What happens when UC Berkeley’s Triathlon Club hosts an intercollegiate-but-also-open-to-the-public draft-legal, ITU rules race?
Well, a team from OTC decided it would be super fun to compete in the mixed team relay (it was super fun!) and try our hand against a bunch of college kids (this was not as fun!). The four of us arrived plenty early for the event to discover that we were really the only ones not directly connected to the Cal Triathlon team. Whoops. The Bearathlon was a great event!
The mixed team relay event is a really cool way to race. If you geek out over triathlon like some of us do, you can watch sweet videos recapping the elite races.
Every athlete races a full, but mini, triathlon. The order is typically woman/man/woman/man. At the Bearathlon, scheduling actually made more sense to have the first male leg go first, so that messed with our plans a little bit. I was originally going to lead off, because my swim is strong enough that I probably (hopefully) wouldn’t fall too far behind in the mile run. With our plan out the window, we entered the race just hoping to have fun and go as fast as we could.
Sprint triathlons are just that – you’re moving pretty fast for a fairly long period of time but not so long that you’re not, you know, sprinting. This was a super sprint. I could NOT stand up straight during the run, because I was trying to move fast and my body was not ready for it!
Cal put on a great little triathlon. I saw a friend (who won his event, easily) I used to coach with, which was a nice treat, and met Kaori, the Race Director for Morro Bay. I had no traffic issues, and since the race was so short there was no need for support on the course. It was super fun, priced very well, and a great experience!