Oceanside, California United States Ironman North America 60F / 16C Sunny

Total Time = 5h 18m 22s Overall Rank = 492/2113 Age Group = M40-44 Age Group Rank = 70/313

Okay, another ridiculously long RR after a bit of a hiatus on RRs from me. If you want to skip all the pre-race stuff just scroll ahead!

Apologies in advance for minimal number of pictures. I'll add them as I get them!

*****

I did this race last year and it was my first Ironman branded race. I'm a bit more experienced now being in my 4th season of tris and adding a couple more Ironman 140.6 notches to my racebelt last year. I was pretty sure my biking was in better shape than last year and my run was probably betters (last year I was coming off of a calf tear and bruised kneecaps). Swim I felt okay about for half IM distance, even though I did slack on it all winter.

The weekend before this race, our tri club had our annual Wildflower training weekend in Lake San Antonio. I'm doing Wildflower this year, so I went because it's a great weekend in a beautiful area and a chance to do some very course specific training (plus, these were my first and only OWS and brick training for the year to date) I trained at race pace during the weekend and I definitely paid the price for it - I was quite fatigued for the next week. That and a couple nights short of sleep and I ended up not doing any workouts other than my normal bike commute and one aborted swim workout in this week leading up to IM Cal. So, I was somewhere between recovery from a hard weekend of training and a mini taper from IM Cal. I managed to finally get a full night of rest on Wednesday night, so I felt better on Thursday. Thursday night I packed. Was I recovered and well rested enough? I was almost caught up on sleep, but I had no idea if my legs had recovered yet or not.

I flew down Friday morning (DW couldn't make it this time because of work). Poweredbyfear had driven down to sherpa for me (and visit some friends and family) and he also took my bike down for me saving my tribike transport fee. He picked me at the San Diego airport. We headed to the Guesthouse Inn, same place we stayed last year. It's kind of a dump, but it's close to the harbor/race start and at least this time I had booked early enough to get one of the cheaper rooms. We were able to check in early, but the room was pretty small, esp. after we squeezed in a rollaway bed for poweredbyfear.

We were going to meet the BT folks, but as I was checking out my bike, I realized my front brake cable was sticking and it would stay dragging on my race wheel. Argh. I had the rear changed last year before IM Moo, but didn't do the front. I called TriAya to let her know we were on our way, but running late since I had to take my bike. She generously said they'd wait for us. We got a bit lost on our way to the expo (ended up at the harbor), but finally made it and dropped off my bike. We met up with TriAya who was also with faeron, nevergivin, and jezzieswims - none of whom we had met, so it was great to meet all of them.


(picture courtesy of TriAya)

We walked over to Pasta Mia on Mission Street right across from the theater. At first, I couldn't even tell if the restaurant was open since we were the first ones there. Menu was pretty standard italian fare. Since I didn't want cream sauce or meat or cheese, that narrowed down my choices quite a bit and I went for the capellini pomodoro. We all wolfed down on the bread as we chatted and got past the I-know-you-online-but-I-don't-really-know-you-at-all phase. Food was mediocre, but served it's purpose well enough, but it was the BT company that was a pleasure. It didn't take long for the restaurant to fill up and mostly with other triathletes.

After lunch, I go to registration while poweredbyfear goes to the expo. I'm in the purple cap wave at 7:57am. After registration, I picked up my bike from service. We headed back to the hotel and I finished prepping my bike and all my race gear. We kicked back for awhile and even napped. We snacked a bit; one small benefit of being at this

Soon enough, it was time for 7:30pm dinner at Vigilucci's Osteria with our tri club (Golden Gate tri club). We just walked there since it was less than a mile from our hotel. rjl171 was also joining us, so that was good. We were a supposed to be a good sized group (20) although only 16 of us showed up. Better decor and ambiance than the place at lunch. I ordered the Farfalle Tri Colore (chicken, sun dried tomatoes, broccoli) which was decent, but overpriced. We knew it was going to be slow service with a party our size. After dinner, we walked back to the hotel. Fortunately, we're asleep by 10:30pm.

*****

I wake up just before 5am before the alarms for 5:15, 5:20, and 5:30 go off. I make my coffee (brought from home, but I can't remember which beans I had roasted since it came in a sampler pack. Had to make this in the hotel lobby since they don't provide coffee machines in the room). I eat cereal and fruit. I'm wearing my Oomph tri shorts (they have the most cushion) and my tri club tri top. poweredbyfear helps me pump up the tires (went with the 999 wheelset) on my bike and I'm pretty much ready to go.

I roll down to the race start. It's still dark out, but there are enough lights on. It gets more crowded as I near the transition area. They check for wristbands as we go in. I'm a little surprised they didn't assign spots (just racks) for us, or at least that's what all the guys who are already racked say, so I need to make a little room for a spot for me. I go get body marked and then finish setting up my transition area.



I figure I better go the bathroom one last time, so I go try to find the bathrooms. The one in the transition area isn't open. So I exit transition and see the big line for portapotties. I hope the line moves quickly. I chat with the folks in line. We note that there seems to be a bit of a breeze which likely means a windy race. The line is moving, but not as fast as anyone would like. By the time I get to the front, it's probably about 10 minutes until my wave start.

I rush back to my transition area, throw on my wetsuit, and try to get to the water. I (and several other purple cappers) have to squeeze past tons of people already packed in waiting for their (later) waves. They don't know we're behind trying to get to our wave so no one is stepping aside until the announcer finally asks them to make room. I finally make it to the boat launch with about 20 seconds before they tell us we can enter the water (which is 3 minutes before our start). I can do without all of this before the race, but it certainly keeps my mind off of being nervous at all.


none. I never really do a warmup for any race...