I started out on the left this time, since I tend to drift right a little bit, I figured if I kept people on my right, I could sight a little less and it would keep me on track. This strategy worked well for about 500 yards until the bulk of my wave started getting ahead of me. By then, I was in a good groove and just had to navigate the people walking, some from my wave and some from the previous men's wave. It was shallow off to the right and I think this slowed me down a little but thank goodness for my short arms! I finally figured out to move closer to the buoy line where it was deeper. Turnaround seemed to take forever! I got bumped like crazy after this point, similar to last year the bulk of the wave behind came right into me, but I stayed calm and continued on my course, even started to try to pick it up a little bit, but then started getting a calf cramp so backed off and just swam up to the finish. Got out of the water feeling great and thought I had at least a 45 minute swim, maybe less! Didn't bother to try to do the math, was happy to feel my feet on solid ground.

Grow fins? I swam lots this year and took lessons. I don't do enough open water practice because of my aversion to the cold bay, however for this race(report), I made a promise to myself that I was not allowed to complain about a slow swim since I don't do enough open water practice. Zipping my lips. The important thing was that I felt really strong coming out of the water and ready to hit the bike.

Not sure why this took so long! I had to turn my Garmin 500 on again, I'm not sure why it turned off when I set it up early to be ready. Weird. Got my suit off really quickly, dried feet, socks on easily, shoes on, helmet and sunglasses on. Sprayed on sunscreen, shoved everything in the bag provided and took off jogging with my bike. Got to the mount area and clip my left foot in and the guy next to me gets in and veers in front of me and then falls right in front of me and his bottle starts rolling right under my bike. So I clip out, lean down to get it and then hand it to him and ask if he was okay. There is blood all over his elbow, and his saddle was all twisted. Sucks!!! He says no problem, go on ahead. So I move over, clip in again carefully and then spin up the hill. I felt bad for him, not a good way to start the bike, but it was a good reminder to be careful out there! But now that I write that, it explains why my Garmin read the bike at 2:49:06, since I had it on auto pause! Yay! Broke 2:50!

Not much. I'm glad I took the time to get the extra sunscreen on, saw lots of sunburned people out there later on.

I felt really great on the bike. I was supposed to keep my power between 140-150, which is mid-zone 3 for me and I did a good job of that especially on the rollers. I think I used to coast the downhills but having the Quarq makes me work harder and I have less lost speed. I was drinking my 3 hour infinit every 15 minutes and chasing it with water. I was also drinking water as much as possible every 5-10 min, so took a bottle at mile 19, and filled my aerodrink back to the top.

I hit the halfway point at 1:24:xx and I was kind of amazed, I hadn't been sure what to expect speedwise and I had my computer showing only current power, speed, heartrate and elapsed time. I purposely took the distance traveled off of there because it makes me think about how far I have to go and I really wanted to focus on the here and now. There is a bottle exchange right after the halfway at mile 29, so I took my second bottle and filled my aerodrink bottle again. Saved the rest in my rear holder.

It was right about here that I realized I really needed to pee. Really badly. And fortuitously, there was a little downhill that I could see was coming up. And so I gave it a try and after the first time not working the second try did! Yahoo! Used the rest of that bottle to rinse off and felt so liberated! Drank lots of water after that and remembered to take two endurolytes. Did it again at mile 45 or so after the one hill. Well, the one bigger hill.

The bigger hill that came at mile 44 was not bad at all, I slowed to about 6 mph to stay in zone, but I had ridden Old La Honda so much these past few months during my long rides, so it really was very doable and my power stayed under 160.

After this it is pretty flat all the way back. I just realized that I didn't write much about other riders. This race is laid out really well, so there really isn't much drafting since it is a lot of up and down. The only part where it's flat enough to get into drafting situations is the first 5 miles along River Road and maybe the last stretch along Airport Rd. I was able to pretty much stay with my pace and not have to slow too often while getting passed or coming up on bunches of riders like I did at Oceanside.

Coming back down Windsor road, I peeked at my monitor and realized I was going to have a 2:50 bike split (my watch read 2:49:xx), and I was very pleased and felt good because I'd drank all my nutrition and almost 80 oz of water. Somewhere in there I took two more endurolytes.

Nothing!

Didn't rush through this (obviously). Had to change to nice fresh socks, thank goodness I had brought my favorites...as I had sort of planned to try the going on the bike thing this year. So that took a little extra time. Turned my watch on since it had been there all night and prayed it would pick up a satellite quickly. Got my stuff on, and sprayed sunscreen all over because it was super sunny! Had left my little fuel belt water bottle under an ice pack over night so it was nice and cool.

Move a little faster...c'mon!

Well, plan was to start out at an easy pace for the first 15 minutes or so and then take my first nutrition. Garmin did not pick up until about 5 minutes into the run, but that was okay. Legs felt good and it was not too hot, so sipped my water just a little and waited until mile 2.5 or so to take my gel...and after that my stomach just kind of rebelled. Got a little crampy but I was still moving okay at about 8:00 pace. At mile 5 or so, my stomach was NOT happy and I had to walk some. It was here with the walking and then running that my left heel started to hurt and I didn't know what the heck that was all about, since it has never done that before. I have a history of plantar fasciitis in my right foot, but that has not resurfaced this year. So, I started to take it a little easier, thinking, no way am I going to go through this again! Decided that 9 or even 10 minute miles were okay with me. My 5:30 goal was out the window and I now really wanted that 5:45! But I would have to keep moving to get it. Started trying to do math in my head and kept getting confused, then said, that is just slowing my a$$ down! Smart thing might have been to look at the actual time however, wasn't too smart after 5 hours of physical exertion!

Got to the winery and stood under the sprinklers for a little bit. Ah, that felt good! Made the halfway point mat and thought I can DO this! Buckle down, run a little, walk a little, just keep moving forward. Every time I tried to speed up, my stomach or my foot would start to act up, so just kept it steady. There are lots of rolling hills and some stretches of sun drenched roads that seem to go on forever, but eventually we got back to the shaded area along miles 10-12 and I knew I could do it if I just stayed in the moment and stopped thinking about why the heck do I do this!!!??? And my quads started getting really heavy here.

Saw the last aid station where you make the turn onto residential streets and an awesome volunteer was so encouraging saying, just one more mile, you guys are almost there. A lady in my AG passes me and I am like, omg, can I keep up with her? Could I? Nope. Had to just watch her go. The run from the parking lot to the finish chute seemed to be the absolute longest run ever! But I could hear the announcer's voice and the music was pumping over the loud speaker and the crowds cheering and I was happy to come into grassy run into the finish line. When I saw the time, I was still confused and couldn't subtract, but it didn't matter, I had finished my third half ironman and I was happy!

The only thing I can think of on the nutritional issues is that I took too much of the gel when my HR was still too high. But it was reading high zone 2 so I didn't really think there would be an issue. I felt really perfectly hydrated at the beginning of the run, so I don't think it was an issue with the bike. The hills and the sun took a bit out of me. Last year it was insufferably hot with starting the run in 95F, this year was very bearable, so I cannot blame it entirely on the heat. I did some heat training this year having done 2 long runs in Hawaii and all of my bricks down in Woodside.

I think maybe I started out a little too fast, but adjusted pretty well to what I was capable of doing that day, with my stomach and left foot pain.

Got my medal and then walked over for some yummy food. They have such a good spread here. Chicken breasts on a bun, watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes and pop chips! I even had a Seven-Up and it was the best thing ever!


I finished this race feeling great! I was still under the impression that my swim was 45 minutes, LOL! It took me a few days to write this because I was feeling kind of disappointed in my swim having been 49 minutes and not having the run I really thought I was capable of. But then after being set straight by some really cool people who know who they are, I looked at the big picture. I hit the goal that I set last summer after finishing this same race in 6:13. I had a twenty minute improvement in my bike split and a twelve minute improvement on the run. And I had a good time! And my body feels good today and my left heel is fine after a 4 mile run this morning.

I cannot wait to do this race again and get that swim down!


Great race, I just love this venue. The bike ride is one of the most beautiful I have ever done whether in a race or just for fun!

I'll be back.