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2004 was a good year on the Tri front.  I did the Envirosports Napa Grape Escape sprint Tri for the 2nd year as well as the Tiburon Fire Dept Tri and the Alameda TRIOne Olympic distance triathlon.  The pictures above are from the Alameda Tri and Napa

Click here to see results for all races - including the girls results in the Alameda Tri and the Treasure Island Tri that Joan and Allison did while I was in Australia

The Alameda tri was really fun because Julie, Joan and Karen trained and raced with me.  We had a BBQ at my place after the race which was totally necessary!  we all had a good time but the swim was very tough - the current and chop was difficult - the course was 750 meters (3/4 mi) triangle and the current was ebbing out - the first group of sprint swimmers set out directly for the first marker and were swept almost to the 2nd marker by the current.  One of the local pros got on the race PA and told everyone to head toward the San Mateo bridge and let themselves be swept around the buoy.  The Olympic distance flights went in last and my age group was the last one in the water - so everyone was kind enough to wait for me - which meant that Julie and John were able to take some pictures.  Personally I found the swim ok except for the current around some of the marks was pretty fast.  Thanks to Allison for helping out so much!  I had problems with my wetsuit - the zipper kept unlocking while I was putting it on - Allison managed to get it together for me.  Also I rode my bike to the race and somehow managed to collect a puncture - which I didn't notice until I was pulling out on the bike portion - Allison was able to locate a mechanic from the local bike shop to change the tire for me while I chowed down on cookies and water.

The Napa Tri was pretty good except I stayed overnight in Vallejo and drove in - which meant getting up at 4:00 and I never managed to get coffee - otherwise I definitely felt that I was doing much better than last year just because I kind of knew what was going on and using a wetsuit really helped too.  The one thing I also found was that my biomechanics during the run were completely off - I was really tired after the run and saw a photo of my stride and realized I was over striding and effectively landing on my heels and putting the brakes on with each stride - so I remembered what Turloch and Patrick had told me during our climb of Shasta - that during a Tri you should aim for a high stride count and use your forefoot.  I've been changing my technique and it really works - though it has taken a long time (not done yet) getting the calves up to speed and lengthening the stride out again.

The Tiburon Tri was totally relaxed - the fire department told everyone who wasn't elite - ' we don't care if you cut the swim course - cheat all you want - we just don't want to try out our rescue techniques!"  My friend Sinead Duffy told me that they were still accepting racers on Thursday for the race on Sunday - so no time to get mentally up but the race was so fun, it didn't matter - very fun!