Sat night: Went to bed at 12 am after checking and double checking that I had everything set out for the morning. I realize this is late when I had to wake up at 3:30, but I had a lot of energy all night and couldn't wind down. Went to sleep somewhere between 1:30 am and 2 am because my room mates don't understand that when I say I need to sleep for a race it means DON'T have a loud party all night. Also, the longer they were loud the more pissed I became, and being pissed at them made it even harder to sleep.
Sunday morning: Woke up at 3:30, got dressed made coffee, out the door by 4:20. The drive down was nice, and I had a lot of energy even prior to having my coffee. Ate a bagel in the car, and drank my coffee when we got into Berkeley at about 5:30. I was pretty impressed by how warm it was when I got out of the car. Got a good transition spot near the bike out, and checked in. After getting my bib I proceeded to goof off for a good amount of time, and totally forgot to leave time to warm up. I also failed to really set my transition area up well, so I had to go back a few times to adjust things. Then it was time for my wave to start, and suddenly I was in the pool warming up.
The Swim: The swim started good, I didn't wait for the pack to thin out but just swam with everyone, and didn't get kicked too much. The water was pretty warm, and I was liking the open water swim style because I drafted off a Cal girl for two laps. Then I tried to pass her and we go into a passing battle. A lot of times I was behind her and in the course of swimming I would wack her in the legs or butt on accident. This was disturbing to me because I was trying not to, but I kept accidentally doing it, and if I was her I would have been wierded out by me. I don't know who won the battle, but I do know that I looked at the clock on my third lap and saw 54 min, which meant that I had 3 minutes to finish that lap and do a fourth. I kinda knew I couldn't finish the swim, but for some reason I just kept swimming, and finished all four laps, two minutes AFTER the time cut off. I definitely didn't hear the whistle or whatever signaled the end of the swim, so I wasted a ton of time finishing the fourth lap. Ran to my bike, threw on my shoes and helmet, grabbed arm warmers and gloves and took off.
The Bike: At the second turn on the bike course there was no volunteers or markings on the ground except an orange arrow pointing right. I thought, hmmm, this must mean I go right, so I followed it, and climbed a little hill, all the way until I ran into stairs. Then I thought to myself, hmmmm, they can't expect me to ride my bike up stairs, so I turned around and went back the other way. This also wasted time. Then I had to climb this really big hill I guess they call centennial. It was pretty steep and eventually I caught up to people ahead of me, and then there was a great view of all these factories and manufacturing plants, but the trick was that if you looked out beyond them you could see San Francisco, and the golden gate bridge. There was a lot of climbing, and after that a lot more climbing. Then I saw Becca Kwong and Bevin and Becca Backer and I was so happy for such great team mates who came to cheer us on. I thought they were going to be at the top, so when I saw them I thought to myself, hmmm, this must be the top. It was not the top. I knew because after I passed them for some reason I was still riding my bike up hill. This was frustrating. Then I saw a volunteer man from Berkeley. The volunteer said to me "Good job, you made it up Centennial". So I asked him, is this really the top, and he said "oh there's a little more climbing". This was a lie. I knew he lied to me because I did a lot more riding up hill, for a long time. Yeah there was a little descending in there too, but way more climbing than I expected. Then I was riding really hard and every time I saw someone in front of me I thought, no way are you going to stay in front of me, and then I passed them. Then there was an out and back section and at the turn around of course, they put it in the middle of the road, going down himm, so when you turn around you not only loose momentum, but also then you have to go up hill. I rode hard and passed more people and then the steep descent came. I saw lots of signs on the steep descent that said "slow down, sharp turn". I read them and understood that they were there for my safety, but did I obey them? Well, I was thinking in my head, I can ride my bike fast down hill, remember that one time when you flew down Fort Ross Road in Bodega Bay, if you can do that you don't really need to slow down too much here. Well, I was wrong, and the signs were right. On the third sharp turn I was still being cocky and came into the turn WAY too fast. When I reached for my breaks my back tire locked up and I felt it slid out from under me. Then my right side hit the pavement and I slid a good 10 yards. I remember thinking the pavement felt smooth, and then seeing smoke coming from the skidding tires of the girl who was behind me as she tried to avoid crashing into me. Then I remember jumping up and getting back on my bike. I told the volunteer I was fine, grabbed the breaks really hard and continued descending. Then my back tire felt really wobbly, and I was paranoid. I went slower and two people passed me which made me mad. I had to pass the girl who had been right behind me when I crashed, and I told her I was sorry for scaring her. If I had made her crash I would have been so sad. Then I felt my butt with my hand and I didn't feel holes in my skinsuit, or see blood on my hand, so thought, Larissa, don't be a baby, you can't skip the run because you have the equivalent of rug burn. I was wrong though, there was blood, and a whole on my butt, and that explains why it was so breezy back there for the remainder of the race. Then I came into T2 and ran to get my running shoes, hat and number.
The run: I was pretty excited about crashing when I was getting my stuff for the run, and forgot to tighten my running shoes. I heard someone say I was bloody, but I didn't believe them. My wound didn't really hurt at all yet. Then I started running, and was kinda bummed that I had to run SOOOO far after such a traumatic bike leg. Then I just ran and ran and ran and tried not to think about how much more I had to go. There were hills that went up and hills that went down, and tons of stairs. Then I was running alone and I started to like it. At the end of the run I tried to sprint but was confused where the finish line was. Also when I saw the time I definitely forgot at first that I had to deduce 45 min. from my time because my wave started 45 min after the first men's wave. Then when I was done Ben said "go over there" and I didn't understand, and I was pretty dazed. Then I followed Ben's instructions and a medical semi professional/intern cleaned out the bigger of the two wounds, and put an awesome bandaid on it. I didn't let the intern clean the other wound because it was on my butt, and I didn't want to expose the world to my butt. When the intern was cleaning out my road rash it hurt like heck, but it was better to have him do it than me ... I was in very good spirits, not really sure why when the back side of my body was all bloodied and torn up, but I guess if you try at all costs to avoid crashing, when you do crash, you may as well enjoy it. I though it was quite exciting to get so intimate with the pavement, especially the skidding part, and I knew it was 100% my fault for being so darn cocky, so I couldn't really complain too much. Then I had lots of Peet's coffee, and then we had free burritos from Chipotle, and they tasted really good. When we got back to Davis I tried to nap, but my road rash prevented me from napping much.
Overall, it was a fun race, despite poor bike course markings and crashing. I had a great time, and I was really happy that our team is so cool that Becca and Becca and Bevin and Roper and so many Aggies came just to cheer! Thanks guys!!!
(c) 2007 by the UC Davis Triathlon Team
Web site developed and maintained by Matt Roper
Please report problems with the website to
webmaster @ ucdtri.com