About a month and a half ago, on a Thursday morning after barely surviving practice (a practice that no doubt involved hills, stairs, or some sort of incline) I was describing my ideal triathlon to a couple of people. For the record, my ideal triathlon would consist of a 2 mile swim, a bike that can be any distance as long as it’s entirely downhill, and a short, flat run. Coach Chris told me that the closest I would ever get to that would be USC’s Fight On triathlon, so I went home after practice and signed up immediately.

After having a rough time with UCLA’s triathlon (there was a hill…a big hill) on the first weekend in March, I was looking forward to the 1000m ocean swim and 15 mile flat bike course that were supposed to make up the first two parts of USC triathlon. Unfortunately, Friday morning found me outside my office at Scripps Institute of Oceanography staring at the ocean, watching for the tsunami. I did see the tsunami (all .8 feet of it…I think), but obviously San Diego was completely unaffected by it. I don’t think the beach in Oxnard was affected either, but to the dismay of the swimmers on the team an email was sent out informing us that we would be competing in a duathlon. So glad my 8 hours of weekly pool time were going to be put to good use.

Friday afternoon we began our drive north, and I learned a valuable lesson about LA traffic. Never, ever, ever take the I-5, it’s almost always a bad idea. Four hours after leaving we arrived at Ian’s fabulous home (where the entire team was staying) just in time for a delicious pasta dinner. A couple hours later we were all asleep, preparing for our early wake up time Saturday morning.

When I say early wake up time, I mean 4:30am. Dan, however, thought that early meant 4:15, and also thought it would be funny if he set his alarm volume as high as it could go just so he could rob the entire team of 15 minutes of extra sleep. After a pre-race breakfast (provided courtesy of Ian’s mom) we all loaded up our cars and headed to the course to pick up packets and warm up. Some time after 7 we were all on the start line for the race, which was going to consist of a 2.5 mile run, a 15 mile bike, and a 3.5 mile run. I had a lot of fun racing and it was a good experience to run 6 miles at race pace, but it was also fun to see all my teammates on the out-and-back run course and be able to cheer for them.

Overall the team turned in some great results. On the men’s side Francois le Palud finished second, followed closely by Bill Jones, who proved that he cannot only swim and bike at a blistering pace, but can hold his own running as well. For the women Joanna Coker had another podium finish placing second, and Gina Horath (who surely would have dominated an ocean swim) finished fourth for the second time this season.

Post race consisted of lunch at Natural Café and the drive back to San Diego. Did I mention that I learned a valuable lesson on the drive north, because if I did I lied. As we were heading south and came to the point where we could choose between the I-5 and the 405, we once again picked the I-5, and proceeded to sit through several hours of traffic (don’t worry, now I’ve actually learned my lesson). All in all it was a great weekend-nice weather, a fun race, AND I tasted the world’s best pesto (I also give the pesto most of the credit for getting me through all the extra running). For anyone considering this race next year, I highly recommend it.

Race Report: Rachel Marcuson