UCI Zot Trot (race report 1)

by Marcel Aguiar
 

At the very start of 2015 I was SO excited for the season. My swimming was solid, Tuesday morning Swamis rides had me at the fastest ever on the bike, and I PR’d my mile run by a ridiculous half-minute. How could I not be excited for Zot Trot? But as fortune would have it, I had to change my Zot Trot registration to a relay at the end of January. Upper foot pain during runs started in early January, and a month later it wasn’t any better. What seemed like would require a few weeks of rest turned into a month, into 3 months, and eventually the whole season and school year went by and I was still having on and off pain. Read more »

Wildflower (Olympic) Race Report

by Melissa Le Roux

Wildflower is the team’s last major race of the season, but it happened to be my first Olympic distance triathlon. The week before the race I was completely torn whether or not to compete. On the one hand, it was my last chance this season to race with the team, but on the other hand, I had only been back to light training for a month after being on crutches for 6 weeks! I was very nervous that I would not be able to finish, but after going back and forth on the decision, Coach Kim convinced me two days prior to the race that I would be fine. Read more »

Wildflower (Long Course) Race Report

by Kerri Seger

Third WF long course. Fifth half ironman distance. I should have this thing down pat by now, right? Riiiiight. On Friday morning Yuann and Chris picked me up, and after looping around a tractor-trailor turned inside out on the highway, we grabbed Boone Horse from his parents’ place and got to Lake San Antonio relatively early. TriBike Transport wasn’t too hard to find, and I was off to set up transition. Here I was thinking that leaving my bag half-packed from Nationals would prevent forgetting things. Important things. Like pedals. Nope. A quick sprint up the stairs later to find a vendor selling Speedplay 5s returned no luck. As chance would have it, though, the guys at Dimond Bikes are friends with someone I swam with in high school. They lent me one of the sets off their personal bikes – the same pedals Brian used when he forgot his at an IM! #smallworld #swimmerproblems Spoiler alert: not all Speedplays are created equal. Read more »

140 Miles, 11,000+ ft. of Climbing, 30 Miles of Dirt

by Sage Aronson

In February, I get a text from my friend, “Hey do you want to do the Belgian Waffle Ride with me?” I do love waffles and can’t think of anything better than being on the bike. But it was $100… “You get a beer if you finish.” I was sold.

I knew it was a long ride with some dirt sections – but the official course wasn’t posted so I didn’t give it much thought. Prior to the race, Michael Marckx, the President of our generous sponsor, Spy Optics, sent a series of twenty “communiques” outlining and hyping up particular sections of the race in reverse order. Unlike other races where the tendency is to downplay the difficulty of the course to encourage beginners, the purpose of this was exactly the opposite. Here’s a taste: Read more »

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. Read more »

by Lilly McCormick

Some of the women’s team preparing for the swim!

Sometimes it seems harsh that the hours and hours of training and effort put in all year are tested in one short time, on one day, and in whatever conditions that may be present, but that is the nature of the sport, and can be considered part of the challenge. This year’s collegiate national nationals was a true example of this aspect of triathlon… Read more »

by Clare LeGuyader
 

My journey to the DL race at Nationals started a few months ago when Esther cornered me in the locker room after a swim: “Has [Coach] Kim or Jason talked to you about Draft Legal for Nationals?” Me, blank face: “What are you talking about.”

After some gentle persuading by all three of those people, I verbally committed to the race, thinking that obviously this was just a safety net. After all, this is my first season competitively racing triathlons. I’ve been riding a bike less than a year, running when I have to, but swimming my whole life (in a previous life I was distance swimmer at The College of William and Mary). In fact, this season started out spectacularly at Bike Camp in Anza Borrego where I crashed on my first “long” ride (it was less than 35 miles). Read more »

Conference 2015 (Race Report 2)

by Rachel Marty

Ethan, Kent, and Rachel taking a break to pose for a selfie with the beautiful horses!

On Saturday morning, the day before the race, Clare arrived at my house around 6:30am with her little silver Volkswagen. Over the next hour, we managed to fit Sinead, Vivien, Clare, me, Sinead’s bike, Clare’s bike, all of our camping gear, and bags into and onto Clare’s car. After we conquered set up of the bike rack (on the fourth try), we knew nothing would stop us.  During the drive, we alternated between admiring the ocean view and laughing about the age discrepancies of memories associated with old music. We got to SLO around 1:00pm, picked up our race packets and then started setting up camp. Once more people had arrived, we assembled our bikes and rode for about half an hour to acclimate to the course. The whole time, I was in awe of the beauty surrounding us. Naturally, we had to get off our bikes to take a selfie with some of the horses. I mean, who can pass up on opportunity like that??? Read more »

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.
Read more »

UCI Zot Trot 2015 (Race Report 2)

by Jorge Palacios Jr.

A week before the day of the race, it finally hit me… I was going to participate in what would be my first race as a UCSD Triathlete. Throughout

Jorge pushing through the final stretch!

that entire week, I couldn’t stop thinking about what would happen that upcoming Sunday, on race day. Whenever I thought about it, whether it be during class, at home or when I was out for a workout, I always got a little freaked out. I’m usually able to calm down my nerves, since I was a Cross Country/Track & Field runner back in high school for three years, but this time it was different. Read more »