So I got my wetsuit on and realized that there was a hole in the seam just below the zipper. I wore it 2 days before and didn't notice it then....so ya. I didn't want to play around with it too much more and rip a bigger hole, so I didn't get the suit optimally fitted around my shoulders. Not too bad, but not the best. And then as soon as I got the ripped wetsuit on I had to pee soooooooo bad!!!

Waited in the swim corral with the orange caps until it was our turn to swim out to the start. Water was a bit nippy but nothing too bad. Peed in my wetsuit...NBD. lol. Gun went off! Swam through the my wave. I ended up getting caught behind a few orange caps at first and had to divert myself around them. And then came the pink caps...and green caps and a few blue caps...I'm not sure I really like the wave start when starting so far back...at least with a mass start you end up in the crazy mosh pit for 200-300m and then its over...I didn't really feel that it ever ended.

Shoulders were a bit tight in the suit as well. I will chalk that up to less than optimal fitting around my shoulders.

Also the "keeping the buoys" on the left is a bit different as well. I found it a bit tough to spot because I tend to breath to the right during OWS. I guess something to work on is bilateral breathing in OWS. I do it in the pool...but for whatever reason I find it makes me a bit dizzy to switch in open water?

Got out of the water up the ramp and got grabbed by one of the medical officials. Measured my body temp. The doc made a comment that I looked warm and my temp ended up being just over 101 after the swim!!

Overall, not my best swim, but not terrible.

Bilateral breathing, fit the wetsuit better around my shoulders. Definitely need to spend more time in the water in the upcoming months. Glad I have Hawaii coming up in May! Luckily both Honu 70.3 and IM France won't need wetsuits!

Fairly long run out of the water to transition. Found my bike and got all my gear on.

Ya...lol. Beautiful course and beautiful men lined the course....oh hot marines!! They were patrolling all the main intersections as we made our way through all the marine "towns". Pace booty!! Haha. The first 25 miles were going pretty well. My quads were burning quite a bit for the first 30-45min and then that settled down. First half of the course is fairly flat with a few rollers but nothing too extreme.

The second half...different story. I knew that between miles 30-35 that there would be climbing but in my head it was longer steadier grades...not death hills. The first one hits pretty hard on Basilone road. Its likely a 1km long total (I might be overestimating but it feels that long) at near 8-9%? I had a flash back to that stage race a few weeks ago where the riders were getting off their bikes and walking up the hills because people were dismounting and walking up. I kept thinking to myself "don't you think to get off this bike...don't you do it"...finally made it to the top and had a glorious fast descent...I love descending....oh and then another death hill came....and another and another...then the wind and blah blah blah. Let's just say the back half was completely different for me than the front half. Really tough course. Probably the toughest I've ever done...definitely tougher than Calgary 70.3....

Definitely need more time in aero. My neck and traps were killing me by the end of the ride. Killinggggg...

More hills...more riding...hopefully the snow is melting back home so I can get a few weekends out in the mountains...IM France is going to be hilllly....

And apparently I need to come up with some sort of plan for sunscreen. I had sunscreen on and I still developed the usual "iron burn"...

Oh and one of my screws came out of my left cleat when I dismounted...apparently this is the race that I get to experience the equipment malfunctions--things to remember for Honu 70.3 and IM France.....

The usual kind of wobbly dismount on tired legs. Found that my legs didn't actually feel too bad to run on. The volunteers (who were equally as awesome as the hot marines on the bike) directed me to my rack. So as mentioned above, the day before I had checked my run gear in. I tied it to the place of my number and when I came to rack my bike a bunch of people had racked there bikes over my number...not a big deal so I found a place to rack my bike and got my shoes on. I had originally decided to wear my pink compression socks but then I looked down and decided that would just be too difficult to do at that moment in time and put on my regular running socks. Haha. If I sat down to put those socks on I wouldn't have gotten back up!!

Nothing really.

Ok...so as a disclaimer...I'm Canadian and in Edmonton...and when I left Edmonton we had a foot of snow and it was -10-15...brrrr. And I had a bathroom break on the run cause I had to pee real bad!

Hot hot hot hot hot. I decided early on that I would walk up the hills to prevent from over exerting myself too early. I think it was a good decision. The grades are like trail run steep and I didn't want to bonk. Took the run pretty steady otherwise and felt like I was actually moving up through the field (which in reality overall I was compared to the bike). On the first lap during the long stretch along Pacific St I really started to feel the heat and at one point needed to walk a bit because I was feeling nauseous. I decided to try out a strategy of taking the ice cubes and carrying them in my hands to let them melt...it actually did help out quite a bit. So at the aid stations I would douse myself in water and then take a cup of ice and grab 2 handfuls.

I noted at one point that my heel was bugging me and stopped to look on the second lap to see that my sock had rolled under and opened up a blister...so I was bleeding all over the back of my shoe. Fixed my sock and it helped. Also was having some sort of cramping going on in my left forefoot which I've never had before...kind of annoying during the run. Wonder if I didn't have enough salt on board?

The spectators along the course were AWESOME. This one group was having a party along Pacific St. Played some of my fav inspiring IM songs...some of the good old EYe of the Tiger, The FInal Countdown, We will rock you...So that was super cool. I definitely picked my pace up whenever I passed them.

Saw ChrisM on the run and yelled "BT Chris" at him. He was motoring along quite well! Nice work Chris! Also saw someone else who name I can't remember but I know is a BTer!

Need to work on my heat tolerance. Thought I did a good job with drinking and my calories, but could probably use more salt for races like this where I experience such a large change in temp. Again...thank god for Hawaii pre- IM France.

Just more miles on the legs is needed too. Should get easier now that I don't have to work all the time. Just studying and will work around my schedule to get the miles in!

Made it through the volunteer line and got my finisher's medal and hat. Grabbed a space blanket to shield my iron burn from further burnage and grabbed a few pieces of Iron pop and Iron pizza. Walked around a bit and gathered all my gear and biked the 1km back to my condo. Had a lie down! Whew!


Training overall hasn't been optimal compared to what it could have been, but that is okay. I think I did well overall with my training and am actually quite surprised how relatively consistent my splits were with my HRs. I'm writing this the morning after the race and other than my sun burn I don't feel too bad...I can walk...get up from seated...haha. The important things.


Good race. Will definitely be back to Oceanside for round two with this killer course. As usual Ironman runs a ship shape race. On time and well organized.