70.3 California - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I never really felt overly nervous for the start of this race. I thought it would hit me as my age group was on deck to head into the water, but I planned ahead for everything and training my weaknesses. I was ready to rock as they sent us out to the start. It didn't seem like we had very many people in our wave, but then again I never really looked behind me. I placed myself at the front and a little to the right but not on the far edge. I wanted to be able to try to grab onto the strong swimmers from the get go and figured that anyone that thought they were fast in the water would be up front. They gave us a sign that we were about to go, I made myself horizontal in the water and waited for the horn. HHOOOORRNNN!! Start swimming and withing 5 strokes I'm already getting pummeled from people swimming over me. It slows me down a bit as I struggle to find my own space, but I hold full composure and keep on fighting. 50 meters in I can a large pack swimming away on the left side. I tuck over onto the side of a swimmer that was a few stokes ahead of me. We're making good progress and catch up to Green Caps that started before us. As the group of Purple Caps (my age group) that I'm with enter the crowded water space I find other people to switch to for drafted benefits. By this time I'm out of the harbor and can feel little waves start to lift me up and rock me from my right to left shoulder. I wasn't discouraged by this at all. It was actually kind of fun. I was able to time my breath and stroke with the waves. It seemed to be having an effect on others though because there was a large number of Green Caps in this area and I had to be careful not to try to draft on them because they were only swimming in short bursts. Headed back into the harbor I was searching for Purple Caps to grab onto. I set my sights on one 10 - 15 meters in front of me. I grabbed some I leap froged from one person to the next as I made my way on to the feet of the Purple Cap. I was feeling great about my swim at this point. The start was a little rough, but this was turning out to be my best open water swim in terms of comfort level in the water. I got thrown off my stoke only once or twice the entire time. I held onto the new feet in front of me the rest of the way back to the boat dock.

The only thing I could change about this swim would be to put myself back from the start line a row or two and get my own space in the first 100m.

I came out of the water with a faster trot pace than most people use for transition. People often use this as a rest time, but I passed 2 or 3 people in the walkway toward the bike racks and that's as good as passing them in the water. Having the end spot on the rack made all the difference! I ran right up to my rack and dropped my wetsuit from my waist. Two bikes down another guy had just come in and was wearking a watch. I asked what the time was for that swim and he told me he forgot to start it but thought it was 37 minutes. Fuck, behind schedule already. My shoes and helmet were set up facing the main aisle, so I didn't even have to go a step into the racks. Shoes on, glasses, race belt, helmet on, grab the bike and go!

The only thing I could change is to do some wetsuit removal drills.

Ran with my bike to the mount line and through my leg over and got a fast clip into my pedals. Not even 12 feet down the starting chute I see Lauren and hear my bottle jump off my bike and make a run for it. I look back to confirm, yup, there's my water bottle on the ground behind me. Luckily it was just water and not my bottle of nutrition! I reached back and made sure that that bottle was secure before leaving Lauren and my water behind. The row of spectators dropped off quickly while heading out of the harbor area and onto the base which makes for a quick mental change to allow focus on the bike. Because I thought my swim time was at 37 minutes, I didn't hold back my pace on the first half of the bike like I told myself I should do. I let it go and did my thing. Checking everyones calves for their age as I passed. Lots of people in their 40s and a sprinkling of people from my age group. I remembered Mike (halfironmike) saying that he only got a 3 minute head start on me so I kept and eye out for him. Flying through the base feelin' good. Staying right on schedule with my nutrition. I didn't the extra water bottle because it was an overcast day and the liquid from my nutrition bottle was enough. I grabbed a water bottle at the first aid station anyway just in case. Shortly after that I caught up with Mike and got the mental boost of feeling we were right back to two weeks ago just doing a training ride on the course. At mile 25 we re-enter the base and say hello to the suck. This is the only unknown territory of the whole day for me. The road starts going up and I kept wondering if this was the hill everyone talked about. Mike passed me back on the first road in the base and I couldn't hold on with him. He must have been excited to start climbing. Once you see that first hill, you know you're at the first hill! It looks like you should be able to get on a ski lift to go up the thing. Pace drops down to 10 at the max and everyone is slowly churning their way up. I'm passing people as I go though and catch back up to Mike. He didn't want to talk while on the hill. After that first climb I never knew when I was on the second or third climb that I was warned about. I would be on another large roller and wonder is this the second climb but then on the other side would be a larger roller and I would think, nah, this one must be the second hill. The hills just kept coming and the wind kept trying to tell us to go the other way. As long as I kept putting in the work I knew I would be fine. By now I'm passing lots of people in their 40s and still a few from my age group. I get to the downhill no pass zone and think 'alright, after this it should be all downhill back to the harbor.' I was wrong. More rollers and false flats awaited. It didn't get any easier once we were back on flat ground because the wind kept coming at us. My chain dropped off my front chainrings between mile 54 and 55. It was a quick fix and I caught and passed the three people that passed me while I was stopped. Heading back into the harbor I got out of my shoes after crossing the bridge. I had one leg over my top tube as I approached what was the mount line, but was informed to stay on the bike and ride along the side of transition and dismount on the far end. During the bike I moved from 44th in my age group to 14th

Nothing to change here. I gave a solid effort and didn't have any nutritional problems.

Again, it's totally worth it to arrive early and get the end spot on the rack. Ran right up and slid my bike in. Ditched the helmet and glasses, and changed my shoes. I was surprised by how quick it was. it was so effortless that I thought for a fraction of a second just to make sure I didn't forget anything.

I ride with my Forerunner 305 on the bike and switch it to my wrist for training, but leave it off for races because I don't want to wear the wrist strap the whole day, swim with it, and have to get my wetsuit over it. I may think of a way to get some kind of watch for my run even if it's just in stopwatch mode that I only start when I get on the run and then do the math in my head for pace.

Headed out onto the run knowing that there were still people to catch from my age group. Still passing lots of people in their 40s, but now I seemed to be catching more of the 25-29ers. I kept my pace at a comfortably hard effort, not knowing what the actual pace was. I didn't really want to push my pace because I know I normally run too fast coming off the bike anyway. As long as I was doing the passing I was fine. I hit up aid stations for water and power perform as needed. Got some verbal love from Lauren and kept on truckin. During the second loop, when I passed people from my age group I tried to keep myself hidden away in the sea of other runners that were now on the course. I didn't want them to notice my calf and try to hold pace with me. Most of the time I was demoralizing them anyway and was gone before they could make a move. Tried to pick up my pace a little bit every half mile or so starting 2 miles from the finish. I turned the corner to head to the chute and give it another little kick. I forget what the clock read, but I knew I had a good race. During the run I moved from 14th in my age group to 6th.

Keep tabs on my run pace and push it a bit more. I thought they might have clocks on the course, at least a turn around. They didn't.

Took a breather with the finish chute catchers and thought about collapsing, but just needed a second to collect myself. Found Lauren and gave her a huge hug! Made my way to the food tent, which was a party. There was a live band and everyone cheers when you walk in, it was awesome. Pizza and all that jazz. Sat down and put my feet up for a bit before going out to find Lauren again.


Nothing I could change. It was a great course in terms of pushing back with difficulty but letting you race.


This was a great race. It was nice blend of a WTC race and a local tri. Everything was organized, but the volunteers only had info about their specific area and couldn't guide you anywhere else. The transition was lined with carpet and the roads were marked and clean. It's a great mix of terrain to make the course challenging but race-able.