The hometown triathletes rocked it in the local water and on the streets in Saturday’s long-course race of the Santa Barbara Triathlon.
Santa Barbara’s Jason Smith and Sarah Terry claimed top honors for the first time on an overcast morning at East Beach.
Smith was the event’s overall winner for the first time in his long triathlon career, leading from start to finish. He covered the 1-mile swim, 34-mile bike and 10-mile run in 2 hours, 50 minutes, 16 seconds.
Terry won the women’s title after starting in the second wave of competitors. She used a blistering run of 1:03.44 to complete the course in 3:14.12. Terry finished as the runner-up last year.
Smith has been a perennial favorite in the race over the years, but the top spot on the podium has eluded him because Santa Barbara often draws some elite professional triathletes who use the race to prepare for the Ironman World Championships in October.
“There’s always a ringer that comes from out of town, meaning a person that is either an ex-Olympian or someone super strong. And, finally, they didn’t show up,” he cracked.
If they did, there was no way they were going to beat Smith this year, because he and his family are riding a wave of good vibrations.
Last month, Smith’s wife, Adrienne, was part of a four-women crew who rowed across the Pacific from San Francisco to Honolulu, Hawaii, in a world-record 34 days. Smith was their fitness coach.
“We’re a good team, and we’re good in letting each other do what we like to fill our passion and keep the ball moving forward,” he said. “If she wants to do something, it’s like, ‘Alright, how are we going to make it happen?’ Having a little girl (Reese), it’s challenging. It’s a hot potato. I’m coming in the door, and I get Reese while she goes out and trains.”
He said their love made it possible for all of these good things to happen.
“What a family and what a DNA for their daughter,” race director Elizabeth Farnan Rodrigues said of the Smiths.
Smith finished nearly six minutes ahead of second-place Adam Goulet (2:56.46) of Bend, Ore., and more than 10 minutes in front of third-place Travis Rose of San Diego (3:01.30).
“It was a lonely day,” said Smith, who started with a mile swim of 20.04 minutes. “Right from the first stroke I felt myself in the lead. It is what it is. It’s nice to have people around you, and it’s nice to have carrots in front of you. I hardly ever get out of the water in first, so it was nice.”
He said the motorcycle escort on the bike course was a nice carrot.
Smith was so far ahead that race announcer Jim Lubinski got reports that Smith was thanking everybody on the bike course.
“Probably 10 people came back and said, ‘Jason Smith is the nicest guy. He thanked me as he was climbing up the highest point on the course,’’’ Lubinski told the crowd during the awards ceremony.
Smith covered the bike course to Carpinteria and back (which has an elevation gain of 1,971 feet) in 1:50.33, an average of 3.10 minutes per mile.
He finished the run in 58.34, a 5.52 per-mile pace.
Smith said “he was testing out a lot of stuff” on the run to prepare for the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii, in October.
In addition to wearing new shoes, he learned he has to race with socks. “My feet are pretty messed up,” he said.
He also tried out some new nutrition supplements, so he can figure it out before the Ironman.
“This was a good tester for Kona, and luckily I actually won at the same time,” he said.
Smith will be back at the beach on Sunday as he and Reese will support Adrienne in the 1-mile ocean swim, a new event for triathlon weekend.
Terry found another gear after the swim and bike and finished her day with an epic run. Her time of 1:03.44 (an average of 6.23 minutes per mile) enabled her to beat out Carly Johann of Los Angeles (3:18.21) and Ventura’s Brittany Oliver (3:19.36).
Terry’s swim time was 28.26, and she did the cycling portion in 2:08.42.
“My swim was pretty slow. I’m not a great swimmer, but I biked and ran really well,” said the former San Marcos High cross country and track athlete who is a member of the Santa Barbara Triathlon Club.
She picked up her pace on the downhill portion of the run, which started at East Beach, went along the waterfront, up Shoreline Drive and into a Santa Barbara Mesa neighborhood before returning to the beach.
Terry was motivated to win this year, but she wasn’t sure it would be possible when the athletes in the elite category started 15 minutes ahead.
“I had no idea where I was relative to them, because when I was out on the run they looked pretty far ahead of me,” she said.
Terry said she wasn’t among the first wave of starters because she signed up as an age-group category entrant. She couldn’t believe it when she saw that she won.
“I was surprised. I was like, ‘This can’t be right,’’’ she said.
Rodrigues said it does happen that an athlete from a later-starting wave comes out on top at the end.
“Man, that woman can run,” Rodrigues said of Terry’s finishing performance. “I mean, she really picked them up and put them down quickly and went just under 64 minutes. Just spectacular on this course; you’ve got five miles up and five miles down.”
Before the top-three finishers were announced, Rodrigues called Terry over to confirm her run time.
“I just wanted to make sure that the timers didn’t miss anything, or something didn’t happen along the way. She kind of sheepishly said, ‘Oh, I ran 64. Am I in trouble?’
“I said, ‘You’re not in trouble, girl. You fix your hair. You’re gonna be in the winners’ picture.’
“Pretty spectacular to have Santa Barbara triathlon represented on that podium.”
Terry is preparing for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in St. George, Utah, in October.
“I’ve been training with Matt Ison to prepare for that, and this is all kind of a build up,” she said.
Rodrigues was excited to see the local triathletes win on their home course.
“What could be better than to have the hometown favorites come across the finish line first just as the sun is breaking and we’re kind of winding down the first day,” she said.
Saturday’s events also included the long-course aquabike, which consisted of a 1-mile ocean swim and 34-mile bike.
The overall winner was Mike Shaffer of Ventura in 1:52.02, followed by Steven Hunt of Goleta (2:00.4) and Michael Smith of Santa Barbara (2:01.34).
Santa Barbara’s Cindy Abrami was the women’s winner in 2:24.51, with Darlene Krohn of Santa Barbara in second and Joanne Salad of Texas in third.
Sunday’s action includes the short-course triathlon in coed, women’s and parent/child divisions, the run-bike duathlon, 1-mile swim and 5k run. The coed triathlon is the first race at 7 a.m.
