Congratulations to Jessy Klima, Evan Pickett, Mike Paulus, Prasad Ganesan, Naupaka Zimmerman, and Wei Hsu (on a mountain bike!) for completing their first triathlons (and any of those of you I missed). Evan commented that he had a blast despite the weather and will be back for more! Congrats to Evan Pickett (8) and Tim Holme (9) for coming in the top ten in the men's collegiate (with many Stanford guys close behind), and Katy Keenan (2) and Audrey Brown (3) coming in the top three(!!) in the women's collegiate. Also, to Elizabeth Walter for winning her age group! And congratulations to everyone for finishing. I didn't hear about any crashes or injuries despite the high winds, so great job everyone!
Davis Race play by play:
The people that drove up the morning of the race had an early 4:15 am wake up call. We got to see Sherry flawlessly back the new trailer (thanks to our equipment manager Ankit and his helpers) under the pavilion at Ford/Burham so we could load the bikes shielded from the rain. We dealt with high winds on the bridges, but little traffic on the roads. We met up with the people that stayed at the hotel at Davis (perhaps a bit envious that they woke up at 6:20 instead of 3:45) and set up a few Stanford transition areas.
The weather was a challenging mind game! At one point I was looking at the transition area, and it was pouring rain and there was a large gust of wind that rattled all the bike racks, threatening to blow everything away, and I was thinking to myself, there's no way. Instead of neatly laid out towels and shoes at each spot as is normal for a transition area, most people just had a plastic bag filled with their stuff plopped unceremoniously next to his or her bike. Huddling near one of the locker rooms I overheard one fellow complain sorrowfully that his bike was depreciating by the minute.
The hot tub next to the pool was a popular hang out. When I arrived before my wave (wave 4 ladies), it was packed with UC Davis and Cal Poly girls . . . and Adam Saunders. He said something to the effect that "this made the drive worth it." Phil Esra commented that before his wave (wave 5) the ridiculousness of a hot tub full of guys was lost on no one. He should have gotten there 20 minutes earlier!
Except for the hot tub, the pool was the warmest place to be, so the swim was almost pleasant. It also helps that every time you came around to where Sherry was she was ringing a cow bell and yelling positive comments, so that was totally awesome!
Most people had the typical "open water style" experience of people clawing on top of each and some drafters hitting feet around turns. If you were around to see Jeff Solomon's wave, however, people were doing breaststroke or backstroke, waiting for the 17 minutes to expire so they could get out!
T1 was slower than usual for some, as they donned jackets (sometimes multiple jackets) and in some cases even leg warmers, but lots of people also just headed out in their tri suits and were fine (though there are reports of a speedo guy who had to be assisted to the locker room with hypothermia).
On the bike, this year the wind was blowing in our faces on the way out, so it wasn't as big of a surprise as it was last year, where the wind seemed to come out of nowhere on the first turn. Phil also commented that the "25 mph tailwind was a trip: you're flying along at 25+ mph on extremely smooth asphalt, in air still enough that if you had a pipe you could blow smoke rings."
T2 was another adventure finding stuff that had been blown away. Natalia searched and searched for her number, and was accidentally about to start the run with someone else's number until she saw hers in the bushes.
The run had some little hills and tunnels and bridges to look at as you ran and waited for the ice blocks at the end of your legs to thaw. The run also featured a duck pond and the ducks were enjoying the weather and putting on quite the show by skimming along the surface and diving. Elizabeth Walter had a narrow miss on the run course as she and another racer careened around a corner at top speed, not hearing each other.
The post race pizza offered by Davis was perhaps the most delicious thing we had ever had. The hot grease was especially good.
Lastly, Derek and I have gotten lots of thank yous for making the logistics go smoothly, but I think that's really just a mirror of how competent and on top of things everyone on the team is. I was really impressed! I also want to thank Jamie Fleischfresser for showing up at 4 am and helping with the bikes even though she wasn't racing and Elliot Wright for coming along to be an extra hand! And also thanks to everyone on the team for responding quickly and always being willing to help out!
Now on to the Treeathlon!
| Overall Results | ||
|---|---|---|
| WOMEN : | 3rd overall | |
| MEN : | 3rd | |
| Overall : | 3rd | |
| WOMEN : Name | Place | Time |
| Katy Keenan | 2 | 1:46:36 |
| Audrey Brown | 3 | 1:47:49 |
| Patricia McHale | 21 | 2:02:48 |
| Natalia Gomez-Ospina | 27 | 2:04:12 |
| Magdalena Jonikas | 33 | 2:09:41 |
| Alicia Solow-Niederman | 34 | 2:10:04 |
| Catherine Kealhofer | 40 | 2:14:51 |
| Stephanie Claussen | 42 | 2:15:46 |
| Lauren Kubiak | 56 | 2:24:21 |
| Kathleen O'Connor | 57 | 2:25:06 |
| Susan Clark | 62 | 2:32:28 |
| Jessy Klima | 63 | 2:33:19 |
| Cecile Le Cocq | 66 | 2:37:07 |
| MEN : Name | Place | Time |
| Evan Pickett | 6 | 1:33:40 |
| Tim Holme | 9 | 1:34:12 |
| Bryan Ellis | 13 | 1:37:23 |
| Mark Burkhardt | 15 | 1:38:04 |
| Kevin Lohner | 23 | 1:40:04 |
| Adam Saunders | 24 | 1:40:28 |
| John Conley | 24 | 1:40:29 |
| Troy Brant | 22 | 1:40:30 |
| Charles Limouse | 31 | 1:43:24 |
| Robert Marshall | 37 | 1:47:13 |
| Federico Felizzi | 42 | 1:47:54 |
| Thomas Lee | 43 | 1:47:55 |
| Ankit Bhagatwala | 47 | 1:49:40 |
| Michael Paulus | 63 | 2:00:37 |
| Ronald Chen | 72 | 2:10:55 |
| Douglas Alfaro | 75 | 2:11:39 |
| Phil Esra | 75 | 2:12:04 |
| Derek Mackay | 76 | 2:14:06 |
| Prajwal Kulkarni | 81 | 2:16:15 |
| Prasad Ganesan | 83 | 2:19:45 |
| Naupaka Zimmerman | 90 | 2:25:45 |
| Wei Hsu | 94 | 2:48:44 |
| AGE GROUP : Name | Place | Time |
| Jeff Solomon | 2 (M35-39) | 1:35:12 |
| Mark Johnson | 6 (M40-44) | 2:07:38 |