1st Time triathlon Heroes

Triathlon Forum
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Some friends of mine and I did the Tri 4 Fun in Pleasanton, CA today. This is a great first timer’s race, and at least 1/3 of the 1000 participants were in that camp. Watching the first timers go is a blast - not that I am the most experienced triathlete in the world, but I have done enough to know the basic do’s and don’ts, but not so many that I forgot what it was like my first time.

Hero #1 was a guy about 35 or so - maybe younger. He was so heavy and out of shape that it may have made him look older. He was a big boy, obviously a little self conscious about his weight because he kept his loose fitting cotton muscle shirt on the whole time - swim and all. I don’t know when of if he finished, but he had the stones to start the thing, and you have to respect that.

My other hero of the day was a woman on her old Giant comfort bike. Now when experienced cyclists thing of fixing a flat tire, they think tubes and CO2. When she thought of flat tires, she thought about the trunk of her car - which is where she must have picked up the full-size can of Fix-A-Flat that she had duct taped to her seat tube! It was truly classic and absolutely made my day.

John

2

That’s awesome! Best thing I’ve heard all day…

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Kinda strips away all the marketing mumbo-jumbo, doesn’t it? Just man or woman out to do the best they can do on that day. Awesome.

4

I agree, TFF is a perfect newbees race, and a great chance for them to experience the sport in a non-threatening environment.

Yesterday was a great event as always. I’ve raced a dozen or so TFF/TFRs and they’ve gotten better this year with the new “competitive” wave. Those of us in the geezer’s wave (I’m over 50) who can turn out a 23+mph bike leg get severely hosed in most races, because we’re running an obstacle course of TnT, first timers and social triathletes… I want everyone to have fun, but it’s g.d. annoying to be humping up Stanley Bl (or Hwy 1) and encounter three overweight young girls having a social conversation and hogging the allowable lane so that you have to look for a hole in vehicular traffic in order to get past them.

Mark and Kandee are now allowing (some of us did it unofficially in the past) those who want to hammer and have experience to jump into the first wave, and they are encouraging the casual participants and untrained first timers to go off in the last wave. I think that was a stroke of genius, and worked great. One of my friends (a former Ironman who is just re-entering the sport after several years) was first out of T1, and he’d have been back in the third wave dodging mountain bikes at 25 mph otherwise. Great move Mark!! Kudos…

If you noticed the guy with the camera up on Stanley right as you came out of the park who was telling everyone to “stay right unless you are passing…” that was me. I had five of my athletes there, four of them doing their first ever, so I didn’t race but was there as a coach and photographer. My experience at TFF has always been that first timers have no clue that there might be someone who swam slower or went in a later wave who just might pass them at +5 or +10 mph, and I saw a lot of people (oblivious to their surroundings) who were riding all the way to the left while fiddling with shoes, water bottles, wind vests and the like. A recipe for disaster. First timers are a glorious thing to those of us who love the sport, but wouldn’t it be great if we could somehow speed up their learning curve?

TFF is a great idea and a great venue. A quick race (less than an hour for me, about 2 hours for the slowest) that gets you home in time for lunch, lawn mowing, etc. No chip timing, but a great experience for newbees and vets alike, and very affordable.

A great addition has been the participation of CHP and additional Pleasanton and County police. That’s at least partly the result of a fiasco that occurred two years ago when a trucker pulled out in front of the lead pack in what could easily have been a fatal show of contemptuous ignorance. There was a volunteer with an orange vest and a flag who waved him to stop, but he just drove right through. As a result of the incident, and the even haughtier response of the quarry manager, the police now shut the quarry down on race days and also provide full traffic control.

Those of you who have never done so should consider throwing a quick “Hey thanks for bein’ here…” to the uniformed officers, who volunteer to work for the morning. They make the races safe for all of us, and a few of them would just as soon be out there racing, or home with the family!

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Just to clarify…Mark started the “experienced triathlete” and “really first-timer” waves last year. Worked like a charm, especially for this Master’s woman who is always in the last wave.

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I only just now realized that I didn’t make it to a single TFF event last year! I did go to Bethel, but only as support for my girlfriend’s brother (Tom McCleary) who took fourth overall and first in his age group.

So was that you smokin’ the bike up near the front?

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No, not me. I was smoking the bike today at SJIT, but then all those runners came by me telling me “Great bike” as they blew past me. I’m actually QUITE happy with my race considering I’ve only had 7 weeks of real training.

And, as always, it was great to see Eric out there in the striped shirt.

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That’s usually my race. I’m first or second (among the geezers) out of the water, and usually still top three off the bike, but then comes the run…

Today was a real bummer for me. I was looking forward to SJIT (my second favorite race of the year) on a new bike, complete with disk and a lot of trick speed gear.

DNS

I broke my collarbone three months ago, and am having complications with something called “frozen shoulder.” Insult to injury, when I asked the Orthopod what he would do if I was Jerry Rice and needed to be in the Super Bowl in three weeks, he said “Jerry isn’t old enough for this injury…”

Apparently it’s the cumulative result of too many crash landings and other piled-on abuse.

Sorry I missed the race. I’ll probably be out for the season, although I might do the bike leg of a relay at Folsom.

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Good seeing you out there too Cathy. Glad you had a good race. The striped shit has this weird way of turning into a Bullseye post race. Caught an earfull from some folks who “never draft” …oh well we had a spirited conversation or two or three…:slight_smile: