Encinitas Sprint Triathlon

Hey gang, Just back from yesterday's Encinitas Sprint, which saw a number of impressive performances by local San Diego Zoot team members....Carlsbad pro Rachel Challis (at far right) came off the bike with Kate Major (second from right) to an eventual 2nd overall placing, Encinitas-based David Valencia ran an incredible 16:53 5K off the bike to cinch the 2nd elite male place and Kristin Mayer and Darcy Eaton were 2nd and 3rd in the always competitive women's 40-44 AG. As for me, let's just say I hung in there as best I could and tried to keep Rachel in sight during the run. I was starting to run on fumes as this was day 2 for me of the Macho Man competition, a new kind of multisport race, which might be why Eli asked me to do this post. For those of you who haven't heard of this idiotic competition and might want to do it next year it's the brainchild of (who else?) Paul Huddle and Roch Frey. It involves a 5K run and 6 mile paddleboard race the first day, then a sprint triathlon and 1 mile ocean swim the next. Huddle and Roch had a small group of us--Kate Major, Scott Tinley (second from left) and a couple of local studly triathlete/paddleboarder/swimmer-types--test out the event this year so they could work out the bugs for next year. This year's prize was a framed photo of our governor for the winner of the cumulative time, muscle-t-shirts with Arnold on the back for those like me who managed to finish all the events. I was at a bit of a disadvantage since everyone owned paddleboards and I'd never been on a paddleboard before in my life. But Roch said no problem, brought one of his spares to the beach and gave me a quick 30 second lesson (paddle it like a surfboard). I grew up surfing, so I figured like a complete idiot, how hard could this be? I found out the next morning when I felt like I'd been run over by a truck. It wasn't pretty, let me tell you. I spent 30 minutes on a foam roller trying to get the kinks out of my neck, arms, back and legs before I could even get into the car to drive down to the race on Sunday. Anyway, long story short, if you paddleboard and can recover quickly, this 2-day event may be for you. It may not gain the popularity of Ironman, but you'll feel like you did one the next day! For those of you interested in how things sorted out at the beach in the Macho Man yesterday after the one-mile swim...a local triathlete/paddleboarder named Deon Lourens (at center with appropriately enough no shirt) won the overall, Tinley was second and I came in third. Kate (winner of the women's division, but also the only woman to compete) beat me as well (hey, at least I'm coming clean with all the facts), but we were within about a minute of each other. Which gives me hope for next year, cause it'll give me some time to get in some paddleboarding---Kim McDonald