Ironman California - Oceanside 70.3 – Race Recap - March 31, 2012

My Stats:

SWIM	BIKE	RUN	OVERALL	RANK	DIV.POS.
39:52	3:06:49	1:53:11	5:48:49	899/2903	26/110

MORNING OF:The alarm was set to go off at 4:45am – but as usual, my husband was up before the alarm, which caused me to wake up as well. By 4:30 we were both up and getting ready for our day. Both Bill and I have been pretty excited about this race. We’ve trained hard and hoped to see that hard work pay off on this day. I also recently hired a coach and was (and am) hoping to see great improvements in all three disciplines with her added expertise.

I ate breakfast of oatmeal with honey, drank some electrolyte fluids, and began getting ready. I gathered my things, put on layers of clothing – tri-suit, t-shirt and running pants, and then sweats over that. The air temperature was about 50 – which is not too cold, but the water was supposed to be about mid 50s – which is VERY cold! I wanted to be HOT by the time I got into the water! We rode our bikes about a mile from our hotel to the start and began setting up transition 1 (T1), I ate a PB&H sandwich and took my PreRace pills (First Endurance). Bill started the race 37 minutes ahead of me, the pros started 50 minutes ahead of my swim wave (35-39 Females).  Bill got ready to go and we took some pictures with our parents who both were there to watch us race for their first time.

After Bill started I got my wetsuit on, talked with my parents while we watched his wave and the pros before him swim. Then I went for a short run (in my wetsuit – again – I wanted to be HOT before I froze myself in the water). 

After my run I came back to transition and did not see any pink swim capped girls anywhere! It made me a bit nervous so I hurried to the starting area. My group was just about to get in the water from the boat ramp, I made it by a couple of minutes! As we headed into the water someone said GO, so we all started swimming. I had not watched the waves ahead of me start, so I did not know that we were not actually starting the race, we were swimming out to the buoy where we would start! When the paddle boarder stopped us at the first buoy I was a bit disoriented and surprised, I thought we had already started! I had to quickly reset my garmin and get ready for the real start! The good thing about the way I started was that I was totally warmed up, and when I dove into the water to swim that first time at the boat ramp, my first thought was, “Ok, this is cold, but not as bad as I was dreading it to be.”

SWIM  1.2 Miles - 39:52

After about a minute treading water at the actual start, the horn sounded and we were off. For only being 110 women in my wave, the start and the first few hundred meters were pretty rough. Right off I got knocked in the side of my head, right in my goggles. It hurt, a drop or two of water got in my left goggle, but not enough to need readjusting so I kept going. I tried to stay behind someone all the way, but it was a different someone all the time, I was constantly adjusting my speed to be able to draft behind someone, and I was NOT swimming straight at all! I had to redirect a bunch as I kept getting off course to the left. The swim seemed long and at what I thought was about half way I glanced at my watch and saw 26 minutes. I was NOT happy about that and hoped I was actually more than half way done. The waves got bigger and bigger as we got closer to the Ocean/Harbor opening and were pushing us backwards. I felt a cramp trying to form in my right calf and slowed my kicking to avoid it's onset. Once we turned around the last two buoys I could feel the current pushing me, now in the right direction. The last third of the swim seemed to go by pretty quickly and I exited the water in 39:52. I was disappointed to see such a long swim time as I was hoping to be under 35 minutes. I was 27/110 in my division at this point.

T1 6:14

As I expected, my hands and fingers were pretty numb and were not functioning very well. All the way down the chute I was struggling to get my wetsuit undone and down. I saw my parents on the side and they were cheering for me like I was a pro, very cool! I finally got the wetsuit down around my waist and ran to my bike where I finished stripping the wetsuit and began to get ready to ride. I had to use my teeth to pull on my arm warmers because of my hands not working!

 My T1 time was longer than it should have been. I think because of the cold. I stuffed my gloves and my inhaler (I have very mild exercise induced asthma)  in the back pocket of my jersey and got on my way.

  

BIKE 56 Miles 3:06:49 - 18mph avg. speed
The adrenaline kept me warm for the first few miles of the bike as I knew with my hands not working there was no way to get those gloves on. By the time the adrenaline wore off, I had ridden a few miles and was warm enough. The first half of the bike is pretty flat and fast, but as it was drizzling rain that whole first half I did not push too hard. I was averaging about a mid 19 mph speed and was ok with that. I got busy eating my PB&H and drinking water. I ate something every 20 minutes and moved onto the gels when i finished the sandwich. I also drank some EFS fluids near the end, but not much of that.  I had been told to really take it easy on the first half of the bike because the second half will kill you if you don't. I think I may have taken it too easy because the 2nd half didn't really seem that bad to me. There were three good climbs where I was out of the saddle for the duration, but they were short and done before I had too much (if any) muscle burn. I think I could have gone a little bit harder on the first half and still done about the same for the 2nd half. We had also been told there would be bad headwinds on the last 10-15 miles, not so. Some wind, but nothing like what I experience training in spring and fall in Colorado. I guess that's another great reason to train here. I was hoping for an under 3 hour ride, and was just over at 3:06:49. After the bike I was 29/110 in my division - lost a few places there, bummer!

T2 - 2:43

Just as I was heading into T2 I saw Bill on the run, he was looking strong and was on his 2nd lap! It was the only time I saw him while we both were racing. I headed into transition area and ran my bike to my spot. I hurried to get my shoes on, stuffed gels in my back pocket, put my visor on and got my inhaler out. as I headed to the RUN OUT I took a puff on the inhaler.

RUN - 13.1 Miles 1:53:11 - 8:38 minute/mile pace
I felt good and got moving. I ran the first mile at an 8 min pace and told myself to take it easy.


I basically watched my heart rate for the duration of the run. I stayed in my high zone 2/low zone 3 (low to mid 160s) for the first half of the run and was averaging 8:30-44 minute/mile. I felt great and would talk to anyone that I happened to be running next to for any considerable period of time.  The run was pretty flat, but with some up and downs a few steep ups and downs as we went from street level to the beach and back. We ran up onto the pier as part of the loop as well. The course was set up very well for spectating and there was always someone cheering us on. I had two of my best friends come to watch and it was amazing to have them there and cheering me on. Andrea even jumped in and ran with me for a little bit while we talked. It was a two loop course and so I got to see a friend or family member every couple of miles. My sister and her husband and my parents were set up near the pier at one of the turnarounds, and Erin and Andrea were set up a few miles down the loop from them. It gave me something to look forward to every couple of miles. My plan was to take a cup of water at every aid station (situated about every mile) and take a gel on miles 3,6, and 9. I stuck to the plan and felt really pretty good throughout the run. I started to push a little harder once I hit mile 7 and my HR jumped to low 170s, while my pace went to the mid to low 8 min/mile. Once I knew there was only 2 miles left I pushed it harder and my heartrate went to near 180. I don't know my actual pace because my garmin had lost satellite reception, but I would guess I was near an 8 min/mile for at least the last mile. I finished the run in 1:53:11, an 8:38 avg pace and finished 26/110 in my division and 899/2903 overall.

 

All my family and friends were there at the finish and it was great to hear them cheering! And I can't help bragging for my husband - He finished in 5:09 and ran the 13.1 miles at a 7:21 min/mile pace - Insane!


on another note - we happened to be in the OC airport departing for Denver the same time that Andy Potts, Pro Triathlete that won the race, was there, headed to Denver also (he lives here). We talked with him for a few minutes - a very cool and down to earth guy.