Crystal Cove and a Triathalon...

I have lived in SoCal my entire life and have never explored Crystal Cove. I used to eat at the Shake Shack (Now Ruby’s) and I drive by it all the time. There's a state park with walks and hikes and a tunnel that goes under PCH to the beach. There is also a quirky little tiny town there that has a restaurant called Beachcomber. I've seen the colorful houses but didn’t realize exactly what it was. I suck. I mean seriously - how have I missed this. So - my friend Nat and I have been taking walks there as I mentioned in my previous blog. She and her man have a pass that gets you into all the State Parks for free. They both like to hike/walk so they felt it was worth it to invest in a pass. I'm starting to consider this myself since I never get to State Parks and this would really kick my ass even more to go. Once baby has arrived and Nat is feeling up to it, we'll start hiking which I'm quite excited to check out. This will be right around the time I can probably handle that as well. But for now we have been walking along the paved path (which we walk a long ways and it has a quite many hills mind you) every now and again. It's always gorgeous of course and you all know how much I love the ocean. So, today my friend R and her hubs were in a triathlon in this same area. I had mentioned it to Nat but it was a bit too early for her. She told me it was exactly where we walk and the place I was thinking of parking was where we had parked the last time we had attempted a hike (I never made it due to motion barfies). I've always wanted to be a spectator at a race and here was a perfect chance. I could support my friend and see what this was all about. Especially a triathlon. I can pretty confidently say a triathlon is never in my future. I'm completely ok with this. I love my obstacle races and my strengths lay in other areas. My knee and my lungs will not allow me to run like that. Let alone swim! Good lord. But not my friend - she's incredible. I've watched her improve drastically over the last year or so doing larger races, conquering her fear, pretty much rocking it. If I'm not mistaken this particular triathlon was her very 1st one. So this time she was here ready to smoke it. Which she did. Um - 1st place in her age group. What's up badass. So here's the spectator triathlon virgin's viewpoint: I woke up in the dark. I don’t do this often. This is ass early. I did enjoy looking at the stars as I groggily climbed into my truck this morning and the sky was starting to turn that rich purply color. Off I went. I arrived in no time, found the parking lot I researched and parked. As I walked through the lot I realized how unfamiliar I was with the whole area. I'm usually with Nat who knows the area quite well. So I asked a couple of old guys working the employee lot how I get to the race. They said to follow the path down and under PCH and it will take you there. This was not exactly the case. I considered going back for my tennis shoes but figured it can’t be that far. So I headed down. The path split and I stood there a minute wondering which way to go. Luckily I picked correctly and came upon an awesome tunnel:

Again - WHY HAVE I NEVER BEEN DOWN HERE! I considered taking a fun self-portrait but two girls appeared behind me so I kept walking. I wandered into the little tiny Crystal cove town. The old buildings are all different colors and I felt like I had shot back to the 1960's and dropped into a random beach town. So cool! I wanted to take more photos but started realizing I didn’t see any race people. I wandered to the beach, passing the Beachcomber and thinking - "Ooooh! I'll eat there and get my parking validated when the race is done!". Empty beach. No racers. It's about 6:10 now and R has told me she starts at 7:30. I turn around and see a huge rickety staircase leading up to PCH area. I head up. I find myself on the pathway that Nat and I walk. I stand there for a moment looking both ways. Which the hell direction is the race!? A lovely woman asked me if I was looking for the race and pointed me in the right direction. Yay! I started walking. And walking. And walking. The entire time I'm walking I'm cursing the fact that I'm wearing my sandals and not my walking shoes. And I forgot my sunblock! Walking. Walking. I would worry I wasn’t going the right way but a couple of people fell in front of me that looked like race folk so I followed them. Walking. Walking. Good Lord I walked for days. I finally came upon another parking lot that was filled with racers and saw the giant Muscle Milk blow up arch thing. I wander into the area and start to look around. I think the swim is 1st, so I better find the ocean because that is where I'll probably find R. I see a group of people walking towards somewhere so I fall in behind. I pass the parking lot filled with bicycles. Pretty cool! I see the people disappear. There's a huge hill going down to the beach. I mean a HUGE HILL. I ease down it trying not to let my knee bark and throw of my sandals when I hit the sand. I see a crowd down the beach. WAY DOWN the beach! I pause a moment when I see the Swim Finish sign and wonder if I should just wait here. I glance at the time and its 7:15. I want R to know I'm here so I decide to try and find her in the group of people. I walk briskly down beach and realize I won’t have to work out later! Yay! This is my kind of workout. I start walking up to women in hot pink caps and apologizing when they look at me like a crazed stalker. I finally find her. She looks amped and excited. She tells me Adam is about to start and I turn and snap a picture:

I also start noticing the very attractive men around me and start to turn into that lame shy giggly girl. His wave takes off and I can’t help but get caught up in the excited energy that fills the air! I hoop and holler and take another shot!

I'm completely caught up at this point and R joins her wave of hot pink gals. She looks confident and excited. I can’t stop smiling and neither can she:

The horn goes off and I find myself screaming and cheering. I try to catch a photo but unfortunately I have learned that other spectators are not as friendly as I am and I get elbowed in the head so no shot of R running, but I caught the girls heading out.

As I watch these athletes tear into the water I'm amazed. It takes everything in my being to just get out past the waves and here they go tearing out and then swimming in the ocean!!! I stand there in awe and snap another shot.

I then trek back down the beach to the Swim Finish. I find a spot and get yelled at by the lifeguard - I was apparently too close to his truck. So I moved to the other side because I felt like a child in trouble at school. I saw the 1st gal come out of the water. I start to get my camera ready and find myself squinting in the sunlight trying to figure out how I'm going to tell which one she is because I already can’t see far away without my glasses and the sun isn’t helping. Holy Hell there she is. She comes trotting out the water like 3rd or 4th. I whoop and holler again and feel super special because my friend is faster than everyone else’s friend. Yup. I'm competitive even for others. And up the hill she trots.

At this point I know I have some time and I figure I won’t be able to see her on the bike portion because I don’t know where to go and they go so fast and I already have a hard time seeing so I take my time up the hill. The runners are running past us dripping with water and huffing. A woman who’s walking in front of me turns and laughs at the fact that she and I are huffing up this hill and these peeps just swam forever and are trotting past us. I laugh and cheer on the runners more. When I get to the top I start to wander around trying to decide where to plant myself to watch her run by. I get yelled at by someone else when I apparently try to plant myself somewhere sacred and wandered over to the finish line. Hmmmmm. I want to see them before that. So I wander back. I get completely distracted by the very fit very hot men running past me. Rawr. I turn and realize people are watching the transitions from swim to bike from bike to run. OOOOOHHHHH! This is what R has spoken of in her blogs when she wants to improve transitions. I find this fascinating and wander over to watch this. There are rows of metal bars that the racers hang their bikes on and a pile of stuff is directly underneath. You must get assigned a spot. I notice the rows have Wave numbers on the end. I watch as the swimmers come trotting into the area, strip off their wetsuits, dab themselves dry-ish, throw on a shirt with the bib number and shoes, some grab a drink or a snack, they strap on their helmets, grab their bikes and start running towards the bike portion. Wow. Then I'm starting to see some of the earlier waves riding in on the bikes. They hook their bike back onto the bar, take off the helmet, usually grab a drink, maybe strip off a layer and their off. It's very systematic. No one looks flustered. It's truly a trip to watch. I also want to mention there is a kid’s triathlon. I'm seeing the little kids starting to run in from their swim and I have to say - the parents - not cool. These people are psycho. I felt like I was watching stage moms on crack. Me and a couple standing next to me were shoved out of the way multiple times by parents running to where their kids were and them screaming at them. "PUT ON YOUR SHOES!!!" "HURRY UP!!!" One little girl was brought to tears. The couple next to me was mortified as was I. Now of course this was not all the parents, but a good portion of them. I felt horrible for these kids being screamed at by their parents. One set of parents leaped the barricade and starting helping the kid get ready - not very gently I may add. The man who was working/volunteering yelled at them through his bullhorn that only racers were allowed in the area. I thought there was going to be a physical fight. I couldn’t believe how these parents were acting. On the other side though were the happy parents squealing and cheering and encouraging the kids with more "YOU CAN DO IT!!" "WAY TO GO!!!". I really wanted these parents to teach the evil parents how not to be an asshole. Moving on. I started noticing girls coming into the area so I started watching for R. When she road in I squealed and cheered. She transitioned so damn fast I barely caught her:

I then promptly ran over to cheer her on as she ran by and caught a great shot of her smiling and kicking ass:

I then wandered into the main area and tried to find a spot at the finish stretch. I found that usually when someone’s friend or family member ran by the spectators left so I started trying to nab one of these spots. I caught one, but some jackass shoved me so hard I almost fell onto the race track. Another spectator snapped at him for being a prick in my honor but it was not big. I did move though. I found a space where I overheard the couple say once "Richard" ran by they saw everyone. Then "GO RICHARD!!!" as he ran by and I got their spot. I had a ball watching all the people come down that home stretch. The kids came through and were adorable as they booked it and shot down the last few feet at full speed. I saw a woman with no legs - just the blade runner things tear past. I'm not going to lie - I teared up. I saw an older man pushing himself and beaming as he ran by. I found myself cheering and clapping for everyone as they ran by. I loved watching people pick up speed when they realized they were at the finish. I loved the faces of triumph of happiness of competiveness. It was awesome. Unfortunately I got shoved again just as R rounded the corner so I didn’t get my camera up in time but I started jumping up and down and screaming for her as she ran by. She smiled and ran by as if it was the easiest run in the world. I remember when I run my wacky obstacle races, hearing someone scream and cheer my name on the side lines was awesome so I hope I was able to give that to her. After the race I saw her realize she got first place in her group and turned to me flashing the number one sign. I wish I had that shot. She was beaming. I chatted with her and Adam after the race congratulating them both. I peaced out though because I was getting sunburned and knew I had a nice long ass walk back. As I walked I found myself smiling. It was beautiful out and the morning was filled with a great energy. Being a spectator was a blast. I also want to start documenting experiences more with photos and blogging like this one to capture it all. Again - there is never not time to do these kinds of things. I want to take more time with everything. Congrats to R and Adam for kicking major ass and letting me be a part of very fun exciting morning!