Conference 2015 (Race Report 1)

by Charlie Chen

 

The March Triathlon Series serves as the conference championships of the stacked West Coast Collegiate Triathlon Conference (WCCTC). Being the first race since UC Irvine and the first Olympic distance race for many, the team dealt with mixed emotions, ranging from the excitement to anxiety. However, the combination of a large, competitive field and the championship race environment ultimately fueled the team’s desire to tow the starting line.

Before we could even think about the start line, we had to the get to the race site itself. MTS takes place in Arroyo Grande, a supposed four and a half hour drive from the UCSD campus but there’s this thing called LA traffic that likes to make every drive through that area at least an hour longer. After a long six-hour drive, my car finally made it to the team campsite where we were greeted by the rest of our team (who were smart enough to leave early to avoid the LA traffic), a Jorts Sports Photographer, and his cute puppy. My car chatted briefly with the team but quickly changed into cycling attire and went on a brief course recon ride. My legs responded well to the race efforts I put in on the ride, which gave me confidence that the months of training would finally pay off. Before getting back to the campsite, we saw the UCLA team doing their team ride, which prompted Dan to do a more extensive recon on their girls’ team.

I was starving after the recon ride but knew I had to completely set up my bike before the sun went down. After heavy discussion of what is the most aero way to put the bike number on our bikes and emptying a roll of electrical tape, my bike was set up to race and I could finally eat. My car picked up fellow teammates Kent Kubo and three time MTS mustache champion Ethan Veitch and headed to the Klondike Café where we met up with our girls’ team, listened to some guy singing the Pokémon theme song, and ordered way too much pizza for the five of us. We returned to the campsite with our leftovers and listened to all the old grad students count down the minutes until they could go to sleep. I went to sleep myself probably two hours after they did.

I woke up at 4:55 AM to ACDC’s Thunderstruck, ate a portion of my breakfast and rushed to get my bike to transition to secure a good rack spot. Not to my surprise, I saw Dad and Jeff already claim the best rack spots upon arriving at transition (Dave and Bryce might not be here but our team will always be the first ones in transition). After picking the best spot available, I returned to the campsite and ate the rest of my breakfast before heading back down for the race start.

The collegiate men started first and like usual, it was a full contact sport swimming to the first turn buoy. I didn’t get a good start and was kicked, grabbed, punched and swam over in the first hundred meters before finally being able to find a swim rhythm after the first turn buoy. I tried to make up the time I had lost at the start throughout the rest of the swim and got out of the water with a good group in a respectable time. The first section of the bike portion was very fast due to a strong tailwind which meant as soon as we made the turnaround, the speeds were greatly reduced. About ¾ of the way into the bike course, Bill Jones made a surprise appearance into our group as he started in wave two and had already made up five minutes on us. Dad soon blasted by me on a downhill as well and I tried my best to keep them in sight. Going into T2, I could see Bill and Dad just starting their run which encouraged me to hit the run course hard. I caught Dad in the first mile but realized quickly that I had started way too fast and almost blew up at just mile 2. I adjusted to a more sustainable pace at 5k turnaround point and though I was still hurting really bad, seeing all my teammates toughening out the run course on the way back motivated me to keep pushing all the way to the finish line. Dad, Daniel Heineck, and Jeff Dahlen all crossed the finish line shortly after me resulting in our men putting 5 athletes in the top 17. I was personally thrilled about my top ten performance but was more ecstatic that our team put together such a great performance. I hope we can replicate this at nationals in a month.

 

There was some much-needed post race pizza and hydration that I snacked on as we continued to cheer on our teammates until everyone had crossed the finish line. Overall, the UCSD team had a great weekend at a great event put on by the Cal Poly Triathlon Team. I am so proud of everyone on the team for racing and finishing on a challenging course, especially those doing their first Olympic distance triathlon.

A couple of extra shout outs goes to:
-Bill Jones for three-peating despite starting in wave 2 and dealing with a bent chain
-Daniel Heineck for not surprisingly having the fastest bike split of the day
-Alex Boone for toughening out a great finish despite crashing hard on the bike
-Katie Hosch for having some blazing fast transitions and leading our women’s team
-That Jorts Sports Photographer guy for taking some really good photos