UCLA Ironbruin 2019 by Paxton Rush
Molly Banks
Hey everybody! I’m Paxton, a first year here on the tri team, and this is Ironbruin 2019! Woo!
So we all got to the parking lot by the rec cen somewhere around 4. Lots of people had rented sleeping bags and pads from the adventure club. I road in Dustin’s van with Colby, Vanessa, Zephyr, Phillipe, Michael, Ian, and Declan. We drove for around two hours through some thick traffic, listening to Zephyr’s jams and telling jokes, then we stopped to get dinner at an Italian place. We ended up going to baskin Robbins afterwards for some pre-race ice cream for another hour or so, then we pulled into Jared’s parents house, who were kind enough to host us for the night! Phillipe swore that the couch was too soft and slept on the floor; his loss!
Our group slept from 11-4:45ish, so a decent amount of sleep. We got up, had some bagels and grapes generously provided to us, and drove to the race site!
The race site was at Santa Fe Dam. Transition was in a parking lot right outside the lake. The swim was a weird triangle around lake, then you hiked up to the top of the damn and did two weird loops around it, and then you ran a lap around the lake.
We spent a while prepping in transition, with Dustin showing me and the other freshmen how to set everything up. We put on our wetsuits, took one last crap, warmed up for a bit, and we were off!
The swim was pretty good, everyone felt fast. We were greeted by cheers from Coach, Zephyr, Rick, and Sean at transition. The bike course ended up being very flat and very fast. The run felt awful, but it was actually a good course. Just need to do more bricks.
I ended up finishing in 13th place; 4h in the team and the fastest freshmen. Dustin podiumed and got third with the fastest run, and Jared got 6th with the fastest bike and the second fastest run. Michael ended at 10th, and was a little too far away for me to catch. Sarah ended up winning the whole thing! Iris also got podium with a third. Declan ended up crashing on the second loop; his tire went out from under him and he fell on the turnaround. He scraped up his chin and his elbow, but he still finished! Everyone did such a good job on the race. We stopped at luscious dumplings on the way back for some quality refueling, and then we went home to nap :)