by Jason “Dad” Stofleth

 

The week of this season’s most competitive race had arrived. As I scrambled to help send out emails, pay for cabin reservations, check flight times, read through a team itinerary about 80 times, prep my bike to ship to the race, continue training, show data to my research advisor and discuss work on my project for my upcoming qualifying exam, get a TA to cover my classes for the week, call in a favor from a friend to proctor an exam for me, and packed my bags with gear and clothing; I had no time to be nervous about the race. Maybe this was for the best. Such is life as a grad student triathlete.

I arrived at the airport on Wednesday morning with much relief. I had flawlessly executed my entire to do list before I left and had not a tingling of anxiety about loose ends. These moments are extremely rare, but I feel they are tremendous rewards for careful, detailed planning and preparation. All I had to do was board the plane and follow the itinerary for the next 5 days. I was too far away from campus to be concerned about work, teaching, or meetings. I had only one purpose for the next few days- to do everything possible in order to race the fastest triathlon of my life.

Being among the few willing and old-enough teammates to rent vehicles, I had been selected to drive a 12-passenger van for the trip. Shout out to Clare for agreeing to also be so helpful as well. I immediately thought of a funny scene from the movie, Billy Madison, as to what it might be like driving everyone around to all of the events this weekend.

After a few days of relaxing in our group cabins, doing some tune-up workouts, and checking out the race site; Friday had arrived and it was time for the draft legal sprint race. I dropped off an anxious Bill Jones and unreadable Jeff Dahlen at the race site in the morning, found some coffee, and then parked. We had missed the start of the swim (my fault), but arrived in time to see the men’s race starting the bike leg. The course wasn’t all that spectator friendly, but good bike courses probably shouldn’t be. I watched Bill come off the bike first after a commanding breakaway, giving him a lead into the run. It wasn’t enough to hold off Penn State’s Jason West, who had to run a 14:38 5k to catch Bill. It gave Jason the win by a mere 15 seconds. Dan, our team president and I commented that we just witnessed two perfectly planned tactical races between Bill and Jason. Jeff finished shortly thereafter to complete the UC San Diego men’s racing for the day.

The women’s draft-legal race kicked off a few hours later, with Clare LeGuyader representing UC San Diego in her Nationals debut. The spectators watched the athletes swim out from the beach, round the buoys of the 750 meter swim, and sight towards the red arch on the beach signaling the swim exit. By the first turn, a single set of arms could be seen steadily moving many body lengths ahead of the first pack. We all wondered who this fast swimmer would be that could put that distance on a field of draft legal athletes, who by the nature of the race’s design, were tactically advantaged to be lightning fast in the water. As the swimmer ran up the embankment from the lake to transition, we could all see it was Clare! Being a collegiate swimmer as an undergraduate, she had just humbled the fastest triathletes that the Nation had to offer. After getting a start out onto the bike course, the field was able to work in draft-packs to make up ground on Clare, the solo leader to this point. Clare held on and fought to hold ground through her race, finishing a very impressive 16th in the field.

Friday afternoon was spent readying gear, enjoying a fine dinner of Mexican food (we are from SoCal afterall), and prepping bikes. Prepping bikes is a bit of an understatement. Despite the fact that we had all taken a ride the other day, we hadn’t solved all of our bike issues. Jeff filled in as our mechanic, tuning up shifting, tightening brakes, and tending to the other many issues people had suddenly discovered that needed attention before the morning. He was a trooper, as he only mildly berated everyone for their reprehensible neglect to the state of their bikes. We then loaded the bikes in the van for the morning and tried to get some sleep before our 5:30am departure.

I woke at 3am to eat the large part of my prerace breakfast. The window next to my bed gusted in a pine and cedar scented breeze that was laced with the unmistakable damp musty smell of rain. I listened and could hear a light pattern of rainfall on the leaves outside. The forecast was correct in their prediction of 100% chance of rain for today. It was going to be cold, wet, and miserable… I honestly couldn’t wait.

I don’t remember much from before the race, as I went about my transition-setup routine with drone-like efficiency. It continued to rain and soaked every bit of gear we owned that was not bagged and sealed. I managed to don my wetsuit and get to the water for a 10 minute swim warmup before the start. Wave 1 lined up for the in-water-start and a 30 second countdown led us to the starting horn; no surprise starts today (unlike at Conference). A flurry of arms and kicking feet was my constant companion for the first few hundred meters. I angled to the outside of the line of swimmers, hoping to maneuver beyond the aggressively overeager starters, and moved back in alongside another swimmer to use his slipstream. I sighted my way around the swim course, careful to look up often to stay on target and not to stop my stroke or let my hips drop in the water. In no time at all I was shuffling wobbly-legged up the beach to the embankment into transition. I cursed as my uncoordinated legs couldn’t get the last bit of my heel to escape the wetsuit, but soon I was under helmet and trotting down the long, snaking path to the bike-mounting line.

I pedaled along the course, careful to ease up to my goal pace, and slipped my feet into my shoes. Thus began the wettest bike race I have done to date. Thankfully I grabbed some clear-lenses for my glasses in expectation. I stayed with a pack of guys throughout the bike leg, as we took turns fighting to take the lead spot and passing with constant frequency that no one was allowed a full minute in front. To our credit, everyone kept honest distances in the absence of the rain-shy drafting officials. I was a bit worried as I hadn’t seen Charlie or Jeff yet on the bike and feared I had gotten off to a bad swim start and thought that my bike must not be going well. Usually I can see them on the turns, but with the rain today I could not. I managed to find Jeff, who was having a solid race, after mile 20 and we managed to arrive to and leave transition together. It turns out I had managed to finish the swim ahead of Charlie, which is not a usual occurrence and is partly the cause of my confusion.

I made it out to the run course, set a new 10k PR, and finished with an overall time that was much better for me than I anticipated. All in all, it was a great race and I was pleased.

Our men’s team claimed 7th, a mere few points separating us from 4th place. The women placed 11th, and our combined team place was 10th in the Nation. I can’t even begin to give enough notice to all the teammates who had outstanding races. Bill Jones claimed 5th place, Jeff and Charlie put down great races to round out our scoring. Dan, Kent, and Alex Boone each came in hot on our heels; not letting the rough weather even remotely set back their races. Lilly McCormick finished first for the women; closely followed by Clare, Esther, Megan, Alex Reich, Sinead, Kerri, and Kaitlyn.

We all went home feeling pretty good about ourselves, and went to go prep for some hard-earned pizza and then attend the awards ceremony. A special shout out to our coach Kim McDonald, who in his first season as our coach has logged more hours for this team than any one of the athletes. His well-laid out training, pool time, 6am practices, and contagious enthusiasm for this team were a big part of our success. With that said, I’m really looking forward to next season!