Daybreak Race Report!

The first-ever Daybreak Tri was held on September 19th in Herriman, Utah. OK so this race report comes about a month late! Truth be told I was waiting for the race pictures to be up on the site, and yes, for whatever reason they felt like waiting a month to get them published, so here it is. How can you tell a story without pictures? Even if they're watermarked and logo'd all to hell....

The race format was modified the week of the race because of some silly roundworm outbreak caused by Oquirrh lake. Whateva - I would've preferred to swim. Swimming is the only way I stand a chance at podium, albeit slim chance but a chance nonetheless! So they changed the race format to a 75 yard swim, 1.25 mile run, 12.25 mile bike, and 5k run. Heavy sigh, ahwell. I digress...

So race morning comes - setting up transition at 6:30 AM in the dark sucked. Had my usual bagel and schmear with a bannanna and propel before setting up. The sun came up after a 20-30 minutes but lights would've been nice. Transition was strewn out across the long-ass awkward boat ramp, and I scoped a spot out near the end of the ramp closest the lake so I wouldn't get lost. Little did I know this left me with a nice jog UP and DOWN the ramp in my bike cleats, slipping and sliding around like an idiot on iceskates. But hey - look on the bright side - at least I didn't get lost trying to find my gear. After some hectic disorganization and a less-than-informative speech by the RD, we were shuttled from transition to the 75 yard pool a mile and change away.


Swim + 1.25 Mile Run: What can you say about 75 yards in a pool and another mile and a quarter? A lot, I suppose, but I'll just say it was kinda meh. (Meh is that word you use when you're not really impressed with something, but not really put out by it either. Kinda like "I don't give a crap", but you do just a little.) Sucked down a raspberry hammer gel just prior to hitting the water. My 75 yards + 1.25 run to T1 took me about 10:00 even. Weeee, we're off!!


T1: Remember the boat ramp and bike cleat detail I mentioned earlier? Yea. Running in bike cleats sucks almost as much as having no light to set up transition in. I should've gone for a spot up the ramp, seriously. All complaints aside, the only trouble in T1 was trying to mount the bike out of transition. At Jordanelle I literally slid about 10 feet trying to pull my superman-run-fling-leg-over-top-bar mount and nearly embarrassed the hell outta myself. Not this time! 0:58



Bike: Once my ass was planted firmly on the seat, I was off! Long climb up the false flat along 114th to Baccus. The road was crap - it needed repair. The good news is that I didn't get run over. The bad news was that the 1.25 mile run left my legs a little tight, so I couldn't get in a rhythm for a few miles. My speedometer was also missing, and I had no way to gauge my effort other than gut feeling. Another long climb up 111 to the entrance of Kennecott, and an appropriate turnaround spot at the top of the climb. Zooooooooooom back down the hill to 114th, and zoooooooom down 114th back to transition. I love negative splits! 36:41 (20.something mph).

T2: Tippie-toe on my cleats down the boat ramp 100 yards. Seriously, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. Who said T2 is shorter than T1? 1:11

Run: Finally, something to cheer about! Took off with that usual sluggishness out of transition in the legs. For anyone who hasn't experienced this, it feels like running in sand. At any rate, once I found my rhythm in the run, I was cruising. This run felt stronger than any previous race run and it showed. I also wonder how much that initial 1.25 mile run played a factor, but nonetheless I had a great feeling at the finish line. 23:09


Overall: Minus the little roundworm incident, the course was fun. The ride was moderately tough with the climbs, but I trained for em. Support was OK - I rarely use aid stations on races, but there was only 1; some peeps were agitated by this and rightfully so. The whole pictures-took-a-month issue really pisses me off, too. How hard is it to upload pictures and even do some minor editing if necessary? Not that hard. Next time, don't hire an amatuer part-time photographer - let someone else do it. I doubt people are gonna whine about paying an extra few bucks for a decent picture. Sure, it's exploitation, but we pay taxes, so we're accustomed to this sorta thing right?


1:11:57 - 6th of 36 AG, 26th of 174 Men, 28th of 327 Overall.