With a triathlon starting at 8 a.m. and a 2-hour ride to get there, this meant getting up at 5 and leaving by 5:45 - might as well have been doing the race! What a beautiful ride it was, even the city streets I rode (Blossom Hill, Camden, Almaden) are pretty much deserted at that time of day. As I got closer to the race site, cars with bikes started to pass me. On my bike, though, I could see things they never did - the road near Calero Reservoir covered with very pretty black-and-white striped snails, two also black-and-white and equally pretty magpies on the side of the road.
When I was just a few miles away from Uvas Reservoir where the race starts, and also just about 20 minutes from race time, I was worried I might not make it. Just then the race truck came by, having finished dropping volunteers on the bike course, and offered me a lift, thinking I was a racer on my way. I explained I wasn't, but accepted the ride anyway. :-) The driver introduced himself as named "Muddy," and as I was thinking to myself, "Right, I suppose your last name is "Waters" he says, "well really my name is Michael Waters." Nice guy. I asked Muddy if they needed any volunteers and he said no, he thought they were pretty well covered.
At the start, I changed into running shoes and a T-shirt and started wandering around. Spotted a tall woman with a Cal cap which was a giveaway; the name "Richter" on the footbath told me this was TriBaby. I introduced myself to her and her crew Skippy, holding up the "Go R(eal) S(exy) T(rigeeks)" sign I had made for the occasion (Tricia was the one who had to explain to someone recently what "r.s.t." stood for). Before the race started I also spotted Tony Walsh and Kurian Davis, and wished them all good luck. This was going to be fun, with nothing to be nervous about for a change!
The swim (a unique horseshoe swim around a peninsula with the start and finish in different places on opposite sides of the transition area) started and I saw that there were just two people ready to give out water at the top of the swim exit ramp. It was clear to me that wasn't enough so I went over and pitched in, getting cups filled and people organized, recruiting one or two more people from the crowd as time went on. The first two swimmers were way out in front, then eventually we had a steady stream of visitors for nearly 40 minutes. Hard work! But fun, and rewarding. Of course I also got to shout encouragement to the people I recognized - Craig Sullivan, then Tony, later Tricia, all three with excellent swims.
It was interesting to study people. Some very concerned with getting their transition timing tag ripped off, others not really caring. I never take water coming out of the swim, figuring I've got some on my bike, but here I could see that the majority of people do. A *few* people fly up the ramp to the transition area, most run/jog, a few walk, with the various kinds of people pretty well mixed throughout (i.e., some of the last out of the water run hard - that would be me - can't wait to get away from that damn water).
As the swimmers exited it became clear we didn't have enough cups for everyone (500 entered in the race). One of the guys from the race organization came over and instructed us to pick up the used cups from the ground and reuse them. So that's how it's done.
The funniest thing occured last. At the very end of the pack, literally a few feet behind the last swimmer, floated a group of eight swans! Glad to get that disturbance out of the way, no doubt. :-)
Shortly before the last of the swimmers exited the first of the cyclists (Pete Kain, the evenual winner) returned to the transition area. Awesome to watch him and the other leaders literally tear out of the transition area at a pace faster than I do 440's. No rubber legs there!
I watched cylists enter the T-area for a while, thinking things like "First non-Softride" "First bike with regular wheels" etc., but then realized there was another shortage of people to hand out water at the run start, so I ran over and pitched in. The runners were moving fast, so at first I tried running backwards and handing out water; then I realized I could swing my arm at the speed they were going and accomplish the same thing while standing still. But after a very short while of this, when I guess no more than 100 or so people had come through, they ran out of water! I was a little worried the race guys would suggest recyling that too :-P
Saw Craig, Tony, Kurian, and Tricia come through and shouted enouragement. Craig and Tony in particular were kicking serious butt as they left the transition area looking good. I had been thinking about banditing the run as a training run but that was because the race was advertised as a trail run - when I saw the run was on the road I abandoned that idea. Instead, I decided just for fun to run down to mile 1 to see if they still had water there.
As is getting to be a familiar story, when I got to mile 1 aid station (which was also mile 4), there were just a few people, and since this was a "double" aid station (runners going in both directions), they too needed help, so I pitched in, concentrating on the outbound runners (everyone else seemed to be handing out water to the inbound people, just one mile from the finish, which seemed to me to be a lower priority). VERY rewarding handing out water to runners now, as we were getting towards the back of the pack, who needed it the most and were very appreciative.
Sure enough, you guessed it, eventually this aid station too ran out of water. There probably weren't too many people still outbound, maybe no more than 50, but there were plenty of people still to come back. It wasn't super hot (70's I guess with a cool breeze) but it was certainly hot enough for people to need water!
TriBaby had come through on her way home just before we ran out of water so I took off down the road and caught her and ran nearby (no pacing!) the last half-mile or so. Like Craig, Tony, and Kurian, she seemed to be having a real good race. Must have been all that cheering I was doing. :-)
After the race I ran into Lee Rudin, who I had cleverly misdirected to the race (I DID tell her I had never driven there!), but she did make it. Hung out with Kurian and Tricia and Skippy and Brent and one or two others at various times, and accomplished my main goal for the day which was sampling the infamous "TR Bars" (a.k.a. chocolate chip cookies). Then it was off for home which was ENTIRELY into a brutal headwind. Had the pleasure of being passed and greeted by world-class Shari Rogers-Kain whose wheel I managed to suck for all of one minute before she left me behind at the next hill (well I did have a heavy pack on my back).
All in all 61M of riding, 2M of running, about a half-dozen chocolate chip cookies, and a lot of fun. "Giving something back to the sport" by volunteering isn't just "good for your soul," it's good fun too, and gives you a different perspective than you get when you're racing - I'm really glad I did it.
As for J&A, who puts on this race, what can I say? They are a great group of guys who put on well-organized races at nice venues, great post-race food, all in all they do a lot of things right but they just can't seem to get their act together in the water department. Last year at the San Jose Triathlon they also ran out of water on a VERY hot day and people were VERY pissed (I wasn't there). In this year's newsletter they wrote:
"We could say there wasn't enough water in Niagra Falls to replenish the athletes during San Jose International. We could also say that there is no way to provide sufficient hydration for 1,000 athletes and over 3,000 spectators in 105+ degree weather in the hottest day in the history of San Jose. But we won't. [Ed. note - but actually, they just did]
What we will do is apologize and take full responsibility [Ed. note - whose responsibility would it be if not theirs?]. We will make a promise that next year's San Jose International Triathlon will be one of the finest in the country. And there will be plenty of water."
Well, the South Bay triathlon wasn't nearly as hot, but they STILL ran out of water, and all I can say is if I were doing San Jose in two weeks, I'd be bringing my own water. J&A, you guys are great, but get your act together with the water, would you?
As for me, I'll be passing up the San Jose Triathlon, NOT because of the water situation, but because I'm still choosing to focus on just one race at a time, and for me that race right now is the Dipsea on June 9. I need to improve about a minute and a half from last year's time to make the automatic requalifying time and I intend to give it my best shot. In the meantime I'll settle for being a Triathlete In Training.
Steve "Gunga Din the Water Boy" Patt
slp@stevenscreek.com
Cupertino, CA