LA tri...its definitely not a nashville party

Ahh the last race of the year.  a) I cant believe it is here but b) yeah I guess it is time.

After getting back to Boulder at about midnight last Sunday after Galveston, I had Monday to Thursday to get as much schoolwork done as possible before leaving for LA on Friday.  My travel prowess has outstripped even my gains in triathlon--I unpacked my bike in LA in a record 6minutes!

So I hoped off the plane at LAX with a dream and a...well but I had accidentally packed my cardigan, oops.  Later, I had some awesome mexican food.  A massive burrito for like $6.  It was the most expensive thing on the menu!  I swear, california mexican food is so much better than anywhere else I have been.  "The land of fame, excess"?  There weren't any famous people at the restaurant and $6 is pretty cheap to be honest.

Blah blah blah, I worked out on Saturday morning and then my home stay and I drove into the city for the pro meeting--driving there, I looked to my left and saw the hollywood sign! (I swear its there to the left; is that smog?)

Sunday race time was 7:15.  I knew the water had been about 68-70 during the week and I was convinced that the refs would be sticklers and wouldn't let us use wetsuits.   Whoda thought, they did.  Charlie Crawford has a heart after all.   (Charlie BTW is USATs #1 ref dude; he takes pleasure in extensively quoting the rule book and obsessively enforcing the rules (which I think is a good thing actually (I also think he has lost weight recently; he was looking pretty fit))) --but I digress.  My first pro race I have been allowed to use my XTERRA Vendetta wetsuit.  Been waiting all year for that.

This was my first ocean swim and the waves were pretty intense--I think it was 5-6ft swells by Sunday morning making the wetsuits nice backup in case of a drowning scenario.  As soon as the race started, that scenario unfolded.  Sometimes at the start of races I just lack killer instinct.  Most races really; I am just not a mean person I guess and when people are whacking me on the head I usually just try to get out of their way rather than fight them.  The waves were crashing the heck out of us and I got in a group that was too slow for me so I dropped them and was left in no mans land the rest of the time.  

THEN coming in I got rocked by like 3 waves simultaneously.  The first one I felt coming and I was like "Ok, cool I am just gonna body surf this thing in no problem."  Wrong.  I ended up being face planted into the sand, half drowned, rinse, repeat x3.  It was like being in the "extra dirty" washing machine setting where it takes a break after draining and you gasp for air, glance anxiously and think its done so you can move your stuff to the dryer, but then the dang thing just keeps adding more water and vigorously swishing your clothes around.  When I finally got out, I was glad to be alive.  It was kinda funny actually how bad I got rocked, hopefully entertaining from the beach.

The bike was... meh.  I was just kinda plodding along but I guess it was ok.  I mean my time was decent.

Then the run, I just felt awesome.  I think after such a weird race otherwise, I was fresh and ready to go.  Just FYI if you havent done the LA tri, there is a massive hill that you have to do 2x.  I cant think of anything bigger I have ever done in a triathlon actually?  I will keep brainstorming but I dont think so.  Still, I was just cruising the whole time and had my fastest run ever in 32:48.

Who woulda thought, with that I accomplished my 2x goals of 2012; make Hy-Vee (I was the 30th pro of 30 to get in) and run sub-33 (did it in my last race of the year).  Somehow I always seem to make all these ridiculous goals even though I almost always consider them out of reach and usually write them off before they end up happening.  Again, thanks Athena, greek gods et al, I cant think of any other reason why they would happen.

Ok, so I forgot to take much video this weekend; I guess I am getting lazy, but this one basically covers everything else I did, saw, etc:

It was sad to pack up for the last time, but I am honestly psyched about racing next year.  One thing I worried about this year racing as a pro was that it would make triathlon more of a job than a fun pass time; more stress than enjoyment.  BUT, in fact this was the most fun I have ever had racing triathlons.  The travel, the Chobani tri team, free race entries, meeting new homestays, experiencing culture around the US, getting to know famous pro triathletes, and gaining support around the country.  I will surely be training hard this winter for an even better 2013.

Rudy