Ironman 70.3 California - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Started out near the back, in the middle, since my swim is not that strong. Shortly after the horn I was regretting where I started myself, as I had a wall of slower swimmers in front of me who kicked hard anytime I caught them. Took me a little while to get around them, but after that I managed to have open water by swimming a little outside of the buoy line.

In the end my time was faster than last year:
2011: 40:19
2012: 39:37

Start myself a little further up to avoid some of the slower swimmers.

My time was just a little slower than last year, which is to be expected with the whole wet gear bag. All gear needed to be put into the wet gear bag before heading out on the bike, or you would not be getting the gear back.

I was worried about not being dressed warm enough since I had not packed my arm warmers in my ride gear bag. Luckily the ride was not too cold and the cooler weather seemed to help me with not getting too warm on the climbs.

The road conditions were pretty rough in spots on the front half of the ride from the various construction zones. I could feel the bumps in my injured ankle, but it did not bother me too much.

I was happy with being able to ride more in the aero position this year compared to last year. Unfortunately I still had to sit up several times in the last third of the race to stretch my neck and shoulders.

I was pleasantly surprised that the roads were not more congested in the no pass zones and hills, since I was one of the last waves to start the race.

Overall I had a faster split this year:
2011: 3:15:57
2012: 3:11:35

Start riding the tri bike earlier in the year to get my neck and backside use to riding in aero position

Happy with my time given the need to put my bike gear into a bag and the fact I had to put on an ankle brace.

Not sprain my ankle 3 weeks before the race.

My ankle injury reared it's ugly head on the run. The run started out fine with no real issues other than a little stiffness in my right IT at my hip. I had decided before the race that I would walk the ramp and the transitions from the Strand to Pacific. Running on concrete, and the bike ride before the run, was making my ankle throb. I ended up walking one of the steeper climbs on Pacific during the first lap, but other than that I maintained my slow woddle. After starting the second lap I noticed that the bottom of my left foot was hurting, near the edge of the ankle brace. Walking made the pain less, but it was still present. I was obviously slowing down, but tried to maintain as much running as possible. Then I hit the 10 mile mark and I started walking as much as I was running. Between the new pain on my foot, and the throbbing of my ankle, I could not maintain a run for more than 3-5 minutes at a time.

After finishing the race and getting a chance to take off my left shoe, I discovered that my wet sock and the ankle brace had led to me developing a blister on the bottom of my foot. This explained the new pain on my foot.

Overall I had a faster run than last year:
2011: 2:32:
2012: 2:26:31

Other than not sprain my ankle, I need to get better at pacing myself. My stand alone runs are much faster than this, so I need to get better on saving for the run (more bike training).

Walked around looking for my family while eating cold pizza.


Ankle injury.


I think the course changes made the event more viewer friendly without impacting the race too much. The run was definitely harder with the additional ups/downs to the Strand.

I would like to see them remove the bike portion on the Strand and just have us ride down Pacific. The north section of the course was crowded with runners going both N & S, and bikes going S.