Oceanside 70.3

Oceanside 70.3 Race Report
March 30, 2012
Oceanside, California, USA




Well my tri season started a bit early this year with the Oceanside 70.3 on Saturday.  No warming up with shorter races, just jumped right into the half ironman distance!  Needless to say, I was quite under-trained for this race.  With only three outdoor rides on my bike, a handful of indoor trainer rides, and not many long runs I was not quite sure what I was going to be able to do on race day.

My friend and I stayed at a hotel for the night in Oceanside.  I did not get a chance to explore the area much but we were really close to the transition areas so we just rode our bikes to T2 first to set up our run stuff then to T1 to get ready for the swim start.  I had to wait around a bit after the first wave started as my swim wave was one of the last ones to go.  So after waking up at about 4am, I did not have to be in the water til just after 7:30am.  Oh, and I forgot to mention, it was pretty cold and raining on race morning!

The swim was an in water start so we had to swim about 100m to the starting buoy.  Got in the water and my body went into shock - the water was FREEZING!!!!  I couldn't put my face in the water right away and was doing a head up crawl.  The gun went off and we started swimming.  I did head up for a bit more and then just put my face in the freezing water.  My hands and feet went numb so when I got hit by another athlete it was just shooting pain.  It almost felt like my foot or hands could just break off; lol!  We were protected by the ocean swells in the harbour but once we got to open water it was a bit hard navigating the swells.  I felt like I was barely moving at times and this was evident in my much slower than normal swim time.  I have been consistently swimming at masters about twice a week so this was the event I was least concerned about.  I usually swim in the range of 31-34min for a half but today I swam a 37:00 flat.  Ah well!

Got out of the water barely able to feel my feet but I just ran the long run to get to my bike in T1.  I decided to put arm warmers on because it seemed like it was going to be a cool day so I took a little longer than normal to get myself out of T1.

I started the bike and felt pretty good.  I was aiming to hold a steady power of 150W on the bike.  I did a good job of that for the first 45km and I was averaging just over 30km/hr.  It was a pretty fast first half but I had to do a lot of manoeuvring as the course was quite congested with some narrow sections.  There were some short steep hills but nothing that took a lot out of me.  I was told that this part of the bike was beautiful since we would be riding right next to the ocean.  Well, with the dismal weather I was barely able to even see the ocean.  Where was the California sun???  The second half of the bike was another story.  There were hills and quite a few of them, against the wind, and they were long.  There goes my average speed. Ha!  So I just focused on spinning up the hills and staying steady.  Unfortunately, my powertap was acting up and was not reading my watts anymore.  It would jump from 0-50W going against the wind up a hill - ya, there was no way that was accurate.  Even the last section which was suppose to be a fast ride home was a battle against the wind.  I did survive the 90km bike though in just over 3:18.  Not spectacular for me but I was not expecting much with my lack of bike training.

Got through T2 and then I was off on the run.  I started the run feeling great!  Better than I expected.  I had my running legs under me right away.  So I was just running at a pace that was comfortable for me and I was holding 5:30s.  Not bad.  But I did not know how long I could hold that for so I decided to run at a little more comfortable pace at about 5:40-5:45.  The run was flat on some sections with its fair share of hills, and some of them short and steep.  It was a 2.5 loop run so we had to run up and down those steep sections several times.  My pace started to fall but I was running so well that I started to wonder if I could run a sub 2hr half which I have never done.   At 11km I decided to pick it back up and go for broke.  I started passing lots of people which was mentally helpful, however, it was not enough.  The last two km were a struggle.  I crossed the line with a 2:02:5? half which is a PB for me in the half IM. Yay!  

Total time was 6:06.  Not spectacular but I would say respectable.  I placed in the top half in my age group - 49/104.  This race is historically known to be a tough one with a very competitive field.  So I think I did a decent job of holding my own.

I am still here in now sunny California training for the week with a strong bike focus.  I also at the last minute decided to sign up and run the half marathon in Hollywood tomorrow.  This will be interesting as my body is battered and bruised! Lol!!! ;)