UCLA Triathlon





The UCLA Tri last Sunday and was a good race. The Tri had 2 waves, wave 1 and wave 2. They decided which wave you were in based on the time you can finish a 400 meter swim. Their were 400+ participants (it was a big race!) and had two transition areas. I was so confused because I thought Tri’s only have 1 transition area. All I had were my running shoes and my bike shoes that click onto my pedals. I had to leave my running shoes in transition 2 and take my biking shoes to transition 1. That means….I had to talk around on the cold floor for a little over an hour because I was in wave 2 and they started at 8 instead 7am. Luckily my friend brought some sandals and was nice enough to let me borrow them. The only problem was that I’m a size 6 1/2 in women’s shoes and he is a size 12 in men’s. Everyone had a good laugh and said it looked like I was wearing flippers :P UCLA’S pool is huge, instead of doing 16 laps we only had to do 8 because the pool was long. Before the race we had to tie a “band” around our ankles that had a chip in it so they can tell the exact time we got. During the swim, my band kept loosening up and almost fell off. If it fell I would have had to swim to the bottom of the pool because they charge you if you lose it. So during my swim I had to stop to tighten it up. I was nervous because I didn’t want them to pull me out for thinking I was drowning, so I made it quick. Once I finished, I ran out the pool to transition 1 to do the bike course. I ran across the mounting area and clipped in my shoes. I was pedaling really fast, looked down and realized my chain fell off. I knew how to put it back on but for some reason at the moment I couldn’t do it. So one of the UCLA tri team members came over and fixed it for me. I thanked them and started the course. We had to do a route 4 times and then you were done with the biking. Half of the course was downhill and the other half was uphill. The uphill was really steep and hard to do. I was literally going 1mph up that monster. After all that hard work and pain, I dismounted and ran to transition 2 for the run. I was running with this girl and we were feeding off each other. I would push her and then she would push me, which makes the run a lot easier and faster. When I finished and crossed the finish line, I was so beat. That race was so difficult, especially the hills on the biking. I went to my family and then went to my team to hang. I’m for sure not doing the UCLA Triathlon next year. Those hills were insane! I’m not looking forward to doing them again unless I get stronger and better at biking hills. Overall, it was tough, but a lot of fun. I enjoyed the swim and run and hanging with the team. I was in the car with 3 other teammates. I was so tired that I slept the ride home while they talked :P I remember waking up and hearing them talk about how one of them accidentally ran over a cat. It was so random and sad but funny at the same time. I love being on the Tri team because you bond with your team and make new friends that are on other teamsJ



A few of us fooling around after the race