Aug 10th - The CDA Triathlon

Today was the day we were all waiting for. It started last night with thunder, lightning, and rain but by race time all cleared out and was overcast and cloudy - just right for a race morning.

My three key words for the race was to (1) survive the swimming, (2) attack the biking, and (3) glide in running the last part. How did I do?

The very first part of the swim was wonderful. All the kicking, froth, and drafting made it easy to swim. I think I was very buoyant. But I never got into a relaxed rhythm that I could sustain. I rested on my back about every 100 yards, had a hard time getting through the cross current of the Olympic distance swimmers in the middle and by the end kept drifting left towards the shore and not to the finish on the right. Swimming did not click for me. It will require more practice, more distance training, and perseverance. I know it will come. It did on my last practice Friday. I kept up with Julienne's pace for 600 yards. That would have resulted in a time of 12 minutes not 18 minutes.

 Biking was all I had hoped it would be. I encouraged each person that I passed. I thrived on the hills. My speed was generally always over 20 mph. I was mostly in a tuck. I gave it all I had and had  one of the best times in our family.

Running was hard. I came out of transition huffing and puffing. You can see it in the picture here.  It took me until after the park and into the road by NIC to calm my breathing down and get more relaxed. I kept looking for the mile marker and found it later than I thought. I tried eating some gel, but that just stuck to my mouth. By the time I reached the drink station before the turn around I needed some water to wash it down and stopped just after passing a young woman. After the turn around I stopped again at the drink station and the young woman passed me. I decided I needed to stick with her like glue as I was certainly not running with ease. To me she was the MVP of the race. She helped me finish and distracted me the last few miles with conversaation. Her pace was slower than mine, but she kept me from stopping and that is what counted.

Here we are at the end of the race. Her name is Erika Klenk, age 18, from Tahoe, CA.  Her entire family (the Porcarelli family) has been racing in the CDA triathlon for 3 generations. He grandma Sally is 78 and started the trend of triathletes through the family. They have always loved this race because of the family gathering and competition. Erika is the youngest in the family and is 18 and hopes to keep coming here and keeping the tradition alive. Erika placed second in her age group.

DANCE FAMILY RESULTS

Devin from the CDA Press kept asking me how many other family members were participating in the CDA triathlon with me. I never could answer her for sure, because my Dad's funeral took precedence and no one was sure when it would be and how other things would need to change to make everything fit in. Eventually 5 of us participated: My wife Julienne, my second son Dave, my seventh child Jacob, and my nephew Blake.  All of us ran the Sprint Distance except Dave who ran the Olympic Distance.  The names LAST, FIRST, SECOND, THIRD etc are in comparison with each other. The Age Place is the medal won in their Age Division at the CDA Triathlon. We took home five medals.

 Blake, Jake, David, Richard, Julienne

Bib Name Swim T1 Bike T2 Run Chip Elapsed Time Age Age Place 105 RICHARD DANCE 0:18:01 0:03:11 0:43:51 0:01:26 0:27:29 1:33:58   62 2 LAST FIRST FIRST THIRD THIRD THIRD 779 JULIENNE DANCE 0:12:50 0:03:56 0:51:56 0:01:02 0:29:08 1:38:52  61 2 SECOND  LAST LAST FIRST LAST FOURTH 763 JACOB DANCE 0:12:19 0:03:16 0:44:52 0:01:28 0:23:08 1:25:03  24 1 FIRST SECOND  SECOND  LAST SECOND  FIRST 764 BLAKE MCDONALD 0:13:46 0:03:33 0:46:57 0:01:14 0:22:55 1:28:25   23 2 THIRD THIRD THIRD SECOND  FIRST SECOND 65 DAVID DANCE 0:29:31 0:01:41 1:10:41 0:01:07 0:40:00 2:23:00  36 3 FIRST FIRST FIRST FIRST FIRST
More pictures follow:

Julienne getting on her bike

          


Jake our First Place Sprint Finisher              Blake our Fastest Runner-Smiling

			Here is Julienne passing the runner  in First Place about 100 Yards from the Finish Line
			Julienne having to settle for 2nd in her age division about 50 yards from the Finish Line

 

											Age Place
			Ann in the center got second in her last race about 50 yards from the finish line,  so when she saw Julienne, also in her 60+ age group pass her, she put on the extra effort and took first. Good for her to learn from her last race and make good on her resolve. Congratulations Ann on getting 1st.								2
			Dave Dance showing us how it is really done in the CDA Olympic Distance, coming on strong in 3rd place for his age group (35-39) finishing as the 31st male, just 19 seconds behind second place. He is about 100 yards from the finish line in this photo.								2
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