Goin' Back to Cali

Sunny California. Bastion of beautiful beaches, body builders and babes in bikinis. Perhaps more pertinant to Ranch lifers, mecca for outdoor enthusiasts and all things ocean, mountain and desert.

This past weekend, a three-strong contingent of the Ranch cohort made an appearance at the Encinitas Triathlon. Located in surfer's paradise, just north of San Diego, where the sport of triathlon was born of Navy Seals in 1974, Ridermama, RiderZoe and Riderturbo (Turbine) appeared smiling brightly and proudly flying the Ranch colours.

Preparing for the event was not easy. Turbine solicited inspiration from the Oracle (RiderPitts) some half-the-world away in Hong Kong to drop pounds, lean up and get ready for race day, incorporating a regimen of austere diet, aerobic base building and Friday fasting to throw down when the chips were on table.

Despite teeming with a hunger to race, Ridermama was relegated to spectator with Riderzoe due to some group planning issues.

Wanting to take glory for the team, Turbine lined up front row behind the start tape with the big guns in a land where triathlon is no joke. Fueled by a pre-race regimen of Red Bull, push ups and delusions of Ranch victory, Turbo flew off the line like a trackstar and was first into the water with high knees and powerful arm drive.

A few seconds later, the dream was shattered as Turbine slammed head-on into a wall of incoming surf where mother nature shows no quarter to feeble displays of human aggression. After regaining composure, Turbine settled mid-pack among local ocean swimmers and swung into a rhythmic corkscrew tempo reflective of weekend race pace. The group swam straight outbound to the yellow triagular buoy, smoothly sighting intermediate orange buoys past the break, then turned shore bound by sighting off a towering palm tree onshore to complete the 750m swim leg.

Mentally discombobulated coming out of the water in 37th place, Turbine knew it was time to show the locals what the Ranch is about. After an extra 30 seconds fluff time in T1 donning the obligatory Ranch jersey, hell broke lose as Turbine locked, loaded and fired the Eddy Mercx Chrono TT bike down the road course, sighting the competition and picking them off one by one. After two laps comprising 20km, Turbine had restaked Ranch claim with a non-drafting bike split 37 minutes, ranking 7th amongst men same-age group competitors.

On to the run after a snappy one minute T2 and Turbine felt the pain of hard-won glory on the bike. Despite efforts to ignore the pain, lactic acid spiked and leg muscles seized as Turbine grit his teeth and knocked down the first of two laps. Inspired by fast veterans, fit women and Romanov's Pose Tech running technique, Turbine picked up the pace and brought home the second lap of the 5k run in style with Riderzoe and Ridermama providing paparazzi photos and raucous cheering along the finish line chute.

Overall, Turbine clocked a mid-rank 5k run split and won 14th overall position out of 63 competitors in the Men's 35-39 age group.

Ridermama and Riderzoe proudly showed Ranch colours throughout and curious onlookers in the crowd were heard whispering "who's the Ranch?"

Chalk up a few more kilometers, smiles and points for the Ranch on the global racing scene.

RANCH HUSTLE, LOYALTY, RESPECT.