We drove over to Zuma with a pack of cars who seem to be heading at the same direction. Lucky for us, we were actually on time. We got parking and quickly got out to pump more air into my bike’s tire. What I did notice this year was that the weather was warmer. This worked in my favor since I forgot my sweater.

It was a long walk from the car to lifeguard station 15 where the transition area was. When we got there, a few folks from NBC Universal was hanging around getting prepped for the race. I was much more calm and relax than last year. It definitely helps that this is my second year and I knew what was expected and how to approach the pre-race jitters. I went to my area for the co-ed relay teams and setup my bike and equipment. It only took a matter of 10 minutes to get everything organized and race ready. It helps especially when you’re not swimming.

I even had time to eat breakfast before the race. Nothing big, just a bagel w/cream cheese. I was also tagged during this time with my race number, 884. This was a lucky number in Chinese. Another good sign that I’m in for a good one. Around 5:30, we had our group picture with the team taken. My team mate, Sanya was still not here. I was a bit worried since this was her first race and she had a Toastmaster event the day before that she might have overslept. She finally shows up around 6:30. She was sleeping in her car and had arrived very early. She completely missed the picture and was bummed out. We quickly went over logistics as to the first transition and went over to listen to our mandatory meeting around 7:00.

The meeting pretty much went over rules for the race and highlights with the national anthem being sung by a race participant. Immediately after the pre-race ceremony, the first wave began. Sanya was in the third wave so it didn’t take too long since they were going out 15 minutes at a time. I got to the transition area and had my helmet, gloves, and shoes on. I quickly ate some Gu and water for the extra energy. I also noticed I didn’t have to pee as much as I did last year, which was a good thing because the lines to the port-o-potty was long.

People started flowing in from the water and in about 30 minutes of waiting, Sanya was running pass our lane. Those lanes are hard to recognize when they’re filled with people waiting for their teammates and cheering. I had to run out there and call her back. She quickly took off the chip and handed it to me. I strapped it to my ankle, grabbed the bike and dashed out to the beginning of the bike round.

My strategy was to take it easy and up my cadence at a mellow pace and not push it too much. I had to say I did just that until maybe at the end when I was coming back. Much of the way I just took a mellow pace and allowed the true triathletes speed by with their “whooshing” wheel (that’s the sound their bicycle makes as they speed on). I was much better on the hills this year. I was less ambitious and allowed people to pass me. By the time they were half way through the hill, I would catch up and pass them with ease. On the descents I was able to keep pace with the rider in front of me who was still spinning. I just dipped low and just rode it through in my aerodynamic position. On the way back, I had a few guys that I kept going back and forth with. And then finally on one last hill, one guy took off climbing pass me. I didn’t know why I reacted that way but soon I was blowing by him even though he gave it his all on the climb. It felt good. I felt like Contador on the Tour de France on the day he blew by all his opponents on one of his climbs.

On my way back into the parking lot, I felt good. Ate another packet of Gu and rode on to the transition area. From there I dismounted the bike and ran to my spot. I lost track of where it was for a moment but quickly hung the bike up, took off my shoes, helmet, and gloves and quickly slipped on my running shoes and was off to the running leg. I could hear Sanya and other folks cheering me on. As I began my ran I started to cramp up on both of my calves. It got bad enough for me to stop and stretch out a bit before I begin to gingerly jog. I thought it was going to be a bad run but miraculously I felt better and better as I kept on trucking. Every water stop I took a quick sip and dumped the rest on my head to cool down. That helped tremendously as I made my way back to the finish line where the time read 2:09 (2 hours and 9 minutes). They even announced my name as I crossed the line. We were welcomed by freezing wet towels and a cool medal.

I went back to meet up with Sanya. We talked a bit about the race and went to go grab breakfast at the buffet area. Along the way we saw so many celebrities. Terry Hatcher, William H. Macy, Felicity Huffman, shirtless Mario Lopez, and Mark Feuerstein (the doctor in “Royal Pains” series on USA) to name a few. Breakfast was delicious but I held back since I was going to have lunch at King’s Hawaiian again this year. I decided to make it a tradition to go there after the race every year.

Here are the results from the race. Our official times: Swim – 00:17:19.6 Transition 1 – 00:01:46.3 Bike – 0:56:03.3 Transition 2 – 00:01:52.8 Run – 00:36:24.1 Finish – 01:53:32.7. Sanya didn’t swim as fast as my former teammate but we made up alot of time during transitions and biking. I was 4 minutes faster on the bike this year than last year but I was 26 seconds slower on the run. Overall, we were about 2 minutes faster than last year. Not bad for a pretty relaxed training schedule. I only ran about once a week and ride my bike as much as possible to work.

Click on the image below for the rest of the photo set.

I did it! Finished my first triathlon. Well, actually a “duoathlon” for me. I woke up at 2:30AM last Sunday to begin my journey to the race. Luckily I packed all my gear and bike in the car the night before. My sis and gf came along for the ride. It was good that they were there to keep me awake while I twisted and turn through on a quiet PCH. We finally made it to the Zuma parking lot 5 minutes after 4:30. As expected the spaces were filling up quickly with participants of the race.

It was pitched dark still. The air was chilly but not very cold. I proceeded to take my bike out and prep it for the race. Pumped up the tires so that they were at 100 psi. Gathered all my gear and walked over to the race site. We were guided by the tiny LED light on my bike and another gentleman’s flashlight. My sis and gf kept it entertaining by chatting up a storm. It was good to have background noise because I started feeling nervous for some strange reason.

Upon arrival of registration, we find Deepak there. He was in the process of registering and had informed me that several folks from work was already at our company tent. I went over to the tent hoping that my partner was actually there early so we can register together. Fortunately, he was waiting on the wall bundled up in a hoodie. We then went to register. Registration was quite a fiasco. We didn’t know our bib number and was floating from one registration booth to another until we were finally redirected to a bulletin board which had our number, 873. With this information we both turned in our signed waiver and received a nice packet of race materials as well as our customary tshirt and hat. We were then tagged with our number on our left bicep and our age and the letter “R” to indicate that we were relay racers. And that was it with registration!

I went back to our tent and opened up our packet of race materials. We had to wear a yellow band in order to get into the transition area so we did that. We also divvy up the swim cap and RFID ankle monitor to my partner and I get the bike number plate, running bib, and a sticker for my helmet. We made our way into the transition area to look for our space in the “NBC Universal” rack. I racked up the bike and laid out my running shoe and pinned all the numbers to myself and bicycling gear. This probably took about half an hour to do. My partner familiarized himself with the path that he was going to take and pass the RFID to me and we were done prepping for the race.

The rest of my time was spent socializing with various co-workers and helping them out with setting up their transition spots. I was pumped with excitement and apparently fluid because I visited the porta-potty 3 times before the race even began. When 7:00AM rolled around, we were told to head over to the main stage to go over rules and introduction. 15 minutes after that, the race had begun! The relay teams was to go in the 2nd wave 5 minutes later. I made my way back to transition area to prepare for my transition. It took all but 13 minutes for my partner to make it out of the water and hand me the RFID strap.

I quickly strapped the wet monitor to my ankle, pulled my bike off the rack and ran out of the transition area. There was a designated area where we can mount the bikes and pedaled away. About a few yards later I hear a “clank-clank” sound coming from the front of my bike. I knew exactly what that was. It was my damn cyclometer receiver clanking on my bicycle spokes. I knew because of the cyclometer not tracking the mph. I had to adjust it twice in the first mile until I finally got it spaced appropriately where it didn’t hit the spoke and where I was able to keep track of my riding statistics.

The ride then finally went on through the parking lot to the under water bridge where the race organizers built a wooden plank for us to ride across. When we made it across, the road was so rough that it jarred all the joints in my body awake. We finally hit PCH to begin the 3rd mile. I was jazzed up. I was excited about this moment and exerted tremendous amount of energy to pull ahead as fast as I could. To my dismay, it was too early to do that. Right before I reached the first hill, I had to hold back a bit. I was able to power through the hill past a couple of folks. Unfortunately, when the second hill came, I was fading. The same people who I passed, easily pulled ahead. I couldn’t do anything about it. Huge mistake on my part to start out so eagerly.

I kept telling myself that it was okay to be passed. I just need to keep the cadence going and not exert too much energy. I was also worried that I was not flagged for drafting anybody. I was very conscious to either give space from the rider ahead or truly power pass them in a staggered formation. By the time I reached the turn-around, my leg started to cramp. I thought, “Oh crap! This isn’t good”. I slowed my pace even more and grinded out the longest and steepest hill of the race.

One by one, other racers passed me. I wasn’t so discouraged because I made it pass the hardest part of the race and kept my pace going. I checked my average speed and it was at 17.9. This was much better than my practice pace so I was feeling good. It was nice to have a whole lane dedicated to us that morning. We blew by the only signal lights since the cops was there to direct traffic. That was fun going so fast down the final hill with somewhat of a reckless abandonment and to be welcomed by a crowd of people standing on both sides of the road cheering us on. That was great! Probably my favorite part of the race.

I finally made it into the parking lot and quickly slurped my last GU packet to provide energy for my run next. My cyclometer read 1 hr and 43 seconds when I got off my bike and quickly slipped into my running shoes and dug in my bag for my mp3 player. The first steps I took out of the transition, my leg felt buttery. It was screaming with soreness and pain. This was never the case during training but I think I probably used up some adrenaline and was too eager too early. Oh well, pushed forward and eased into a jogging pace.

Several times, I thought I was going to stop and walk the race but my pride kept me from doing so because I never stopped running whenever I trained so I was not about to do the same here. I eventually made it through the 4 miles and crossed the finish line at 2hrs and some seconds. I was welcomed with a cold and wet towel on my shoulder and a medal, while everybody was herded in a single line to have their RFID ankle bracelet removed by a volunteer. I was beat! I quickly swallowed a bottle of water and walked back to our tent. I took a few moments to recover and received numerous congratulations. Went back into our transition area to grab my bag of crap. The race was still happening so we just stuck around and waited. We eventually went to get food from our brunch.

At the brunch we were surrounded with onlookers who were trying to get a glimpse of JLo and Mark Anthony. It was weird. I felt bad for them but it looked like they enjoy this kind of lifestyle. At least that’s what I thought. I was sore and limped back to the tent and waited for everyone from our team to finish. We finally got together for a few group shots. We left around 11:30 and I was exhausted. All I know is that I slept early and didn’t wake up until it was time to go to work!

The official race results are posted here. Our official times: Swim – 00:13:59.6 Transition 1 – 00:02:11.3 Bike – 01:00:49.1 Transition 2 – 00:02:29.1 Run – 00:35:58.5 Finish – 01:55:27.5.

I’d like to thank those who donated on my behalf to the Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles. I was able to raise $1,040 from my network of friends and family with ease. The whole race raised about $950K and $17K was from the NBC Universal team. I was proud to be part of a rewarding effort to help raise this money and to participate in my first sprint triathlon. I will definitely do this again next but will make the proper adjustments for better time. Oh no. I’m hooked!

More action photos of me and other folks in the race (all the celebs) can be found by clicking here. Search by their bib # or name. I found J Lo and Mathew McConaughey by their name.