Bay 2 Breakers Centipede

Bay 2 Breakers is a HUGE (50k+ people), partying, 12k race from the Bay Bridge to the ocean, East to West, across San Francisco. Every year my running team fields at least 2 centipede teams. Each consists of 13 runners tied together by our super-secret-patented-speed tie system and 2 floating runners in case someone has a bad day or trips over a salmon-runner or gets hit by a rogue flying tortilla. Only one 3-block steep hill slows the runners at about 2.5 miles and the rest of the race is mostly downhill to the coast.

I've wanted to be a part of the women's centipede since I started with the Aggies in late 2004. It took 6 years of running, injury, time-off, self-coaching and finally hiring a coach to get my first chance, and it was definitely an experience. I'm not a fan of the 5-9 mile race distance yet, and wanted to see if this 12k would inch me toward liking it. Here's how it went:

I was hooked into the middle of the centipede, and was so glad I wasn't a floater! When the countdown clock hit 00:00, we were really close to the start, all lined up in a long column, so our front runner (wearing the antennae!) was about 3 rows back and I was about 6-10. We started out at 6:30 and I thought I may be able to keep up, but it was going to be hard. Some crazy was running back to the start in the first half mile and collided with us. A young naked guy ran past a little later. Tortillas were flying. Red Coats fired party-popper rifles. The hill caused my belt to squeeze me because the 'peders in front and behind me were too far away. At mile 4, I thought, "We are over halfway there!" And then I thought, "And the distance left is more than most of my running races!" A little after that marker, the ladies sped up and I was pulled for the rest of the race. We finished together! And finished first in the women's centipede division.

I had a lot of people encouraging me the whole way and making sure I stayed hooked in, and without them I likely would have bailed. I'm so happy I didn't. It was hard and a blast and I was sore for over a week.

But, I still am not keen on that race distance.

Kauai Loves You

First Olympic Triathlon

Lessons Learned:

1. Asking a ton of questions at the packet pickup the day before makes me feel a lot better.
   
2. Running and biking and swimming the course beforehand also makes me feel better.
   
3. Shoelaces make OK race belts in a pinch.
4. Taking a look at competitors on the start line at a small race might be a good idea.
   
5. Kauai is full of micro-climates.
6. Try to eat more during olympic distance tris than just 267 calories.
   

When signing up for the Kauai Loves You Triathlon, one had a choice of olympic or sprint distance. This benefitted the Kauai Aquatic Club, so a ton of the competitors were swimmers by nature. The olympic course consisted of a 2-lap open ocean swim in a "bay" with waves and swells. It went almost parallel to the beach back and forth, and measured about 100+ meters short of the traditional olympic distance of 1500m. The way out was aided by a current, so the way back was much slower. The bike portion was almost 4 miles short. It too was 2 laps. We went over a big hill and a fun little dip with a one-way bridge at the bottom, then slightly uphill until a turnaround when the backroad reached the highway. The run was through the Marriott golf course and by the Lihue airport. It went uphill for about 1.5 miles and then ever-so-slowly lost elevation until the turn around a smidge after 5k. Once back near the main Marriott road, we took a left and finished at the opposite end of the beach from which we started.

Triathlons in Hawaii need to be thought about differently than those in California. First of all, the water is much warmer, so wetsuits are not necessary. I usually put my number on my skinsuit under my wetsuit, but no wetsuit meant a number would be draggy in the water. I wanted to put it on for the run, but I didn't have a race belt. So, after futilely trying to take belts off of hiking pants, I finally pinned the number onto a shoelace and that worked ok.

My goals for this race were A) to swim hard, but survive the waves without a wetsuit and B) to bike time-trial hard.

My parents were my cheering section and the main job of the cheering section is not to cheer, but to yell out placing. I estimated there were about 8 women in the olympic distance race of 29 total participants. We started the swim briefly after the sprint-distance athletes, and soon we were really spread out. I had a hard time breathing with more than 2 strokes. The only thing notable about the swim, besides the quick swim to the far bouy and the slow swim back was that they moved the far buoy in closer during the second lap for some odd reason. As I ran toward transition, my parents notified me that there were 5 women in the olympic race who had already exited the water, and my declaration that I would be one of the slowest swimmers seemed to have come true.

Shoes, helmet, sunglasses, and I started out on the first mile, passing a lot of ladies. I didn’t know whether they were slower sprint swimmers or in my race. When I reached the first turnaround at the far end, it was pouring and my sunglasses were splotched. After lap 1, my parents said, “I think you’re in first?” I shrugged. I passed 2 more competitors in the second lap, we were spread out by then. The rain moved to the midpoint on the course during the out portion and then settled for pouring in transition when I completed the bike leg. Woo!

Now soaking, I tied my running shoes, grabbed the shoelace belt and my hat and headed out for the 10k. The rain ceased after about half a mile. The sun came out and started baking us and converting the rainwater to super-humidity. Yucko. A guy left transition a few seconds ahead of me and he was the only place I swapped with during the run, which felt great until about the 5k. The air felt still and sticky and warm after the turnaround and seemed to suck out energy. Every incline provided achy legs. Another guy in front of me probably felt the same way because he looked back at me at one point to see how far away I was. Fortunately, the finishing mile-plus was down hill and partially shady.

This was the longest race time-wise I've ever time-trialed. All my energy was gone at the finish, and I just wanted to take a nap on the grass and not move. Battles with the 10k run distance are now 0-2. I'm losing.

On a more pleasant note, it turns out that we had 12 women in the olympic distance race, so I was smack in the middle of the competition for the swim. I ended up placing 6th overall and 1st woman, thus winning a triathlon for the first time.