Ironman 70.3 California - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The water was actually much warmer than I anticipated. Putting in OWS at Bayshore certainly helped prepare me for the cold. Overall, my swim was average. I didn't feel panicked at all, breathing was going well, drafted a few times and I made a good decision to start near the rear to avoid the washing machine. UNFORTUNATELY my sighting was awful! I started zig zagging badly on the second half of the swim. I actually ended up crossing to the other side of 2 buoys! I was hoping for a 32 minute swim but with all of the bad sighting I am thankful for a 35 min time.

SIGHTING, SIGHTING, SIGHTING.

It was nice having volunteers to help the swimmers out of the water. My heart rate was a bit jacked up as I was jogging to T1 a little too quickly. Stupid me, instead of looking at the rack numbers I ran to the spot that I "thought" I was at. Long story short I ran the opposite way, looked around like a confused newbie then had to do the "walk of shame" against traffic back to my T1 spot that I had passed. After initial embarassment/frustration with myself, got my wetsuit off (suit got stuck a bit on my heels), glasses/helmet/shoes on and I was off.

READ the rack numbers instead of blowing right by them like I was Usain Bolt!

The first 25 miles or so are as described, flat and fast. Usually it takes me a bit to get my legs feeling normal on the bike but I was feeling good from the beginning. In my mind I was trying to hold back a bit for the hills to come but I used my cadence (85-90rpm) as an indicator of how much effort to give. Surprisingly because of the hill training that I put in (thanks to Roland and the Observatory) the hills didn't seem as bad as I thought they were going to be. The first hill was definitely the hardest of the bunch and my HR did spike for sure (I passed someone huffing and puffing and they told me to slow down and save some for the run) but I was feeling comfortable with my pacing and effort. I was thinking that maybe I should hold back a bit and slow down but by then I was about 45 miles in and thought that since I was feeling good I would hold my pace and face whatever consequences on the run.

Nutrition wise, I used my custom Infinit formula in a 20oz bottle and a concentrated form in my Torhans 30. I sipped every 10 minutes and had to switch for fresh water on 2 of the aids stations.

Not much honestly. My bike went much better than I anticipated. I could have pushed my down efforts a little bit more though.

T2 pretty uneventful, changed, applied more lube and bathroom on the way out.

APPLY MORE LUBE (See Below)

I tried my best to start slow but again like a bonehead I zoned out and just let myself run. Started way too fast as my positive splits showed.
0.8 mi 0.8 mi 6:36 3:58:44 8:27/mi
4.1 mi 3.3 mi 27:06 4:25:50 8:12/mi
7.4 mi 3.3 mi 29:32 4:55:22 8:55/mi
10.7 mi 3.3 mi 30:16 5:25:38 9:10/mi
13.1 mi 2.4 mi 24:11 5:49:49 10:02/mi
Got to do a better job at SLOWING down in the beginning. My legs overall felt pretty good in the beginning and loosened up after a mile or so. I used Infinit Napalm in 2 gel flasks and hydrated at every station (as the weather started really heating up). At around mile 6-7 I started chafing really badly in the worst place possible. For the rest of the time I kept fidgiting around my tri shorts to find a comfortable spot. Fortunately around the 11 mile mark it just kind of numbed out. Around mile 10 I felt the wheels start falling off so I just did my best to stay relaxed. When I had a mile to go, I used to trick of spotting a fixed object in front of me and just running to it. That got me to the finish chute and the rest was just pure elation and joy.

MORE CHAFING LUBE, MORE CHAFING LUBE, MORE CHAFING LUBE.

START SLOWER YOU BONEHEAD!

Grabbed some cookies and water and met up with my support crew.


Honestly not much. It was one of those days where luckily everything kind of fell into place.


Oceanside was my first 70.3 and I have to say that it will be the MOST memorable race that I have ever run. I sacrificed and trained since November for this race. I was lucky enough to be able to race it with Roland. I was blessed enough to have my 7 month pregnant wife and best friends to come cheer me on all day. I had the Tri-Rookies in my corner. When I was crossing the finish line I couldn't help but think how lucky I was. And, although I was hoping for a sub 7 hour race, to my astonishment I went sub 6!