Solana Beach Tri Weekend

Last weekend I headed down solo to the San Diego area for a little SoCal weekend, some time with my teammates, a sprint race, and to say hi to friends.  It was a 4-day whirlwind and I wished I'd stayed longer... I've already told Jason that next year we'll be going for a longer holiday.

I packed really light... if taking a bike qualifies
as packing light!

I actually got the Scicon bag into the trunk of my rental car.
Took me a bit of wrestling at the airport, but once I had it
figured out, it was no problem.  I was being cheap and didn't
want to rent an SUV, and turns out I didn't need to.  Now if Jason
had come and we'd had 2 bikes....

Friday night happy hour at Kristin Mayer's (creative genius behind
Betty Designs - far left) house.  Hope Jenni, Misty & I didn't overstay
our welcome, it was later than I realized when I left!

Sunday was the Solana Beach sprint tri, which several Betty teammates signed up for, but only 3 of us ended up racing, and superstar Julianne was there to cheer us on.  It was a short, but really fun, race - ocean swim with a surf entry & exit , 2-lap bike along the coast, and 2-lap run.  I knew so many people there, and met several others that morning, that it really did feel like I was racing at home with friends.  I'm so glad for connections I've made through Betty Designs, and through my local friend Heidi as I felt a part of the Groove Tri family that weekend too!


I was 2nd out of the water in my age group.  The swim ended with a heinous,
long run up a ramp and down a block into transition.  Kristin said we
had to run the whole thing, so I did... and I can't believe no one passed
me there.  I actually had one of the fastest T1 times in my AG,
I did not see that coming with the amount of running in there!
(Thanks Julianne for the encouragement and pics!)


Friends Heidi & Matt biked to the race to watch,
and Heidi got some good photos & this video of me riding by.


When I put my bike together when I arrived in San Diego, my rear shifter wasn't working properly - it wouldn't shift into all the gears.  I took it to a bike shop, they didn't have the same shifter in stock to replace it with, and couldn't fix it, so we "fixed" it by setting it to shift smoothly into only a few gears.  The race was flat along the PCH so I figured that would be ok, and hoped it would hold for the race.  It wasn't that big of a deal, I missed having a couple of the gears but it wouldn't have made a difference overall.  Had it been a longer race, I definitely would have taken the time to chase down a new shifter.

Running past Heidi & Matt

Seriously, I had A LOT of fun at this race! I came
off the bike in 3rd, and finished up in 8th.
Not bad, as there are a lot of fast women in that area!
Julianne was such fun and was all over the course - we'd just
met that morning and became fast friends.

Heidi and I rode along the coast the next day.
Always one of my favourite routes.

My last night there, I went traditional touristy and went to
Mission Beach to watch the sunset, capped off by wandering around
Belmont amusement park.

I'm already looking forward to my time there next year!



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