comfortably warm and very calm.  At the start I took it relatively strong as I usually do in order to get out front.  The weird thing was that right from the start, I was alone.  It felt like everyone waited 5 seconds before starting.   At about 200 yards I looked around to see if there was anyone around me to draft off.  I realized I was in the lead so I settled into a comfortable pace and tried to stay far enough out front so that no one could catch my draft.  At the turn-around I was able to gauge that I had about a 30 second lead on the rest of the field.  The river only had a slight current, but I could definitely feel that I was swimming against it on the way back.  Although it didn't feel good, I must have handled the current fairly well because I exited the water with about 1:20 advantage on the field.

Bike
The bike course was drop dead gorgeous. From racing Vineman 70.3 before, I knew the scenery on the bike course would be good.  The scenery on this course was great!  The views of rivers, redwood forests, and the ocean were spectacular.  The only worry I had before the race was getting through a fairly bumpy 6 mile stretch near the beginning, but I was happy to get past that without any mechanical difficulties. It took about 5 or so miles into the course until my legs settled in and I was able to put some power into the crank.  At the turn-around point, I was able to gauge that I had about a 2 minute lead on the field.  I knew there were some fast runners behind me so I figured I needed to try to hold that margin into T2. It turns out that I ended up with the fastest bike split on the day, which was sort of a surprise.    

Transition 2
A description of my T2 is warranted here. It was terrible and sort of embarrassing because I was the only athlete in transition and the race announcer was talking me up the whole time.  Because the course was new to me, the transition snuck up on me and I wasn't able to slip out of my shoes before the dismount line.  I sort of freaked out but ended up running in my bike shoes to the rack. For those of you who don't race, a common technique (which I practice) is to slip out of your shoes while riding and leaving them connected to the pedals, and run barefoot to the bike rack.  Running with your shoes on is clumsy and slow due to the metal cleats on the bottom.  Anyways, I racked my bike and realized my running shoes were about 10 feet away.  Whoops! I left my bike where it was and ran over to my running shoes and started putting them on.  To add to my crappy transition I fumbled around while putting on my shoes, something I am usually pretty decent at.  Once I got my shoes on I started to run the wrong way, but luckily the race announcer corrected me and I proceed out the correct run exit.  I was happy to get that debacle over with and get onto the 10K.  

Run
The run course was another amazing course.  It was flat, cool, and probably 90% shaded; perfect for me.  It took me about a mile to settle into a comfortable pace.  One thing that is nice about being out front is that you have a guide in front of you to chase.  On the swim there was a kayak guide, the bike there was a motorcycle guide, and the run there was someone riding a mountain bike guiding me.  They sort of act like the rabbit out front.  At the turn-around of the out-and-back run, I found out that I had maintained my 2 minute lead on the pack.  At that point I did some math in my head and realized that unless something went wrong with my run or the guy chasing me had a world class split on the second half of the 10K, I was in pretty good shape.  With about half a mile to go I got some intel from the bike guide that I still had a fairly healthy lead.  This allowed me to relax and push to the finish at a comfortable pace.

I ended up finishing first overall with a time of 1:59:33. This race did not have a dedicated pro field but two pros showed up to race, Andrew Bauer and Ken Rakestraw, both of which had beaten me at Wildflower in previous years while they were still amateurs.  I think they are currently focusing their training and racing on the 70.3 distance, but it was nice to find out that I can hang with them at this shorter distance. 

Thanks to Jeff Kapic for the excellent photos.  Check out the link here to see some more great photos.

Redondo Beach Sprint
The Redondo Beach Sprint Triathlon is super short: 0.5 mile swim, 6 mile bike, 2 mile run.  It is shorter than I usually prefer, but the fact that it is my hometown race and I could ride my bike 3 miles from home to the transition was all the reason I needed to race.

I'll keep this recap short just like the race.  With a race this short, you just red line it from start to finish.  There were some good swimmers that showed up and a pack of 5 of them took off like a bat out of hell from the beginning.  I pushed very hard to keep up with them, but ended up exiting the swim about 15 seconds behind the lead pack.  As I made the long run to transition while gasping for air, I passed one or two of them and quickly hurried off on my bike. When I race the Olympic distance, it usually takes about 5 miles for my legs to settle in on the bike and stop burning.  With the short sprint distance, the bike leg was pretty much over by the time this happened.  I made it to T2 and hurried off on the run.  The run course is rather technical with a lot of turns over the 2 mile course.  A little over halfway through the course, I passed a guy and then we entered this portion that basically zig-zagged through a parking lot.  While rounding one of the turns, I tripped over a crack and hit the pavement.  Yes, Mark Tripp tripped while running. Har harrrr. After rolling around a couple times, I got up and proceeded on with the race.  The embarrassment from the fall was probably worse than the scrapes that showed up on my legs. Fortunately, the fall didn't hinder me too much and I was able to hold my position until the finish.  

I ended up 3rd overall with a time of 41:02.  The two guys that be at me, Chris Foster and Brian Lamar, both race ITU, so I'd say my 3rd place finish was not too bad.  Because I had some fresh road rash on my legs from the running crash, I immediately headed home to clean clean up.  I felt bad about not sticking around for the awards, but figured it would be best to clean my woulds ASAP in order to prevent any possible infection.

The Redondo Beach Sprint helped confirm in my mind that at this point, the Olympic distance is the distance for me.  Last year I realized that 70.3 is too much given the amount of training I am able to put in and yesterday I realized that I prefer a little more of the endurance aspect of racing than the sprint distance allows.

Thanks again to TriSports.com for the continued support.  Remember to use coupon code MTRIPP for 15% off your purchase of eligible items.

Next up is the San Diego International Triathlon on June 30th.

2013 Wildflower Recap

I raced the Wildflower Olympic Triathlon two weeks ago, but work travel and general laziness prevented me from writing a race report. I'm not going to claim this as a report, but I thought I'd share some highlights and few pictures.

Pre-Race
I arrived Thursday to nab a quality camping spot and settle down.  Friday and Saturday were spent just hanging out with an occasional jog or spin to keep the legs fresh.  Because I am a wimp and it was pretty damn hot on Saturday, I was glad I chose to not race the long course this year.

Race-Day 
The weather conditions were completely different on Sunday compared to the previous days.  As I was setting my stuff up in transition I knew the wind was going to prevent this day from being a record setting day.  The swim, which is normally a calm lake swim, was super choppy.  The out portion of the bike leg had a strong tailwind with occasional side wind gusts to keep us paying attention.  This tailwind turned into a pretty nasty headwind coming back.  Although a little slower than previous years, I made it back to T2 safely without getting blown into a ditch.  The cold weather was actually quite nice on the run.  In the last mile while running down Lynch Hill and into the finishers chute, I was slowly catching up to the eventual overall collegiate female winner, Liz Gruber.  As we approached the finish line I noticed the finishing banner going up so I decided to pull to the side and try to not photobomb Liz's finish line photos.  I ended up walking across the finish line with a time of 2:08:00 which put me at 1st overall amateur (two speedy college kids beat me).

I am very pleased with my result. My only goal coming into the race was to complete the bike course without crashing (like I did two weeks before in San Diego).  Even though the winds made it difficult, I was happy to get to T2 safe and sound.

My "camping desk" and tent (Subaru Outback)

Camping Buddies

Running down the finishing chute

Shutting down to let Liz have her championship moment

Strolling across the finish line

I suppose 3rd and 4th were too cold to stick around for the awards ceremony

Thanks to TriSports.com for the continued support.  Remember to use coupon code "MTRIPP" for 15% off of your purchase at Trisports.com.

Next up is the Santa Monica Classic 10K this weekend followed by Vineman Monte Rio on June 2nd.

World Triathlon San Diego Race Report

This past Friday I traveled down to San Diego to watch the Women's Elite race at the Omegawave World Triathlon San Diego.  I also raced in the Age Group Olympic Distance race the next morning.  Well, sort of.  Long story short...I crashed two times within the first three miles of the bike leg.  Shortly after that, my front tire blew thereby ending my racing for the day.  I'll get to the details of how this all happened, but first some pictures from the Women's Elite race held Friday afternoon.

Waiting in the "VIP" area for the race to start

Sarah Groff was kind enough to stop in the middle of her race and pose for a picture

The chase pack

Watching the Elite race in the "VIP" area with TCSD President, Stephen Banister

(Stephen was also the winner of the M30-34 division in the AG race the following day!)

Yuliya Yelistratova of Ukraine

Now, onto MY race:

Swim
In my old age, I am finding the that getting an adequate warm up session is critical.  Being in the last (12th) wave, I had plenty of time on my hands and was able to get in a solid swim warm up.  My body felt loose and ready to race. The starting chute was very narrow and fit only about 6 or 7 people wide.  I ended up being in the 2nd row of people at the start line, but was able to maneuver to the front when the horn went off and we sprinted into the water.  As I reached the first buoy I had the feeling I was pulling away from the rest of the guys in my wave, but it was hard to tell because I was lined up to the left at the start and I also breath to my left.  From then on I focused on swimming as straight as I could from buoy to buoy while avoiding getting kicked by any of the swimmers from previous waves that I was passing.  I was racing with a new wetsuit and new type of goggles and was happy that I did not have any troubles with either of these items.

I finished the swim with the fastest overall swim split at 19:01 and had a little over a minute lead in my age group going into T1.

Bike
My transition went well and the bike leg started off normal, but that quickly changed about a mile or so into the ride when crash #1 occurred.  I was about half way between the first and second U-turns in the course when I hit a bump or pothole or some unknown hazard in the road.  I think what happened was that I was riding near a bunch of people trying to figure out if I was still in a no pass zone and not paying attention to the road or looking for hazards.  I definitely was not expecting and did not see whatever I hit.  The bump was big enough that it caused me to slip out of my aerobars, lose control of my front wheel, and go down.  I'd estimate I was riding about 15 mph at the time so it wasn't the hardest fall, but when I stood up I definitely had some significant road rash on my elbows and hands.  I took a little time to gain my composure and started to assess the health of my bike.  I rotated my aerobars back to where they should be and put my chain back on.  After about 30 seconds, I felt I had recovered from the mental trauma of flying over my handle bars, so I hopped back on my bike to continue with the course.  I immediately noticed my saddle was rotated out of position so I had to stop again and bang it back in place before continuing.

Not more than 1/4 mile after my first crash, I approached the 2nd U-turn on the course and this is where my 2nd crash occurred.  Because I was in the last wave of the Olympic distance race, the bike course was already very crowded and at this time several people were already on their 2nd loop.  As I approached the U-turn I was among a pack of other riders.  Unfortunately, one of these riders went down in front of me and I was basically boxed in so that I had no other option other than to run into him and fall down too.  So, less than two miles into the bike I had already hit the pavement twice!  As I got up from my second fall one of the volunteers pointed out to me that I was bleeding.  I snapped back at her explaining that I had already crashed and was well aware of the blood.  I quickly realized I was yelling at a poor volunteer that was trying to help me, so I immediately apologized and explained to her that I was having a bad day.

As I continued on after my 2nd crash I really began to contemplate if it was safe for me to continue.  I was unsure if my bike was damaged and was concerned something might break causing me to have a third crash.  Less than a minute later as I was beginning to accelerate down a hill I heard a loud pop and immediately noticed my front tire had gone completely flat.  Fortunately, I was able to come to a safe stop and didn't hit the pavement for a 3rd time.  At that point I realized my day was over and I decided to start my walk of shame back to the transition area.  Except, instead of being hung over and carrying my heels, I was scraped up and carrying my bike shoes.

So, yeah...I crashed twice within the first 3 miles of the bike course.  Of course I am unhappy with that result and I felt especially bummed when I saw people walking around after the race with their finisher medals and looks of accomplishment on their faces.  But, as I was driving home after the race I began to laugh out loud.  I mean, who crashes their bike twice in the first 3 miles?!?!  That is an accomplishment in itself!

If I can take one positive out of this race, it was my swim split.  M swim split wasn't a PR, but having the top overall split with some fast swimmers in the field is a good indication that my swim conditioning is in a decent place.  Right now, I just need to look towards the future and put rest of this debacle behind me (what a well placed cliche!).

I think with the help of some Neosporin and Advil I should be good to go in a couple days.  Based on preliminary forensic investigation, my bike appears to be in a similar condition to my body; scraped up but functional.  Before this crash I was already low in the age group rankings for coolest looking bike, but now I'm probably fight to not be last.  Oh well...

Next up is Wildflower Olympic on May 5th.

Notice the blood and scrapes!

Updates from Past Two Months

I have not posted here in a while, so I thought I'd post some updates on what I've been up to over the past couple months.  

Peru Surf Vacation

In mid February I took a 1.5 week trip down to Mancora, Peru for a little surf vacation before the race season got underway.  The trip and surf break were awesome.  The only bad thing is I got sick about half way through the trip which had lasting effects for over a week after I got back to the States.  This threw a wrench into my training and early season race schedule.  Regardless of the sickness, the experience in Peru was awesome.  Here are some pictures:

Mancora Strip at night 

Mancora Beach Early Morning

 Mancora Beach Mid Afternoon

Sunset in on Mancora Beach

Mancora Surf Break (this was a small day)

Race Schedule Change

Because of my vacation and the fact that I was sick for quite a while, I decided to not race two of the early season races that I had earlier planned (UCLA IronBruin and Superseal).  Instead, I decided to focus on preparing for Wildflower and added a couple later season races to my schedule.  The updated and likely to change race schedule can be seen here.

ITU Short Course World Championships

Through the 2012 rankings qualification criteria, I recently earned a spot to travel to London in mid September and race with Team USA at the ITU Short Course (Olympic Distance) World Championships.  I'm still mulling over whether I will accept the spot (of course I want to but it will cost me quite a chunk of change), but I'd say at this point I'm really leaning towards accepting. 

St Patrick's Day 10K

After pulling out of Superseal I decided to travel down to San Diego to race with my buddy Kosuke in a 10K race on St. Patrick's Day.  Because I was racing on about 2 weeks of training following my vacation/sickness, my plan was to simply take it easy.  Of course I took it hard when the gun went off because I don't know how to do anything other than that in a race situation.  I managed a decent time on a fun and flat course.  The best part of the race by far was the beer garden. Unlimited Stone IPA = best beer garden ever!  Here are some Garmin data for you geeks:

Team TriSports.com

This is a little late, but I am happy to announce that I will once again be racing with Team TriSports.com for the 2013 triathlon season.  TrisSports.com, based out of Tucson AZ, is one of the leading online multisport retailers. I encourage you to read about the unique culture at TriSports.com by visiting the link here.

Please, if you can, help support me by using the coupon code MTRIPP for all purchases made at TriSports.com and you will receive 15% off of your order. Yes, that is a whopping 15% off!  Go get your shopping on!