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At 3:30 am on race day,
the alarm clock woke me after about 5 hours of sleep—not as much as I had
hoped. The day before was a very long
day, which included an unplanned two hour hospital visit to take care of an
infection (the doctors strongly recommended not to race), church, getting kids
to practices, a visit to B&L Bikes in Solana Beach, and dinner
preparation. I finally started to
prepare my gear for the race at 7:30 pm and finished at around 9:30—I had hoped
to already be sleeping by then.
Race morning I ate two
packages of oatmeal, one English muffin, and drank some coffee. I found a great parking spot near the
transition area, got my run gear set up in T2, walked the bike to run
transition route a few times, then hopped on my bike to T1 and the race start
about a mile away.
After setting up my bike
in T1, I had about two hours to burn until my wave start. I found a nice quiet place near the beach and
closed my eyes to image the race from start to finish. I mentally rehearsed the entire race
envisioning the swim, transition 1, bike route, transition 2, and the run
route. I try to only keep positive
thinking here—I keep negative thoughts aside and only imagine how I’ll feel
when I’m feeling strong and moving fast.
I don’t image cold water, cramps, flats, or other distractions.
My wave started an hour
and five minutes after the pros, so I had plenty of time to get my gear
prepared. I was in wave 22, the second
to last wave, which meant that there’d be a lot of folks on the course ahead of
me. We got into the chute and proceeded
toward the swim start like cattle. I
noticed that the guy in front of me had a timing chip on his ankle. I FORGOT TO PUT MY CHIP ON! Can I make it back to my pack and back to the
start on time? Wave 18 just went into
the water. Go for it! I ran back to the boxes where we put our
numbered gear bags and quickly located my chip.
I got it on and ran back down toward the swim start alongside the
transition area. The bottoms of my feet
were so sore from the rough road. I made
it back to my cow herd in the pink caps with plenty of time to spare. Forgot to put my timing chip on…how stupid of
me.
The swim went okay. I remember thinking, “wow, we’re at the
halfway turn; that went quick!” At about
halfway through the swim, I found a pink cap and followed him the rest of the
way, getting a decent draft. We were
passing more and more folks from the previous waves as we got closer to the
swim finish. With about 200m left to swim,
there was a mass of swimmers in caps of different colors—it was a bit crazy
dodging all of the swimmers and impossible to continue drafting off racers in
my same wave. All of the different swim
caps in the water resembled a bunch of jelly beans in a washing machine. Out of the water, I ran through the long
transition area, got my gear on and pulled my bike off the rack. I turned on my Garmin in the transition area
because I forgot to before I left for the swim—another mistake in preparation.
For the first few miles
of the bike, I noted sore glutes, but that soreness passed. The first 20 miles went well—I was moving
pretty fast heading north, probably due to a light tailwind. I had a smooth ride along Highway 5, down
Christianitos Rd to Camp Pendleton’s northernmost gate, then on to the first of
three hills on the Marine Corps base.
I’ve been training on hills each week, so I was actually looking forward
to them. I geared down and took it easy
getting up the hills, trying to keep in mind that I had more miles on the bike
and a 13 mile run ahead of me. On the
hills, I kept saying to myself, “Not too hard, not too hard” because my
tendency is to push hard on the hills like when I’m in training.
I forced myself to eat
gels and half a solid energy bar along the ride. I didn’t need the food then, but my body
would need it later during the run and needed time to digest it. My run preparation started at about mile
thirty on the bike with Enduralites and scheduled nutrition and hydration.
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| Oceanside 70.3 Bike Course Elevation Profile |
After the last
substantial hill at about mile 40, the ride was mostly flat or downhill until
the finish. There was a decent headwind
riding south on the base, so I tried to stay as aerodynamic as possible.
Once back in the town of
Oceanside, I felt pretty good about the ride and was excited to get
running. I had a good transition into T2
and got on the run fairly quickly. I put
socks on because I wanted to prevent blisters that would hinder training for
some upcoming races. I’m glad I burned
the 10 seconds to put those socks on.
I broke the 13.1 mile run
into four quarters and planned nutrition accordingly. At the southern part of the course, I
finished the first quarter of the run and the start of lap two I finished the
second quarter. I felt strong during
the run and had no cramps or pains. At
the start of my second lap I had some good energy and picked up my pace. After completing ¾ of the run, I still felt
good and pushed harder until I had the Oceanside pier (location of the finish)
in sight about 1.5 miles away. I picked
up my pace a little more and crossed the finish, noting 5:41 on the timer,
which translated to 4:36 for my wave. I
beat my goal of 4:40! I also felt real
good after the race; I wasn’t sore and didn’t feel wiped out, so I was pretty
happy with my level of fitness and my training preparation.
Splits:
Swim: 0:29
Bike: 2:31Run: 1:31
Age Group Placing: 5/388 Overall: 102/2470
The gear I used:
Bike: Kuota Kalibur, SRAM
Force gruppo, Hed Jet 90 rear wheel, Hed Jet 60 front wheel, Profile Design CX3
carbon aero bars, ISM Adamo saddle, Lazer aero helmet, Sidi T-2 shoes
Run: Saucony Fastwitch
Nutrition: Hammer gels, Hammer Enduralites, Hammer bar, Hammer Heed
