Sunday, October 4, 2015

Scott Tinley’s Triathlon

Scott Tinley’s Triathlon October 3, 2015

I decided to do one last Triathlon this season before shifting gears into my 18 week Marathon training plan for Surf City.  Two weeks ago was Tahoe 70.3 and I was bit by the racing bug to do one last tri this season.  This weekend’s event calendar presented two long course options, Silverman or Scott Tinsley’s and I opted to race locally at Tinley’s.


I took the day off on Friday and after sending the kids off to school I packed for the road trip.  The combination of packing triathlon gear plus camping gear can be a bit overwhelming but through experience I have learned to go as minimalistic as possible.  I raided the fridge, threw together an ice chest for the road trip and headed out.

After arriving at Lake Lopez, I checked in, set up camp and went for a short ride to preview the course.  The bike course is absolutely stunning.  The start is similar to Wildflower where right out of the water is a climb from the lake bed then after leaving the lake the course looks similar to Vineman where you ride through some beautiful vineyards.  Possibly my top criteria for choosing future events will be a stunning bike course and this is quite possibly one of the best. 

After the bike course preview, I sat down in my outdoor recliner chair and fell asleep for a nap.  I woke up from my nap and to my surprise, I was surrounded by deer.  A mother and her 3 kids.  They just sat down right next to me only an arms distance away.  It was very peaceful and I just opened up my book and read while in the company of nature.  Part of racing is an acute focus on the present and looking right in the deer’s eyes I can appreciate the animal instinct where their attention is hypersensitive to their surroundings.  I strive for that same animal instinct on the bike when trying to stay aero or on the run feeling the slightest change in my heart race on a sunny hill.  It’s very meditating to observe nature and appreciate the natural animal instinct I probably seek myself when checking out from societies comforts to race.

That night, I made a fire and ate a P&J sandwich and beet juice mix I prepared at home.  I settled into my REI tent on a very cozy aerobed.  Totally stoked on just how simple life can be if you make it that way.  Race morning I ate two yogurts, a banana and orange juice and was ready to roll.

The 6 am morning DJ I can hear from the campsite gets me pumped to race.  After laying out my transition, I head off to the lake for the start.  3, 2, 1 and we are off.  The swim consisted of 3 laps on a half mile course.  For the first two laps, I was neck and neck with another competitor when the craziest thing happened.  Going into my 3rd lap I arrived at exactly the same time as the International swim start and literally was the pace guy right in front of the mass wave start.  I did a quick siting to look behind and all I could see is a herd of swimmers & massive splashes so I braced myself to expect to be overtaken by the front of the pack.  I can imagine the announcer saying to the collegiate swimmers racing the international tri from Cal Poly, Santa Barbara, Stanford, Berkeley, etc. “go get him”!  When the first guys came through, I pick up on some feet and was able to draft that third lap around the course.

Exiting the swim is quite the climb to T1 and my oxygen deprived heart rate spike.  I’ll have to rehearse this for training next year, practice running a hill repeat after swimming.  T1 almost feels like slow motion while you get your senses back from the vertical swimming position in water to the horizontal position while catching your breath and changing out of the wetsuit.  I am getting good at transition because I know it has to be scripted as a hat trick because it is difficult to make decisions in a somewhat disoriented state.

Playing on the bike course was spectacular.  There were 3 guys in particular that I raced head to head with through the day.  3 bottles of tailwind along with 3 diluted gels in my hydro flask was the perfect nutrition.  Picture racing next to vineyards with oak trees cresting the road to provide shade from the Central California sun.  I fell in love with this bike course to say the least. 

The run was awesome.  I had observed a competitor during the turn around on the bike who was my targeted to catch.  I did not catch him on the bike, he was in fact a better swimmer and cyclist than me.  But I know it’s all 3 sports coming together so I had it in me to run strong and set out of T2 to catch him.  I think it was about mile 3 when I passed him and recognized by his calf he was the top guy in my age group I had just passed for the 1st place AG position.  This inspired me greatly to feel the competition neck and neck and especially on the run. 

The run course consisted of 2 loops at 4.5 miles each.  The run felt just like Wildflower with hills, trails, campgrounds, downhills, etc.  The weather got pretty hot too but this is what I am used to so I just dumped water on my head at every aid station to keep cool.  I changed it up this time and did not carry a water bottle but used the on course aid stations and actually liked the natural running gate using my arms without the burden of carrying something.  It was very cute, many families from the campsites had kids everywhere at the aid stations passing out water and I had fun giving them positive vibes, high fives and thank you to these awesome little dudes.  This event is very much about families and I like supporting a family oriented event.  In one section of the course, kids were flying overhead on a zip line while their parents hung out on a sunny deck drinking beer & rocking out to some classic tunes while they cheered on the race.   

I finished the race 4:50, 1st place age group and 5th overall.  This was a great event & I look forward to coming back to next year. 






No comments: