The lyric beauty of Pacific Grove

The late, great author John Updike wrote of Fenway Park in Boston that it was “a lyric, little bandbox of a ballpark. Everything is painted green and seems in curiously sharp focus, like the inside of am old-fashioned peeping-type Easter Egg.” Triathlon cannot claim to own its sporting venues like major sports stadia. But once (sometimes twice) a year, the late-blooming sport of swim, bike and run can occupy and intertwine with places of uncommon beauty. Whether a glass and steel metropolis like Chicago, a dramatic tropical lava field like Kona, or a tiny elegant village like Pacific Grove, lines of colorful spandexed and neoprened triathletes become an iridescent ribbon of aerobic pilgrims who wrap the water, sky, shoreline, domiciles, roads and residents in a living, breathing impromptu homage to one of Christo’s famed environmental art installations.

Terry Davis and his Tri-California organization started holding events in this community, just a few blocks south of the famed Monterey Aquarium and Cannery Row, in 1996. This past weekend was the 15th Triathlon at Pacific Grove. Perhaps you’ve heard it was beautiful. But it’s one very lesser thing to read about it than to experience the heartbreaking beauty of this place live and in person. The turquoise waters decorated with wine dark kelp and framed by the jagged rocky shoreline, ringed in iceplant and cypress trees, dominates the swim of course. But it also provides a welcoming backdrop as the bike heads south toward Spanish Bay, and makes the run that heads north toward Monterey along the shore an equally perfect picture. All the action whizzes past beautiful 19th century Craftsmen wood shingled houses, Spanish-style stucco homes covered in passionate red bougainvillea and cactus, blending seamlessly with tasteful modern homes whose skylights and wide windows embrace the outdoors.

While Ethan Brown and Annie Warner won their first professional victories and $2,500 in the draft-legal elite race at noon on Saturday, even these competitive pros could not help but look around them to soak in the beauty. Pacific Grove is like that. No matter how fast or slow the competitors – whether they be elites racing for money or age groupers racing for a PR in the Olympic distance races on Saturday, or the armies of newcomers racing for pride in Sunday’s sprint race, Pacific Grove is a priceless experience.

All photographs © Timothy Carlson

If there is one natural symbol unique to Pacific Grove, it’s the tangled forest of kelp that cloaks the cold water swim at Lovers Point. Experience navigating through the kelp is essential to a successful race.

The tide was low and the swim start sprint long for the age groupers on Saturday.

But the tide was high for the elites, who dove immediately into the swim.

Age grouper struggles through the kelp crawl.

It’s a big relief to be able to stand up and leave the kelp behind.

Age grouper unzips his wetsuit on the run toward T1.

This swift age grouper’s blue and white spandex and bike is a perfect match for the sparkling blue, backlit Pacific and a low line of puffy white clouds.

Age group man, whose fit body is sharply etched by training, rides past a cypress tree etched by the wind.

A gaggle of age groupers ride past tall cypress.

The bike turnaround at Lovers Point.

Kristen Peterson of Boulder, Colorado got out fast in the swim and held the lead for a few laps of the bike.

The lead elite men’s pack – left to right – John Dahlz, Tom Zaferes, Ethan Brown, Steve Sexton and Kyle Leto.

A Team in Training competitor has her flat tire pumped up.

A signature view of the Pacific Grove run.

Age group man runs past a mural of historic 19th century Pacific Grove.

Second place elite woman Amanda Felder’s form is as elegant as a Greek frieze.

Number 2430 Sprint distance age grouper’s spirits are high. His fashion sense exuberantly tropical, insouciantly dismissive of the aerodynamic and wicking qualities of his spandex-free attire.

This very young and very talented girl finished in the top 10.

The final finishers of the sprint put camaraderie first, competition far down the list of priorities.

After the tumult and the shouting, the Pacific Grove shoreline retains its peaceful beauty.