We are three weeks away from our next Epic Ride.  This one is a perfect ride to test your fitness.  If you’ve got a triathlon coming up — St. George, Santa Rosa, Bonelli — you’ll have an opportunity to ride hard on a course with only two stop signs over the span of nineteen miles.  Nineteen miles not far enough for you?  When you get to the end of the ride, turn around and hammer back another 19.  

And it’s not only your fitness you can test.  This is a chance to work on your hydration and nutrition.  How comfortable are you reaching back for a water bottle or electrolyte?  Do you have to slow down when you grab a gel or a sandwich?  Nutrition is not as important on a short course tri, but on a longer course, you really need to ingest some food.  This is a chance to get comfortable doing it.  It’s also a chance to try something new — a new bar, a new drink, etc.

If you’re just interested in a regular Epic Ride, we’ve got you covered.  Start with a 10 mile group ride to the beginning of the time trial.  Then we start the time trial, leaving at 30 second intervals.  Ride as hard as you can along beautiful PCH to the Las Posas exit.  Take the exit to the stop sign and turn left.  Note:  CROSS TRAFFIC DOES NOT STOP.  It’s not worth a trip to the hospital just to shave a few seconds off your time.  Then it’s a quick right turn onto Main St. and a straight shot to the finish line.
Then we’ll regroup and ride back to Malibu, enjoying one of the most beautiful views anywhere.  Sign up today on the Epic Rides page at https://www.californiatriathlon.org/home-page/epic-rides/

See you on April 27th!

***The red dots indicate a year over year decrease and the green dots indicate a year over year increase.**** 

2018 GRASSROOTS 70.3 MILE DOWN 29%.  2018 was a bad year for grassroots 70.3 mile races with decreases in the total finishers (-29%).  Comparatively, WTC’s Ironman did well by only being down -10% at the 70.3 mile distance and down -5.5% at the 140.6 distance.  WTC’s acquisition of Rev3 hurt the results while Motiv’s Wildflower return in 2018.  Sadly, Wildflower has already been cancelled for 2019.

Several years ago the 70.3 mile distance was selected to track as the “canary in the coal mine” because there were enough of them to track without getting overwhelmed with all the sprint & Olympic distance races.  Only finisher data was used as announced participant numbers are typically inflated. Races only 50 finishers or above are included. A handful of bandit races or those found to be unsafe are not included in the data.

Grassroots events are typically family owned and operated and run in places that wouldn’t be economically viable for corporate interests.  Quite often the race director and the athlete know each other. Athletes that prefer staying at a B&B versus a national hotel chain should also enjoy grassroots racing.  Those race producers are typically located in the community and they either get supported or your little part of the world might become a triathlon desert.

US Grassroots 70.3 mile distance races by the numbers

Total Races -28%

2017 = 80

2018 = 58

Total Finishers -29%

2017 = 12830

2018 = 9058

Total Races With 50 Or More Finishers -33%

2017 = 70

2018 = 47

Total Finishers For Races With 50 Or More Finishers -31%

2017 = 12488

2018 = 8644

Total Finishers for the top 20 Races -15%

2017 = 7381

2018 = 6308

2018 CALIFORNIA TRIATHLON MEMBERSHIP SURVEY.

***RESPONDENTS WILL BE ELIGIBLE TO WIN RAFFLE PRIZES FROM CALIFORNIA TRIATHLON***

California Triathlon is a 501c3 charity that provides a premium no-fee membership to over 5,000 athletes worldwide.  Our mission is to make the sport of triathlon affordable, accessible & sustainable by providing the resources, coaching and support needed for athletes to accomplish their goals..  In turn, we encourage the membership to pay it forward and support great causes that are meaningful to them.

We want to get a better idea of how California Triathlon needs to adapt and change to continue to maintain a leadership position.  Please take a few moments and provide some information that our leadership team will use in 2019 to better serve the membership.

We do this once per year and the response rate is typically close to 20%.  As these things go that is really remarkable.  There is typically some great feedback and the value of being able to follow-up on actionable items far outweighs the benefit of making this anonymous.  The questions are pretty cut and dry but if you feel they are too personal by all means pass on submitting.

PS.  This is the leadership team’s off-season.  We have just put the finishing touches on the 2019 calendar, added sponsor partners and are refreshing and adding several new initiatives and events.  Expect many updates after our final 2018 California Triathlon Leadership meeting this Sunday.  If you would like to join the California Triathlon leadership please send me a message.

This is my third year as a member of CalTri, and my first as the Epic Ride coordinator.  I decided to do some digging into the origins of the Epic Rides, and here is what I found.

Originally, people didn’t have the option to sign up for Epic Rides.  When you joined CalTri, your birth month and year were logged into a lottery system, then randomly generated.  If your number came up, you had to ride.  Sometime around the early 2010s, CalTri switched over to an all-volunteer ridership.

That’s where you come in.  September 1 is the final Epic Ride of 2018.  It is a beautiful out-and-back through the hills of Malibu.  Ride as little – a ride from Performance Bicycle in Woodland Hills to The Old Pantry is a 37 mile round trip with some climbing, but nothing serious – or as much as you want – the full route covers 97 miles and 7800 feet of climbing.  The ride is fully supported, with snacks, water, electrolytes, and God-awful Uncrustable sandwiches which, for some reason, you people seem to like.  If you’ve never ridden through the hills of Malibu, you don’t know what you’re missing (of course, you don’t know what you’re missing when it comes to anything you’ve never done before, but I digress).  This is a beautiful, fun, challenging ride, and should be experienced by all CalTri athletes.

After the ride, cross Canoga Avenue and meet up at BJs Brewhouse for some liquid carbohydrates.

The ride is September 1.  For the next two Saturdays, I will be leading a ride along the Magnificent Malibu route – 40 miles this Saturday, 50 miles next Saturday.  Sign up on the CalTri calendar to preview the course.  I look forward to seeing you all out there.

RSVP for the September 1 Magnificent Malibu Epic Ride

3 Viable 2018 Races

Newport Dunes (new in 2018), Surf City Escape (new in 2018) and the OC Triathlon are the only road triathlons expected in 2018.  Surf City Escape occurred in April, the OC Triathlon in June and Newport Dunes will be on Sunday, November 4^th.  Races not expected on the 2018 calendar are Pacific Coast Triathlon and Newport Beach Triathlon.  Pacific Coast Triathlon was “unable to secure a date for the 2018 event”.  As for Newport Beach Triathlon, Active is selling 2018 Newport Beach registration but the Newport Beach Triathlon’s website only lists the 2017 event which is similar to a very bumpy 2017.

Newport Dunes: The Big Newcomer

The 11.4.18 Newport Dunes Triathlon is shockingly only 1 of 3 triathlons (road) to be held in Orange County in 2018.  It is both surprising and concerning for a county that boasts a 3 million person population.  2018 Newport Dunes was announced in May and has a similar feature set as its sister race, Trick or Tri, except no 70.3-mile option.  It is no surprise it is on pace to sell out early similar to Trick or Tri.  Orange County is an expensive area to hold a race so it will be interesting to see if the economics in LA can be transferred to Newport Dunes.  The feature set list is highlighted by an inland swim, closed bike course, VIP transition, free monthly coached clinics, free race photos, free coaching and every race volunteer earns a free entry to a future Cal Tri Event.  I am most interested in the festival scene on Saturday night with athletes on-site camping, in RVs and staying in the bungalows enjoying food trucks, s’mores and a movie screening.  Athletes and their families will wake up steps away from transition and camping is only $20/person.  The perfect tri-cation without having to leave SoCal.

Comparing & Contrasting the 3 Races

The features of all three races are included in the table below.  My understanding is that about 1/3 of the athletes will be first-timers.  They will appreciate the rolling swim start, a safe swim location, closed bike course and all the free clinics, coaching and training.  Newport Dunes compares very favorably to other races in Orange County and competition is good for everyone.  We need more races like Newport Dunes Triathlon on 11.4.18

Finisher Data

In 2018 Surf City Escape had 436 finishers (318 Olympic + 101 Sprint + 17 Aquabike).  The OC Triathlon had 564 finishers (453 Olympic + 40 Duathlon & 71 Relay).  Combined, that is exactly 1,000 finishers.  We will have to wait for 2018 Newport Dunes data until November 4^th.  Typically finisher data is much more reliable than registration data because registration data is unavailable or races have a tendency to inflate those numbers.

Four weeks.  That’s how long it is until the final Epic Ride of 2018.  We will leave from Performance Bicycle in Woodland Hills and travel along Mulholland Highway to PCH.  It is a lovely, undulating, out and back ride.  It’s scheduled for just under 100 miles, but the great thing about an out and back ride is YOU get to decide where out ends and back begins.  So, you can make it a 40-mile ride, a 41-mile ride, a… you get the idea.

As always, the ride will be fully supported with electrolytes, water, food, and Uncrustables (although not officially classified as something distinct from food, I believe, over the course of the year, I have made my feelings about this food-like product crystal clear).

Don’t let this opportunity pass you by.  Get more details here!  Already convinced?  Then sign up here! 

Register here for the Malibu Magnificent

This was my second year racing Door County, and my seventh 70.3 ever, so I guess it’s time I take a stab at writing a race report. Because apparently, triathletes love homework.

Swim: Door has been shortened to a 69.3 for the last couple years due to inclement weather and rough swim conditions, so it was a relief to have beautiful, calm water this year. The swim is my strength, and I was very excited to get to do the full 1.2 miles this year to build up a little bit of a lead. Water temp was 73 degrees, so I was super comfy in my sleeveless wetsuit. My swim time was actually 2-3 minutes slower than usual for me despite sighting well, but I was still first in my wave by a couple minutes. Obviously, we were all victims of some sort of gang of water gremlins.

Bike: This was probably my roughest leg this year. I got a new bike last month, and I’m still getting comfortable on it and working on a few fit and mechanical issues. The bike course is rolling hills (my favorite) and always has impeccable traffic control. Given some well-known issues with certain other races this year, I was very pleased to see multiple officials out monitoring the course as well. Door County has pretty decent roads with the exception of about a ten mile stretch in the middle. That stretch also happened to have a surprise head- and crosswind, adding insult to injury. I was hoping to shave a couple minutes off last year’s split, but I added a couple instead.

Run: Door’s run is brutal, and I love it. The first five miles are flat-to-rolling with a decent amount of shade. At mile 6, you get to go up a pretty good hill, followed by an even steeper, longer hill at mile 9. Crowd support on the hills and through town is fantastic. I got lucky and saw a few of my teammates on my way up both hills to help spur me on. From mile 10 on, you’re in full sun with practically zero spectators. The race director takes pity on us around mile 10.5 with a misting station, and again at mile 11.5 with popsicles. If you’ve never had a popsicle at mile 11.5 of a 90-degree run, you are missing out. My coworker was the runner on a relay team that started 40 minutes ahead of me, and I achieved my goal of passing her just after the popsicle station. The final half mile of the run course is a pounding downhill all the way through the finish chute, and I love to let my legs loose at that point and just pray I don’t end up on my face. I was well off my goal time for the run also, which I’m chalking up to the heat and humidity. I had the fastest run of my group by a pretty good margin as well, which never happens because everyone knows swimmers hate to run. So clearly, being one of the last waves to go off, we were all struggling a bit by that point. The ice baths at the finish line were heaven after a long, hot day.

Overall: This is always a super smoothly run race with phenomenal support, from both volunteers and spectators. It doesn’t hurt that it’s located one of the most beautiful venues in the state, either. It’s not a mystery why it’s a perennial favorite for long-course racers.

Results:

Swim 30:41

T1 1:31

Bike 2:56:56

T2 1:32

1:48:58

Overall time: 5:19:36

1st place age group

7th overall female

July 4 th is the ideal time to climb Mt. Baldy and the Mt. Baldy Ski Lifts because Glendora Mountain Road
(GMR) and Glendora Ridge Road (GRR) are closed to vehicle and motorcycle traffic because the powers
to be are concerned about some drunken party with fireworks setting Angeles Forest ablaze. It isn’t
exactly like those roads are commuter highways the other 364 days of the year but a closed road is
always something special.

Our group of 75 well kitted athletes (I will get to that later) left Pioneer Park and made the 4 mile trip
eastward on Sierra Madre Avenue before making a left hand turn on “Front side” GMR. “Backside” GMR
is accessed via Highway 39 and East Fork. The next 9.5 miles were a steady climb to the top of GMR and
the intersection of GMR Front side, GMR Backside and GRR. We took the GRR option on the right and
made the 12 mile climb to Mt. Baldy and because we were on a ridge you had long sight lines on either
side. It is mostly exposed on GRR except the last couple miles before we plunged 500’ into Mt. Baldy
from an elevation of 4500’ to 4000’. The 4 th and last gate of the outbound leg awaits at the bottom of
that road. The other 3 were before ascending Mt. Baldy and 2 more at the connection between GMR
and GRR.

Cal Tr1, the team vehicle and Cal Tri tent were a fantastic site to see at the Mt. Baldy Post Office. Thank
you Darlene! About ½ of the cyclists turned around here on their way back to Pioneer Park. Some
retraced their route while others descended down Mt. Baldy Road and others took GMR Backside and
Highway 39. The other half pushed the 4 miles at an average grade of 10% to the Mt. Baldy Ski Lifts
where Marina was waiting with a fantastic lunch. A couple athletes made multiple ascents which is just
showing off, right? Under the category of sacrificing for the team, I took the Kim Degen shuttle to the
top to keep a sponsor company. Nothing is too much for our sponsors, right?

The best ride is where everyone gets home safely and I am proud to report there were no accidents. A
sliced tire that ended one athlete’s day and a couple flats but no accidents. I made it over to
Performance Bike Pasadena later to get some much needed TLC for my trusty steed. One of the quick
legged mechanics had already made the trip to Mt. Baldy and got back in time to put in a work day. He
noticed that Cal Tri had a huge presence on the route that day and I was happy to hear none of our crew
was going 4 wide and over the double yellow line in blind corners. If you see something like that make
sure you call it out.

Now to the kits. Cal Tri kits are required on all Epic Rides. As a 100% sponsored team, our sponsors
appreciate when we represent them and our photographers appreciate being able to find the Cal Tri
athletes in the clutter. We haven’t changed our kit design since our founding in 2010 so our group looks
cohesive and not a hodgepodge of disparate gear. We look sharp! We always get 1 knucklehead (and it
happened again this time) who thinks that surely they are so special that this rule doesn’t apply to them.
It gives no pleasure to exclude an athlete from the reindeer games but the Cal Tri kit requirement on
Epic Rides is just that…a requirement.

Finally, let me thank Howard, Kim, Marina and Darlene for donating their time so that 75 of us could
have a worry free day. Epic Ride Malibu Madness is September 1 and Howard needs more support to
keep the fun machine chugging along.

Click here to view the 2018 Baldy Beast pictures.