Hello! I’m back. Been way too long. I think I started my last post (that was 2 years ago) like this. But I’m on it again. A lot has happened in the past two years. I had a major surgery 6 weeks after my last race report. I’ll be sharing more on that in the next few posts. For today I thought it would be appropriate to end my hiatus with a my race report from Nautica Malibu Tri International distance. The same race I did 2 years ago and was my last post for a while.
Here we go. I decided to race again since I finally felt ready. My surgery took a lot out of me and took a good 9 months to fully recover. Sneak peak into my surgery, I had a long up/down cut (about 8″ or so) through my abdomen to remove a large fibroid. Anyway, I couldn’t even sit up without help. OK, we will dive into that later. So now you know why I waited a long time between races.
Nautica Malibu Tri is a fun double race weekend held at beautiful Zuma Beach in Malibu, CA. The race raises money for Children’s Hospital of LA, Pediatric Cancer. So it’s a wonderful way to contribute to something bigger.
RACE MORNING
Got up 3:15AM and on the road to the race venue by 4AM. We stayed in the valley because there aren’t really any reasonable accommodations near the race venue. The drive to Zuma Beach was about 25min and transition area (Zuma Beach parking lot opened at 4:30AM)
Here’s a tip: You want to get to the transition area / parking lot early. I’m talking before 5:10AM. Otherwise, you risk having to park far away since the bike course is right around the venue so there’s no parking on 101 right around Zuma Beach parking lot.
We parked and gathered my bike and gear and headed to transition. Since I picked up my race packet the day before (Friday) I could head right to my rack in transition. Once you get set up you can “relax” and make a trip to the port-o-johns, or even better, at this race the beach bathrooms were open. (and there was no line since it was so early…) Also, there were no body markers. We were given “tatoos” of our race number. Fairly easy to put on but always good to have a standby Sharpie. (tip# 2.)
This was my 1st race post surgery so I was really excited to see how I would do compared to the previous time I did the race. My goal was 3 hrs or less. When I did the race in 2014, my time was 3 hrs 14 min and that was good for 7th in my age group…just 2 spots off the podium. I wanted to podium this time!
You have to leave transition by 6:15AM to go to a mandatory race meeting in the expo which is right next to the transition on the sand. Then you walk about a mile down the beach to the swim start. I have to say if you haven’t done this race, I highly recommend it. It’s beautiful, fun and very well run. They even made improvements from 2014 when I did it. Just might be one for my race schedule every year!
SWIM: 32:26:38
I was once again in the last wave start. Women 46+ go last…OK, that’s fine. I took the opportunity to get in the water a bit before my wave start. It’s a good idea to get in the water before any race, if possible, to get acclimated. Since this is an ocean swim with surf entry/exit the issue of large surf always crops up. Causing obsessive surf report checks for a week or so prior to race day! We were lucky on Saturday, Sept 17th tho’ the waves were mellow 1 – 1.5ft except a few larger sets did roll in prior to my wave which smacked people back a bit but nothing too scary.
The swim was great. Water temp was (don’t recall exactly but around 70degrees) perfect for my Xterra Vector suit I wore. I also came across this video introducing a new way to put on your wetsuit.( from Triathlon Lab) There’s an even better version on FB Women For Tri if you are part of that group. Check it out…it works!!
I’m not a big fan of ocean swimming but this has to be the best place to swim in the ocean. Loved it. I had some trouble in 2014 when I did the race coming back into shore…I think I got caught in a rip and should have swum out of it but during the race, it didn’t dawn on me and I just kept swimming and not really getting anywhere. So avoid rips so you don’t waste precious energy just finishing your swim. I learned from my experience in 2014, and that didn’t happen to me this year.
Swim = great!
One other nice update this race put in place (compared to 2014) was a shower to run thru between the beach and transition. Then you don’t have to waste time rinsing your feet at your transition spot.
Tip 3: Start removing your wetsuit immediately after you exit the water. Unzip and pull off the arms while you run to transition. Hold your cap & goggles in the same hand as one of the sleeves you’re pulling off and pull that sleeve inside out; then your cap and goggles will be safely inside the arm of your suit and you don’t have to worry about dropping / losing them.
Tip 4: I also read a tip from a Pro that suggested using a new pair of goggles for each race to assure you have no fogging issues. I haven’t tried this but worth a try.
BIKE: 1:17:22
The bike portion of the race was so enjoyable. This course features nice rolling hills as it proceeds north along 101 to the turnaround area. The race is well controlled by local law enforcement at all cross streets so very safe. They also close off the bike lane and one lane so that there is plenty of room for the race and for traffic.
One nice improvement they made this year is the speed bumps were removed from Zuma Beach parking lot. In my 2014 race, I hit one going too fast and my water bottle popped off my bike and spilled out just about all the water. I did quickly stop and pick it up to salvage any water left…as this was all the water I had for the ride. I don’t usually like to stop at Bike aide stations on shorter races due to greater potential for crash issues to occur in the chaos of aid station bottle hand off.
Anyway, I have to say the bike portion was fast and fun. I decided to push it and just see what I had left for the run. That’s exactly what I did.
RUN: 1:01:53
Run was good but definitely the most challenging part of the race for me. I went hard on the bike so took me a bit to get my legs moving well. The course started out going north this time, different from last time I did it. I saw my husband on the way out and he told me I was 4th in my age group so told me to “get up there!!”
It was a hot day and not much shade on this course but not as hot as 2014. There were aid stations every mile on the run. Perfect, just run station to station breaking down the race especially if you are hurting or overheating. Tip 4: The best thing you can do when it’s hot is to get 2 cups of water at the aid stations, drink one and pour the other over your head. The run is the part of the race I need to work on. I need to get faster and that will be my focus for training and my next race.
Overall time: 3:00:19.
My goal was 3 hours or less as judged from the 2014 race, that would have put me on the podium. Not so, this time took 10th (out of 34) in my age group this time. Hmmm, you ladies out there in my age group are getting faster!! Rock on! Here’s the proof. I cut 14 minutes off my 2014 time, which was good for 7th place that year. And this year, my faster time was good for 10th place. Great job getting faster, better and healthier to everyone out there.
If you have the opportunity to do this race I highly recommend putting it on your race schedule. The Nautica Malibu Triathlon has been going on for 30 years and it has raised considerable funds for Children’s Hospital of LA for kids with cancer.
OK, that’s a wrap for now. Stay tuned as I reveal some good information about my surgery. I know I searched for training tips while recovering from a surgery and was hard pressed to find much good info. So I’ll be providing my experience in order to help others facing a same or similar situation.
See you out on the road. Keep moving forward.