Ironman 70.3 California - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The water was cold. I never warmed up. I swam okay considering fighting a cold. The swells made navigation a little challeging. I had to adjust a number of times. By the time I finished I was so cold I was convinced I had been in the water for over an hour. 37 minutes works for me.

More swim training

T1 went well considering that I took time to dry off, put on arm warmers, and stuff everything in the bag for transport.

Nothing

I was really pleased with my bike. I was more cautious with the wet surfaces (and seeing people being carted away on backboards). I took the ride slower on purpose, hoping to set myself up for a good run. I passed people on the three climbs and did a good job staying in aero. I let people pass me on the first 25 miles then did more of my passing in the last 15 miles. I was cold the whole ride and never did warm up.

I was pleased with my race nutrition. No stomach issues on the bike and I felt like I had enough energy through the ride/

Nothing ... I thought I was setting myself up for a stellar run.

I was pleased with T2. My spot was way in the back and I knew I had a lot of running to my bike. I got there and two helpful volunteers racked my bike and pulled my bag down. I put my shoes on and grabbed my nutrition and visor and headed out. I stopped after 5 steps and turned around wanting my long sleeved shirt on the run because I was freezing. When I got back to my bike my bag was not near my bike. A different volunteer helped me look for it, turned out it was hung on the wrong bike. I found my shirt and tried to rehang my bag and the volunteer moved it to the bike next to me. I remember telling him, "that's not my bike" we had a little exchange (I'm sure I sounded crazy) and I eventually got it hung on my bike. It cost a little time but I got my gear back at the end of the race.

Hang my stuff by myself. Nothing ... the volunteers wee really trying to help ... I couldn't fault them.

The wheels fell off on the run. I've been fighting a cold for over a week. I still had the cough but thought I had it under control. I started off just over my goal run pace, at mile 2 or 3 I was coughing like crazy. When I got my Heart Rate up to the rate I had trained at I started to cough (and it didn't stop). I dialed it back and it wasn't worked. At mile 3 I was already walking and pretty frustrated because everything else was fine and I still couldn't run. Another racer stopped to check on me, turned out she was a nurse. She was doing a walk/run so I opted to follow her for a while to keep the heart rate in check. It turned out that we ended up running the next four miles together. I managed to slow down enough and walk the hills to keep the coughing at bay.

Run nutrition ended up great, I took in fluid at every aid station and the GU chews at every 2nd or 3rd aid station.

Not race still sick.

I finished and was greeted by my husband (in his bright red medical shirt). I drank my water and started coughing. I grabbed some pizza, took one bite and pitched it. My husband suggested that I let the doctors in medical listen to my lungs. I protested once then gave in. We went back and a nice doctor listened carefully then offered me an inhaler. Several puffs later I was able to stop constantly coughing. The doctor suggested that the cold weather, paired with my cold, paired with the increased HR on the run was causing the wheezing and coughing.


Being sick, having limited training time while working full time and trying to finish the semester of graduate school. I did the minimum training for this race. I'm used to I higher training volume for the 70.3 distance. I realized it it possible to complete this distance on less training but there is no chance I am going to see a PR from it.


I love this venue but I don't know if I can do such an early season race again with my current schedule. Perhaps I'll volunteer next year. I will be back in the fufure.