Golden State 

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PRE-RACE:

I spent a bit of time downtown to pick up my race pack on the Saturday, and it seemed like a bit of a dull place.  I walked around for a few hours and saw a little of Old Sacramento including a few sights, and sat in a few restaurants/cafes to do some work on my laptop.  Not wishing to be overly critical but it was very quiet.  Looking at the top 10 list of things to do on TripAdvisor, I can see they are scratching around a bit after three or so, and it showed.

The bike hire shop was in Folsom, which is famous for something to do with railroads which were built during the gold rush.  It’s also famous for the prison from the Jonny Cash song. It seems like a nice little place and the river trail from Sacramento to Folsom was really nice on the bike.

RACE: BAD STUFF

  • The night before the race, I cycled down to Discovery Park which was about ten minutes from my hotel, and there were skunks everywhere. They absolutely reek. In the past I didn’t appreciate that skunks were a real thing. It turns out they aren’t just in cartoons.
  • With my dislocated ACJ, the swim hurt my shoulder a lot. I even tried a bit of breaststroke but that hurt just as much. It was a river swim and swimming upstream I cried in the water with the pain. I nearly stopped and gave up. Time: 21:30 for 860m.

RACE: GOOD STUFF

  • The river was really clear and not too fast-flowing – although swimming upstream was 3/4 of the distance, and definitely harder.
  • My swimming was relatively straight, didn’t get swum over too much.
  • I was a bit dizzy in T1 but there was a 250m run from the river bank to the transition, so I took Jimmy’s tips and pulled most of my wetsuit and goggles off whilst running, which felt like it saved a lot of time.
  • I also bought a cheap (and very ugly) tri-suit last week, so didn’t need to faff about pulling a shirt on whilst wet, I’d been wasting a lot of time in transitions in previous events.
  • The bike route was really nice – relatively flat and a nice smooth surface. It came up quite long at 26.3Km but I managed under 50 mins – 31.6kph av.
  • The hire bike (Carbon Specialized Roubaix) was very comfy – much more pleasant to ride than my Wilier which seems far more harsh.
  • T2 was very fast – because I didn’t bring my bike shoes, I rode in my trainers so I just dumped the bike and the lid and just run straight out – less than 30 seconds.
  • My run wasn’t fast at 4:40/km, but I beat my previous sprint tri 5km by 2:30.
  • After the race there was a bowl of pasta with ham and cheese. Very tasty.

INTERESTING:

  • A bit chaotic in transition, you could ride all the way to the racking – no dismount/mount point – so bikes and runners everywhere.
  • Overall, I made no mistakes so enjoyed it.
  • I had nothing for breakfast other than water, and felt much better than when I’ve run in the past with food in my stomach.
  • Legs began to feel empty on the run though, so may need to find something I can eat beforehand to store up a bit of energy.
  • Overall it was a really nice event. Didn’t beat my sprint PB time, but the distances were all different – 6KM more on the bike and 100m further on the swim. I beat my previous pace on everything except the swim.