Pasadena Triathlon – Race Report

Race Report: Pasadena Sprint Triathlon. 5k run / 15k bike / 150m swim. At the Rose Bowl.

I ran the Pasadena Triathlon with my son today. It was a blast. We had fun racing together. Weather was great. It was Braden’s first triathlon and he placed third in his age group! Much more on that later.

BK’s Stats (mine didn’t post at this time): 1:15:01

Starting from the beginning, every race starts the night before. We laid out everything we needed from head to start from morning to racing. Packed it all up and then got an early sleep. Don’t eat anything new or weird (and for me no alcohol and not too much diary). I get up an hour early before leaving time and eat a regular full breakfast. 2 eggs, toast, tomatoes, glass of juice. We got there about 6:15am. Darkness. We remembered our head lights! Mom came too to cheer us on, but mostly Chief.

We saw our friends helping out at the registration tent: Lynda and Amy! We also ran into Nury in the dark.

We set up transition at the boys age 15 and under. I racked right next to him. The plan was for me stay close to him on the run and catch up to him on the bike and swim together and end hand-in-hand. That’s pretty much how it went too.

We saw a bunch more friends in transition. New friend Ryan.

We boys got body marked. My game is to always ask the cutest young gal to mark me, but I got foiled and some dude marked us today.

Miles 1 and 2 always suck for me. So, I went and ran 1 mile pre-emptively before the race to warm up. It really kinda worked. I ran my fastest 1k and 1 mile and 2nd fastest 2mi and 2k, per Strava, which is below.

At the starting line we ran into all kinds of PTC folks: Paul, Peter, BrianB, Neil, Kirk, Lisa…(not everybody is pictured)

We started really fast. The loop is around the golf course around the Rose Bowl. It was beautiful. I ran as hard as I could to keep up with BK, but he took off. He passed Kirk and Lisa. I heard Kirk chased him down at the chute, just before transition. He ran 26:23 and it was more than a 5k. I ran 28:35. As I ended the run, Mom said Braden just left transition. Mom got some action shots of us in the run and then going out to the bike.

The bike is 3 loops around the Rose Bowl and Brookside Golf Course. I caught up to him in about 2 miles into the first loop of 3. Then, I hung on with him. He rode a mountain bike so he worked much harder than I on the bike. On the downhill side, I cruised and he could keep up by pedaling full blast. We ended the bike together. I saw Nury, Michelle, and Kim on their bikes, while marshalling the course!

There was a long barefoot run to the pool. The swim is at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center. 3 long lengths for 150 yds. We saw Gail at the pool directing swimmers!

We finished together. WooHOO!