Lake Lopez Triathlon Race Report (And Cool Camping Pics)

Lake Lopez is near San Luis Obispo, and for a few summers when I was a kid we were up there all the time for my dad to go windsurfing and for us kids to enjoy the lake.  Very sentimental place.  I camped with my good buddy Alex and my mom and her boyfriend, Michael.  Julia, sadly was on a show - next time!  Anyway, I'll keep this brief.

My goal was to (hopefully) PR and possibly go sub 2:40.  But I did not do my homework on the course and decided to "do well" in the field (like top 5 age group?) would be great.  Since it's a small race I knew that might be possible.

Woke up early - freezing.  Air was in the 40s.  Let's swim in a lake?  WTF am I doing here?  Shockingly the water was warmer than the air.

Swim:  Good clip.  Towards the front of my wave start.  Could not spot the buoys or beach in the last quarter due to sun glare.  Lost at least 30 seconds getting in line.

T1:  Not feeling your feet makes getting into the bike shoes tough.

Bike:  Tail wind.  HEAD WIND + HILLS.  Long long rollers and false flats with the course culminating at mile 19 with a CRAZY hill.  We're talking 16% grade I'm told.  Dudes in $5000 bikes WALKING their bikes up.  It took all I had to make it to the top, then it was mostly downhill back.  I flew, but still only averaged about 18mph on this tough windy course.

T2:  Problem with my shoe, but oh well - only lost 15-20 sec.

Run:  A chore.  Man it was tough getting into a groove.  Rolling hills again and a long false flat until the turnaround.  Paced it well and tried to push the pace the last few.  But it was tough work!

Final time: 2:47...bummer!  BUT....good for 5th in my division!  (Although I think there were only about 10+ in the division!!!)

It sure felt great to soak in the lake afterwards.  Did another brick (bike/run) today (Sunday) and had TWO blowouts.  My tire is totally gashed and I'm lucky I didn't have to walk back!  After I patched the tube I ended up literally putting a few dollar bills in between the tube and the tire!  Can't remember where I heard that trick, but it worked for me!

Camping at this cool spot was a blast.  Great weekend.

Here are some cool pics I took last night: