Last weekend, Dave and I went to Seacliff Beach for the annual Sandman Triathlon. It is a pretty small scale event (less than 400 athletes), which is great for spectators and racers alike.
This year, we had an extra treat to stay with Josh and Jen at their family’s beach house, which is located right at the top of hill above the starting line. Wow, was that convenient! Josh and Jen have a 5 month old, so Jen and I talked babies all weekend, and Josh and Dave talked triathlon. Josh and Dave drove the bike course, Jen and I went for a walk, and we had a nice dinner the night before the race. In typical anal fashion, Dave showed up at the race 75 minutes before the start, without much to do. He got a great transition spot (an “end spot”) about halfway down the transition area. The weather was pretty chilly – overcast and misty, but not quite raining. The roads were all wet, but had a chance to dry out just before the start.
The racers walked about ¼ mile down the beach, on the other side of the old boat, for the start.
The gun went off at 8am and the racers were on their way for a ½ mile swim. Dave’s swim went very well – he was the 4th yellow cap out of the water (yellow caps were reserved for those between ages 35 and 49). He beat Dale, a friend from our masters swim team out of the water, which was not usual! Dave’s T1 was its usual speedy frenzy and he was off for the 15 mile bike ride. The bike ride is hilly and has plenty of sharp turns, which presented its challenges.
My parents and niece, Sarah, came down that morning to cheer Josh and Dave on. Sarah had a great time – playing in the water, playing in the sand, and cheering the racers on.
The Sandman race is famous for its “sand sculpture” awards. Some local beach guy makes pretty fancy forms, covered with sand and shells for the top 3 finishers in each age group. If you aren’t a lucky winner of a sand sculpture, you can actually fork over some money to take one home anyway.
Dave’s T2 was fast, as usual. Sarah and I started a chant while he was changing into a his run shoes, “Win us a sand sculpture!” “Win us a sand sculpture!” He heard us, but, focused as he is, decided not to look up and laugh. No pressure, he thought.
The Sandman run is pretty tough. You start and finish the run on the sand. Yuck. You have to run up a huge set of steps to get to the top of the cliffs. Yuck. There are some pleasant sections of the run, around the Seacliff campgrounds before heading downhill and back to the finish line. Dave was tracking those in his age group, hoping to get himself on the podium. He went back and forth with another 40-44 year old named Metrik. In the last mile or so of the run, Dave worked like a dog to catch Metrik and hung with him, neck in neck. On the final stretch, Metrik had just one more gear that Dave didn’t, so he took the win by 2 seconds.
Josh had a good swim and bike ride. He was hoping to beat his time from the previous year, but just missed it. His run felt the best, and he was happy with his performance overall.
We did the usual post-race milling around until they posted the results. Dave got 9th overall and 2nd in his age group. So, we knew that Dave won us a sand sculpture! Josh placed in the top 20 of his age group. We waited and waited and waited for the awards to start. I finally complained to the race director to get moving so that Dave could get his sand sculpture before I went into labor! Anyway, it was well worth waiting for.
Even cooler than the sand sculpture was the show the dolphins put on for everyone after the race. I think they were smart enough to know there were a lot of people watching so they decided to show off. We had a great time watching them flipping high out of the water and then darting up and down the coastline. It was almost like a post race fireworks display
Jen fixed everyone an excellent brunch back at the beach house and we all ate a ton of food! We had a nice visit and headed back to the bay area. We were tired, but rallied later that afternoon to go see Bourne Ultimatum. Everyone keeps telling us to go see all the movies we can fit in, while we still can! It was great, but exhausting to watch – we were on the edge of our seats the entire 2 hours!
