Ironman 70.3 Oceanside - Triathlon

The water felt very cold upon entering. It was choppy; I was anxious and nervous. I felt very sluggish and I attribute that to the temp and no warm up. We headed out of the harbor into the ocean. All buoys were on the left. I just followed people. I could feel the current. Actually, every time I looked up and was off course, I knew there was a current!

I am so thankful that someone told me to look for the building after the final turn. There was sun glare and really all I could see was chop and people's heads. The buoys were hard to see. I headed for the building and it was perfect. As I was breathing coming in, I could see I was passing people. I could see their heads popping up looking for where to go.


My swim time was not fast but i was happy to survive.

I wore a sports bra, tri shorts, neoprene cap borrowed from Christine Mackrides and neoprene booties along with the wetsuit.

We had a super long run into transition. Then we came to the wetsuit strippers. I decided that I was going to remain standing as someone helped me. (Lesson learned from when a helper couldn't get my wetsuit over my hips.) I made eye contact and headed toward a young woman. The volunteer next to her told her guy to lay down and me plopped right in front of me and I fell over him. Yeah, that saved a lot of time!

After that, I had another long run to my bike. I put on my pink tri shirt, arm warmers (needlessly), socks, sunglasses, helmet, sweatband.


I don't have very much luck with wetsuit strippers.

I tried to be careful on this course. I overheard quite a few people saying they hadn't trained because of the winter. I was more concerned with a safe and clean ride than a fast one. This was only my third ride of the season on my tri bike.

The course contained a lot of rolling hills but I knew the real ones were between miles 27 and 45. When I saw the first one, I wasn't anxious to get there. There was actually at least 5 or more people walked up it. I couldn't believe it! That hill had a sign at the bottom saying it was "Hell Hill." After that one was "Hell Junior" and that was followed by "Mini Hell” or something like that.

I felt fine climbing and was happy I was able to get the hill training in that I did.

On one decent, we had to maintain 25 mph or less. They had a mat at the top and bottom and if you exceeded the speed limit, you were DQ'd. They also had a few no passing zones. It wasn't fun to be behind people going too slowly in the no passing zone.

I also must mention all of the military guys in Camp Pendleton with rifles. There were at least two at every intersection.

Saw one crash that had just happened. I also saw a lot of flat tires, and tons of expensive water systems, etc. on the road that fell off bikes.

Consumed on the bike: One pack Clif Bloks, chocolate Power Bar, 1 chocolate GU. Drinks: One watered down Gatorade in a throwaway bottle, one full blue Gatorade and one bottle of water picked up on the course. I started a second water. I never touched my other Gatorade on my bike. The powdered Gatorade wasn't as good as the bottled stuff.

I took my time. I had to pee really bad after the ride.

I super Vaselined my toes and changed socks; changed my sunglasses. Grabbed mustard packets and two Gus for my pockets.


Put on more sunscreen. I forgot to do the part in my hair, my hands and my lower back. I paid the price with sunburn. Luckily, I did a good job with my face, front of my neck and my arms.

Oh, and bring lip balm with sunscreen. My lip is still sore 3 days later.

I started out feeling amazingly good. The run course was along the road next to the ocean. It was very pretty with lots of spectators.

Before mile 4, I felt a cramp coming on. I took two mustard packs and believe it or not, the cramp went right away, Unfortunately, shortly after that I was overcome with extreme nausea. It had to be from the mustard. Granted, I never took two packs at once. So I took my time at the next aid station eating lots of pretzels. That really helped.

Every aid station after that, I had Gatorade, water and pretzels. The yellow Gatorade was nasty! But it did the trick.

The course was two loops out and back. We had a lot of chances to see our competition and friends. I didn't actually see Stacey until the last stretch. I calculated she was about 15-20 minutes behind but I didn't know where she started for the swim.

I passed a woman in my age group about 2 miles into the run and and at every turnaround, she was right there. She was actually the one that kept me moving. I was surprised to see her a place ahead of me on the podium. She started her swim after me.

A young guy ran passed me at one point in the beginning and commented on my age. He said something nice but I forget what it was. That always makes me feel good.

I almost forgot to mention that I had a headache (for the first time ever) during the last maybe five miles of the run. Upon finishing, I kept yawning and the headache eventually went away. I wonder if this has something to do with lack of oxygen to the brain or my heart. Years ago, I used to get a post race headache. I don't get those anymore.


Nothing. I feel like I had an okay run. I'd like to run faster but who wouldn't?

Ran into Susan at the finish. We waited for Stacey, who didn't want to talk or wait for me afterwards. I ended up going to the Morning Clothes pickup by myself, then taking the shuttle to transition, returning my bike to TriBike, and getting back to the shuttle. I just made it back in time for the awards. Mike Reilly was the announcer, which was nice. I was going to tell him that I was the one that passed out at the IMLP 2016 ceremony but didn't want to stall the awards.



Great race venue (aside from the cold water).