This is a standard fixture of the triathlon schedule - it's short, it's fun - so why not?

Delucchi chugs some liquids before working into his wetsuit

Dave ponders his transition layout.

Diane photo's her hubby at the starting line

Getting my wetsuit zipped right

Dave's wave started 5 min ahead of Ferrell and I. A last shot before warming up in the 58F water before the start.

I always like to swim on the edges of the group, not the middle. I'll gladly swim a few extra yards to avoid running into someone's kicking feet. I started at the inner flag, ran left, and smack into a big wave. But I felt pretty strong during the swim, none the worse for having swam the Santa Cruz Roughwater the previous day. I saw Ferrell just behind to my right for the first 50 yards, but didn't see him after that. I swam a little wide along the outer bouys, but hit the last bouy just right and passed a lot of swimmers in the final few hundred yards to the shore. Ferrell says he saw me about 10 seconds ahead of him, midway up the sand as he exited the water. I came out at 17:20; identical to last year's time. Considering I trained harder last year (because of Ironman St George), that's gratifying. I had another clumsy swim/bike transition and Ferrell was out before I was even out of my suit. I saw him about a half mile into the run, going opposite directions. I saw Dave Delucchi come towards the finishers chute as I was starting the run.

Here's the race...

Despite my strong swim, this was only good for 7th out of 8 in my age group. Still got to work on my leg strength. The run this year was a half mile shorter, leaving out the loop up through the campground, so isn't comparable to last year. My fast 20sec bike/run transition is because I forgot (!!?) my cycling cleats! So, had to do the bike in my running shoes. That's what happens when you have to get up with an alarm clock at 6am with insufficient sleep.

Rick Ferrell had a good race, but a tough age group, coming in 2nd. Dave Delucchi had a great race, coming in 2nd in his age group, and 10th place over all, beating Ferrell by just a couple of minutes. But since awards this year only went 1 deep (win or go home empty handed), there was no hardware for Team Awesome. For our trio, I took the swim, Rick won the bike, and Dave Delucchi won the run and overall. Great day, and great effort!

I've got no post-race photos, but Ricks CSAA compadre Alfredo took some shots of us on the run, which I'll post when I get them.