Ironman 70.3 California - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I really, really, really, wanted to go sub 30 minutes...I mean SOOO bad. So in order to achieve that I planned to go all out from the start. A lot of times in Triathlons I have a hard time pushing myself on the swim and getting my heart rate up there. I think I did a better than usual job at doing that this time around. The start was really rough, but thankfully only for a couple of minutes, but man I took some hits. Then I just concentrated on getting out there, remembering my legs to kick, and fighting for it. I didn't have really any problems with sighting out there, I tried to draft when I could, but mostly felt like i was swimming through people, so there weren't a lot of opportunities to really draft for very long. i tried to neagtive split and really push at the end, which I probably did, but I still feel like i could have/should have pushed harder. The finish was a boat ramp which was a nice change from the bleacher exits at TTL. I swam in as far as I could then stood up, but had a hard time getting my feet under me, was kind of wobbly and felt like I might face plant for awhile, but pulled it together. There were not strippers, but one of the volunteers at swim exit helped me to unstrip.

Swim more & Just push harder. I can do sub 30. One of these days i'd like to be first in my age group for swimming :).

Holy Long Transition. We had to run the entire length of transition 2x during T1. I kid you not it must have been a quarter mile long, I took off out of the water and my quads were just tight, tight, tight. Running was already feeling horrible and legs fatigued....i was thinking I have no idea how I'm going to get through the rest of this race. I sat down at my spot and wasn't in a huge hurry to get through transition, it was more important to get myself together and get mentally ready for the bike.

I need more practice with getting out of the wetsuit, it was probably the only thing that really slowed me down.

We came out of transition up a hill and right into camp pendleton. Right away I notice that my front brake is rubbing and not like a little rub, like a serious rub. Being the sooo not mechanical person that I am, I'm already thinking my race is over. I reach down ( while riding ) and press the brake to the right so it's no longer rubbing. It hurts to hold my hand like this and really isn't safe nor comfortable on the bike, but i wasn't sure if I stopped that I could make it not rub. My plan was get to mile 15 where the 1st aid station is and see if someone more mechanical than me knows how. Well, I finally made it to about 12 and decided enough. I get off , pull the brake bracket thingy over and wa la, fixed. UM yeah dummy you shoud have done that about 10 miles ago. I'm feeling good at 15 miles and thinking hey this might not be so bad. I'm really glad they have 5 mile course markers every 5 miles as my bike computer isn't working. I'm not having too much of a problem with the rollers in the first half although they do get my heart rate sky high (soooo outta bike shape). About 25 the fatigue starts to set in, but I've been fueling well (maybe even too much) and i keep pushing, i know the hills are coming and I start to worry if I pushed too hard on the first half. We finally hit the first big one, holy sh****t! I see the hill about 1/4 mile before we get there and it looks just straight up. Holy cr**p. I really don't want to get off of my bike and walk so I get in my lowest gear and just keep pushing. People are really starting to bunch up, some are getting off their bike and others are looking really wobbly. I keep pushing until about 3/4 the way up when I finally decide it isn't worth the strain on my quads and energy I'm expending, plus I really don't want to have a 0mph crash and there are a couple of people (myself included) who look like they are in danger in seeing that happen. The next several miles were kind of hilly and i was strating to fade, but told myself to keep going as I was over halfway in. The other two hills came, and went and I made it up without needing to gett off of my bike. About mile 40, the 5 mile markers just kept feeling like they were getting further and further apart. 5 felt like 10. I make it to 45 and hear "it's all flat from here", but then the wind starts. i don't think it was even strong wind, but it was consistent and it wouldn't stop. I had such good morale throughout the bike portion and I was starting to loose my mental game. The last 5 miles felt like 12, but I finally came in and THANK GOD they let us ride down the same part that we had to run coming out of the water. I see Angel (my husband), but he doesn't see me...I scream at him about 3 times and he finally sees me. Yeah! I am soooo HAPPY to be done with the bike.

okay and i was SOOOO happy with bike split. Given my fitness level and the hills on the second half of this course, I couldn't believe I came in at 3:45, my dream goal was 4:15.

I'm not sure I would have done much differently. Would have fixed the bike earlier on, maybe held back a little more on the first half of the couse.

I was SOO not worried about being fast here. I got of the bike and the legs were Jelly. My last brick was probably my last triathlon in October of 2009. I walked the first half of triathlon, but then the volunteers were so great at cheering me on I decided to give a little jog a try and finally started to get my legs under me. I also had angel cheering me on from the side. Racked bike and sat down for a bit, but the shoes on and my legs hurt so bad, just wasn't sure how the run was going to go, but was so happy to be there, thinking one more leg. I had to stop to use the port-a-potty, this was 1 of many port-a-potty stops in my race. Again, maybe too much fueling on the bike.

Nothing I was fine with this transition and being a little slow. Needed to get me legs under me and my mental game on.

I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY wanted to do more running than walking as I had walked so much during my first HIM. BUT the reality is that I was WAY undertrained for this race. I'd run less than 100 miles in the last 6 months and was averaging one 3 mile run every 2 weeks. Yeah, that's how bad my laziness had become. So I was planning to try and do intervals of 9 min run 2 min walk. That worked for about 2 miles, but i just couldn't hold it. I have a really hard time pushing myself when it comes to running, especially when it doesn't feel nice. I concentrated on trying to run 5 minutes at a time and walk only 2-3. Sometimes that worked sometimes it didn't. When I did walk i tried to "racewalk", sometimes that worked, sometimes it didn't. Dave caught up with me about mile 3-4, it was nice to have someone to talk to for awhile. About mile 4.5 I had potty stop #2. Caught back up with dave, started taking in coke at the aid stations, which I had never done before, and it was like heaven. The coke tasted really good at that time, but I don't know if it helped the stomach situation. Overall the first loop of the run was feeling really good. Dave & I saw Rick about mile 6 (he was starting his first loop). We all stopped and took a couple of photos. They were chatting about dinner that night, but I didn't want to take up too much time, so I took off. I was thinking alright mile 7, halway there!!!!!! Got to the turn around and still feeling good. I think mile 8 is where it really started to fall apart. The first loop had felt relatively good, but the second was going to hell. made it to 9 & got past the 10 mile marker and OMG holy stomach trouble....I had to walk the entire.08 mile until the next port-a-potty because my stomach couldn't have handled the jostling. Ate up a lot of time. Finaly made the last port-a-potty stop about mile 11.2. Then i knew i had this race in the bag, it wasn't a great performance (especially the run), but I was going to finish I just had to get in. I took my last walk break with about a 1/4 mile to go, because i really wanted to kick it down the shoot and look strong coming in. That's just what I did and during that 1/4 mile sprint i don't think anyone could tell, I'd just covered nearly 70.3 miles.

One of these days I really want to do a half where I have trained the run HARD! I have yet to do that yet and as a result I always have a crappy run. No excuses...i have to train to make it happen. i also have a really hard time pushing myself on the run when it gets uncomfortable, it's too easy to give into the urge to walk and I have to come up with a way to deal with that. I think a sub 2:30 run time is totally doable for me.

Got my medal and hat, they were nice!! Went through the food tent and even though I was HUNGRY, nothing looked appetizing. I kept moving and wasn't feel to bad at all. I found Angel, got my stuff packed and exited transition. Said hi to Adela, and congratulated her on a GREAT race (she was amazing!) and also saw Shelly who was waiting for Rick to come in. Went back to the hotel for some much needed beer & a shower.


Lack of Training. I was moderately well trained for the swim and not at all trained for the bike & run.


I think i want to do this race again, it was a great race.