Ironman 70.3 California - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Got in the water and it was about as cold as I was expecting but still took my breath away for about a minute. Got to the line and tried to warm up my wetsuit and "bang" the gun went off, oh well. Started swimming fine in the back of my wave and had good breathing and HR. My goggles fogged immediately and I stopped to try to fix that. At the end of the rock outcropping before you get to the rollers I looked at my watch and I was at 16 minutes. I was happy with that but my left hamstring started to feel tight. By now some of the later waves were passing me but I knew I wasn't going to be fast so I just kept swimming and trying to get out of the way of others. Once I hit the rolling waves, my sighting got bad. I was being pushed way to the right and even though I was swimming, I wasn't going anywhere. It seems like it took me forever to get the last couple hundred yards toward the turn around and then once I did, I was once again getting pushed to the left. I was struggling to keep going straight and I kept trying to sight on a tall building that was toward the right turn into the finish. Between my goggles fogging and the fact that I wore mirrored goggles (big mistake), I couldn't see anything. I kept stopping to un-fog my goggles but nothing was working. Finally got my left one to stay clear and once I got closer to the bait dock, I could swim again and was going pretty well into the finish. My goal was 45-50 minutes and the rollers slowed me way down. The swim also took some energy out of me that I would need for later. I did have one warming of my wetsuit somewhere out on the course but when I got out of the water, I still needed to pee. I also noticed that my wetsuit was rubbing my neck. I used Body Glide and have never had this issue before...yep, it rubbed it raw on the right side.

I need to seriously spend some time working on my swim. I haven't put in the time to do these fast and I need to find about 10 minutes on the swim. Maybe time to invest in some lessons.

Felt pretty good coming out of the water. My HR was right where I wanted it and I got my wetsuit down around my waste and tucked my swim cap, goggles and ear plugs into a sleave. It was a long run into T1 but I knew that so no surprises here. I got to my bike rack and almost all the bikes were gone. It kind of surprised me but it shouldn't have, I knew I had a slow swim. My wetsuit came off quick and I made sure my timing chip was still on me, check. Grabbed my bag and cleaned off my feet. Socks and shoes on really easily. Put on my helmet, sunglasses and gloves and then started to put stuff in my gear bags. I should have used the morning clothes bag but I didn't really know what I would need after the swim and didn't want to give up anything. It was a lot to put in the one bag but I got it in there.

Probably a little bit slower than it should have been but I'm not going to lose a race in transition.

Got on the bike and felt good. My HR was right where I wanted it and I settled in for a long ride. Almost immediately I was being passed by everyone. It didn't bother me because I was there to ride my ride. I just kept an eye on my HR and when my Garmin beeped at 20 minutes, I ate a honey stinger and sipped some water. I was a little unsure with the wet roads and it was just a bit cold on the beginning of the ride. I wish I would have put on my arm warmers. I was hoping that the rain would stop and the sun would come out. Never happened on the bike. On the way to Las Pulges, I saw a couple of people that had wrecked and one had an ambulance coming for them. I didn't want that to be me so I went really slow around corners and stayed to the right to let people pass. At Las Pulges, I had to pee so I attempted to do it on the bike. It worked somewhat but I've never been a good bike pee'r so I stopped at the bathrooms in the park by the ocean. There were volunteers there that said all the toilets were clogged so I just went behind the building and peed. I was hoping I wouldn't get DQ'd for this. Got back on my bike and my Garmin cadence sensor was rubbing on my spokes. Stopped again to fix that. By now, there was a lot of traffic passing me as all of the later waves caught up to me. I ate another honey stinger around the nuclear power plant and sipped some infinit. Once we crossed back over to the East side of the I-5 I was slowing down a little because i knew I was getting close to the hills. I should have kept up a better pace here. I entered the base and was looking for the hill. I actually rode for a couple of miles before you could see it and then "bang" it was right in front of me. I had rode the hills section on a computrainer a few weeks earlier and they didn't seem that bad. The computrainer was way off because that first hill was a killer. I was surprised that I only saw about 3-4 people walking up it but everyone was struggling. There was a lady yelling at the top which I thought was odd but I didn't pay too much attention to her. I just kept looking at my HR and kept peddling. I had one mental lapse where I thought I should walk but it was still a long way from the top so I just kept peddling. The ride up South Mountain a couple weeks ago mentally helped me to keep going. Finally got to the top and saw Chad. He looked really good after the hill. One down, two to go. This is where my Garmin was beeping telling me I had to take in nutrition and I was ignoring it. I finally snapped out of it at about mile 47 and ate another honey stinger. I had the mile markers of the hills on my top tube so I knew when they were coming. I had 6 more miles until the next hill. About mile 33, I go up a pretty steep section and I thought, that had to be the second hill, nope. It was still ahead. By now, my arms, neck and mainly back were starting to get sore, especially my lower back. I got off my bike and stretched it and my legs some. That helped a lot but my Garmin cadence sensor was rubbing on my wheel again so I stopped, again. Hit the 2nd hill and didn't really think much of it except that I wanted to be done with hills. Same thing happened at the third hill. I thought I had already done it but it was still there in front of me. I just put my bike in the lowest gear and spun up them. The 2nd and 3rd one actually weren't that bad but I was slow on them. Once I got done with the hills I thought it was all downhill to the finish. It didn't seems like very much downhill but more flat. My lower back was really tight at this point and I kept getting out of the saddle to stretch it. I was still getting passed by people as we went past the place with the helicopters on the runway. I was starting to mentally lose it a little for the last 10 miles. I just kept ticking off every mile as an accomplishment. With about 2 miles to go after we crossed the I-5, my chain came off. I stopped and put it back on, no problem. About 1/2 mile more and it came off again. Stopped and put it back on. As I came down the hill to the right turn by the marina it came off for a 3rd time and got all tangled up under the crank. I stopped and couldn't figure out how to get it untangled. It took me a few minutes but I got it. I kept it on the small chain ring for the rest of the course. The ride into T2 was actually pretty good. I got out of my shoes very easily and actually my feet and butt didn't bother me at all on the ride. Time to run and I felt like I had some energy left for a change.

I need to spend some time on the bike over the next 6 months. Since I'm focusing on sprints, I need to just get faster at short distances. I only did 2 long rides going into this race and each were 47 miles. I knew this wouldn't be a fast bike.

So I had put my stuff into T2 on Friday night so I was ready to go and knew where I was going. When I got to my spot, there was a bike in my space but a volunteer helped me move it so I could rack my bike. I was thinking that I would need a shirt for the run as I was a bit cold on the end of the bike. I didn't have a shirt in my bag so that wasn't an option. I got my shoes on, switched my Garmin over to my wrist and put on my visor. I loaded up my 4 pockets in my tri shorts with GU and headed out. I had to make a stop to get some water in my carry bottle but I knew that my wife and friends would be waiting for me out of T2. As I was leaving T2 I was trying to switch my Garmin from Bike to Run and it was just beeping. I still don't know what that was but I switched it back over to bike and it worked. I was pleased with T2 and rolled with the things that went wrong.

Have a t-shirt in my run bag and figure out what's going on with my Garmin.

I was feeling pretty good heading out on the run and I was planning on a run/walk system to the finish. As I was on the first mile I didn't see anyone walking and I wondered how long I could run before I was going to walk. Since my Garmin wasn't on run, my alerts were all off so I just tried to go mile by mile. I saw a ton of friends on the run and that was awesome. Also had some great spectators and volunteers on the course that made a difference. I just kept up on my nutrition with GU and sports drink and felt well hydrated and I had good nutrition for the finish. I had a couple mental stumbles but I just wanted to keep a good pace through the whole run. I did have a bit of a stomach issue on mile 4 so I stopped at the porta potty. I guess it was a popular spot because some lady was yelling for people to "hurry up" because she had to go pee. I guess the world revolved around her. Whatever! Hitting mile 12 was awesome and I had an idea that I could PR the 1/2 marathon and I did. I saw my friends at the finish but never saw my wife which was disappointing.

I need to start track workouts to lengthen my stride and start to decrease my time per mile. The goal of the spring and summer is to get my 1/2 marathon time down to about 10 min miles. I think I had a good amount of energy going into the run and I need to perfect the right amount of energy to have left for the last 13.1.

Got my medal a hat and went over to talk to Paul. We took some pictures and I grabbed some pizza and a water. Went to T2 and grabbed my bike and bags.


I was way under trained for this race and I finished about 20 minutes slower than I predicted but the bike was tougher than I thought. I really wasn't ready for the swells on the swim either and I finished the swim about 4-9 minutes off my goal time. The rain on the bike probably slowed my down some but I will have to take my finish time what "I" did and not anything else. I need to go back to shorter distances to get faster and then lengthen that speed out. The 70.3 distance is just too long for where I'm at right now and after three races at that distance I need to go back to go forward at the 70.3.


I thought the race was really well put together. This was my first Ironman branded race and it pretty exciting to do. I think if I did the race again, I would be able to prepare a lot better. Also, I would mentally be more in focus on what to expect next and overcome some obstacles. I was really happy for a lot of my friends who had a great race. Man I have some speedy friends.