MTS CONFERENCE BY SEAN TRAN

This is the story of the GU pack that undermined the entire legacy of Michelin star.

MTS was the last major event before my spring break. As usual, I was the most pumped and the most prepared person before every race, probably across the whole team. Harry picked me up with the school van the day before the race. I always make sure that the driver has a special treat, so I made him a cup of Thai tea. We then sprinted the van to school, shoved all the bikes into the two trailers, and let everyone board. Everything was great.

By the time everyone was about to leave, I spotted a bunch of stuff laying by a tree in the parking lot, and a huge jug of Skippy peanut butter. As I saw that jug, I knew right away that those were Jayson’s stuff (I always triple-check his name because I send something out). We all mutually agreed to shove Jayson’s stuff into the bike trailer before he walked back from IV to make him confused.

Harry started to roll the car and the trailer out of the parking lot. My original plan was to get everyone to experience an international music tour through an aux cable. That plan didn’t age well. I was Harry’s co-pilot. Bing, Olivia, and Katie were mid-rowers. Jean and Matt W. were back-seaters. The drive to the package pickup site was lawful chaos. 5 minutes after the car left the parking lot, the aux cable turned half-functioning. Everyone then tried to revive the aux but wasn’t successful. This event proved that radio remained the “daddy” status of all car technology. Anyway, we didn’t arrive at the package pickup site first, BUT under Harry’s chaotic good driving skill, we parked our trailer first.

Next stop, Pizza Republic in SLO. The first magic of the day happened here. While waiting for everyone to finish up, a server at the restaurant asked if anyone ordered two chicken parms, and turned out no one did. Out of nowhere, the “supply and demand” curve rushed in my blood, I playfully told everyone at my table: “I would pay half-priced for the chicken parms”. Five minutes later, the server walked up to the table and asked if anyone wanted the food. Without any hesitation, I said yes to her generosity, followed by Bing. We both get the chicken for free. By the time the team left for the campsite, the server brought a free pizza to us! 2 free chicken parms and a piping hot rusty pizza before the race: WHAT A HOME RUN!

After a mysteriously glorious drive from the pizza place, we hit the gate of the massive campsite. It was rainy and foggy outside, no one knew where exactly where we would camp. We met Megan, followed by Amanda and Carlyn’s car. We all decided to follow Eddie’s trailer (Eddie usually knows everything). Eventually, we lost Eddie’s trailer, then caught his trailer turning back. I rolled down the window and shout: “Where are we going?”. Instantly, Eddie echoed back: “Where are we going?”. We all busted out laughing. We then drove a little bit more until the two UCSD Tri people showed up on the scene to help us out with their camp site map. The map didn’t help that much, so we decided to drive a bit more until we saw a bunch of college kids sitting on a cliff watching our trailer like they saw an exotic animal. We decided to stop and asked them for some direction. They couldn’t help either, so we decided to head back to the ranger’s station. This time, the two trailers and the two small cars met our 12 passengers van led by Gigi. We were all here stranded in the middle of the glorious race site. From here, Katie decided to sprint to the ranger’s station to get help. We finally got the help we needed. Vroom…vroom… we were now at the campsite.

            I gotta be honest, this was the third time I went camping in my whole life. It was harder for me to figure out how to set up a tent than playing Beethoven, so Matt W. had to help me out… Ouch, it was embarrassing, city boy! The team had a good two hours hanging around the bonfire until the rain occurred. Everyone rushed into their tents and we called it a successful night. Sleeping in a different bed is never easy for me, and sleeping in the tent made it even…. (I guess) more interesting. I was so nervous about the race the next morning, so I called my brother to distract myself, but then stayed until midnight to watch countless triathlon-related videos. My sleep was average. 5/10.

            Race Day! I think I was the first one waking up and certainly the last leaving for the transition area. Breaking down the tent was hard. I then had oatmeal blended with apple and blueberries for breakfast, which was unusual for me (I usually eat rice and bacon for breakfast, and this detail will come later towards the end of the story). AB and Coach Sean showed up at the scene and asked why the oatmeal I ate was purple. AB gave me a very suspicious smile, so I wasn’t sure what he meant. (Alright whatever, I know my food is oftentimes weird). After breakfast, I rolled my bike down to the transition area with Ava, one of the fastest girls on the team. Everything was great. I secured the best spot for the transition and said ‘hi’ to all the UCSD Tri fellows.

After that, I headed to the start of the swim. Although MTS Conference had such a stunning swim course, the start was sloppy. No announcement was available to remind athletes to get in the water. The boys were about to do the cheer but had to skip to rush to the swimming swarm. Everyone had to do two laps of the course. My first lap felt great. Second lap, not so much. I’m not sure if the lake has tides or not, but the water was so shallow during the second lap. I ended up running around 6-7 steps in the water to get back to the swim course. It was a terrific swim.

Before I talk about the bike, I need to talk about my inventory. I had two Gus, a bottle of water with honey and salt as my electrolyte. T1 was average: wetsuit out, shoes on, bike out. The same darn thing. 2 minutes on the bike, I dropped my first GU. Worse, it was my favorite flavor: LEMONADE! (important detail) I was like no big deal… let’s just smoke everyone on this bike course. Yup, I passed lots of people. I even passed Kyle and neck-on-neck with Ava, just some top people on the team. The bike was fantastic.

Bike in, run out… Holy crap, I had to run again, and this time was 10k, not 5k anymore. Honestly, I was pretty calm in the first 5k to leave room for descending on the last 5k, except I didn’t have a chance to descend. On the 7th kilometer, fatigue started to kick in. I sweated like crazy and my body halted. I tried to get back on the running pace but it was just impossible. I didn’t want to get a DNF so I just kept walking…and walking…and walking… I regretted eating that weird purple oatmeal instead of the reliable bacon and rice in the morning. I thought I was done. On the verge of blacking out, I saw a UCSB race kit passing by WITH 2 GU PACKS. THAT WAS MAYA!!! I used all the energy I had left and screamed: “MAYA COULD YOU DROP A GU?”. Oh! My! God! It was a LEMONADE GU! HOLY CRAP! I felt like I was given a second life after knocking that GU! A flow of energy rushed into my legs and blazed in my heart. It was THE MOST DELICIOUS THING I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE. I had two one-Michelin star meals and one two-Michelin star meal in my life, they were simply nowhere near this GU. After that, I just sprinted to the finish line. Bing finally beat me for the first time towards the end of the race.

            MTS was such an important race to me. It made me appreciate the sport and the people around me even more. I was so embarrassed that I crashed on the run and didn’t spend enough time running and mismanaged my nutrition during race day. In conclusion, there’re three straight-up facts I learned from this race. First, Maya’s GU is just way better than the overrated Michelin guide. Second, if cars run on gas, Sean indeed run on bacon and rice. Third, if UCSB Triathlon is not the number 1 team in my heart, I don’t know what will.