Ironman 70.3 California - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Got kicked in the face getting into the water, which messed up my goggle fit. I was slightly panicking since I knew I only had three minutes to get to the deep water start. I swam slightly the wrong direction, lifeguard told me to make a hard left to the start, and I got there, slightly back, still fixing my goggles. We started, I took five strokes, had to stop and fix my goggles again, which worried another lifeguard across the way from me. I finished fixing my goggles and was off. We rounded a couple more buoys and I saw a girl on my age group hanging onto a lifeguard board, and I yelled out "you can do it!" before I slowly kept going. I meant that to make her feel better, but I actually felt better, too, seeing her keep going. Also, the route took us through parts where you could see some underwater stuff, and it was cool :3 I took the turnaround too wide and yet another lifeguard pointed me to take a harder left instead of swimming out to the sea XD A couple of feet and arms got close to my face and I had to protect my goggles. Thank goodness no one swam OVER me. I did take a half mouthfull of water when I breathed as someone else was swimming by.

I was not sure why, but I was especially thirsty during the swim :/

I got out of the water and could not believe I finished under 50 minutes. I was expecting at least another 20 minutes in the swim. Overall, an excellent finish after a rough start.

I need to practice mass group starts, so that means more triathlons since I could not replicate this outside of races. Overall I was happy with the swim.

NOW I know why people have compression cuffs, you can totally wear them under a wetsuit and just leave them on for the bike! It took me FIVE MINUTES to put my knee high compression socks on. I did remember to eat and drink (SWEET SWEET drink! I was sooo thirsty!)

Must, practice transition. At least I remembered to eat and put on my gloves this time. Still wished it didn't take 10 minutes!

First 20 miles, flat. Took advantage of this by getting a good pace on. Then the hill of doom showed up. I started pedaling up this hill and was somewhat demoralized by seeing how everyone ahead of me was pushing their bikes up this hill. I wanted to do the same, but I did not know how to dismount while facing such a steep uphill, so I soldiered on. Almost crashed at one point since I was going so slow, but somehow finished (while humming the Super Mario Brothers water theme, since that usually keeps me calm in open water swims). There were three other hills after that, which were also tough, but looked pretty conquerable after this first hill. I was glad it was not the other way around (tough hill at the end) or I would have probably just fallen over.

The continued slight incline was also tough through the second half of the race, since you couldn't see there's an incline, but you could feel it since it was so hard to turn the crank. Towards the end there was nice downhill going on and I got to give my legs some rest in preparation for the run.

Overall faster than I thought. I estimated 13mph but finished over a mph faster.

Find a tougher hill to practice up. Need to build speed going up hills.

I had way more time than I thought after my swim and bike, so I took it easy for the T2. I was unfortunately not hungry but I knew I needed energy, so I ate part of a wafer while I put on my sunblock (I thought I was getting a sunburn on my nose since it stared to hurt, but turns out I was scratched there, probably from the kick to the face from the swim) and chatted with this guy who was already done, coming to pick up his bike.

Socks came off faster than I came on. I put on my vibrams, replenished sunblock, put on visor, cap, and race belt and was off.

I probably could have just moved faster.

Is it just me, or was the course slightly short?

Never the less, the part of the race I thought would be cake walk turns out to be such, without the CAKE part. I hit the wall hard after mile 3 and the whole run/walk plan went out the window. My legs hurt, MY ARMS hurt (You know it's bad news when it hurts to push the buttons on your Garmin) I was also unaccustomed to running mid afternoon and the sun decided to shine all of a sudden. I started shoving ice cubs down my jersey and water over my head.

I could not bear to eat any more gels or gummies I packed, so I started drinking water, orange slices, and banana. I did force myself to drink some mix stuff in my bottle (still slightly cold since I froze it solid the night before and it melted for the run) since I knew I need it to prevent cramping.

It was a rough climb over the wall.

BARELY finished under 3 hours.

Need more brick practice.

EAT.


Heat, lack of practices up to 8 hours with all three disciplines.


They ran out of chocolate milk at the end. That was the only thing keeping me going on the run. It's their official post race beverage ;_; I'm making up for it by drinking some now.