We had a great showing of Stanford Triathletes at UC Santa Cruz's TriSlugTri this Sunday, Nov 18 2007. There were seven of us Stanfordites; Lauren, Elaine, Elizabeth, Stayce, Ron, Federico, and Sean.
Pre race: A few of us did a course preview the day before. We saw the ancient ruins at the gates, the East Field View, and the beautiful forest on campus! We also saw a protest from a tree house 200 feet in the air. We also had the typical pre-race dinner at Olive Garden's which I think should be the official triathlon pre race dinner, Ron, Federico and I ate plenty of never ending salad. Finally we crashed at my place in San Jose and Elaine came to the rescue with her bike wagon.
Race day: There was a lot of Fog! At first we thought the bike would be cancelled but it cleared away. A few of us felt the water in the pool tasted funny probably cause they ozonate rather than chlorinate. Lauren suckered me into sharing a lane with her but little did I know that swimming next to a bulk head that was ever so loose would be a little bit challenging, you don't train for these type of things.
We all had a fun swim to a good transition and off to the bike races. There was a steep uphill out but then it was a fast descent to a right hand turn and back up the hill again. We had no flats or incidents and everyone transitioned to the run smoothly.
The run was hilly but breathtaking (literally and physically)! The return run finished on the east field which has a spectacular view combined with adrenaline and a little bit o' sweat!
Amongst us geniuses there were no cameras. Luckily there was a proud parent that took some glamorous shots of the team. Team photos and results will follow sometime soon.
Congratulations to all those on their first triathlon! and base training race! Great team work and support for each other on the course today!