70.3 California

[benbiggles]

HI everyone,

Okay lets kick off this race report feature.

Left for San Diego on Friday morning. An early 4am start and off to the airport I went. Arrived in San Diego in one piece after an aborted landing by the pilot, first time I have experienced that! Bike and bags turned up safely and off I drove to Oceanside. Wow California is cool, first time for me in So Cal and wow, I want to move there, sun, sand, surf and triathlon, Nirvana!

Race Expo was cool, pretty low key but in a good way. Registration really straightforward. After getting my race packet etc I headed to the Motel booked by Mitch! It was very kind of Mitch to sort this out for me, but you thought the Yucca Inn was basic!!! After checking my room two guys walked in, one of them proceeded to start spraying what I can only guess was insecticide in my room, all over the place, hmmmmm. ANyhow enough of that it was adequate, I guess. Mitch and several other athletes I know arrived later in the day including Scott Jones (a local) and one of Mitch's coaches, he is a great guy and it was good to catch up with him. Also with him was the W45-49 World IM Champ, a lady called Teresa, which was pretty cool. I was duly talked into riding my bike and was glad I did. We headed down the PCH (Paciic Coast Highway) along the beach watching the surfers and trying to avoid getting killed by the CA motorists riding in the bike lane. Good ride though and it doubled my monthly bike volume ;o)

Rest of the day was chilled out, went for dinner and then sorted all my stuff for the morning. Race day started for me at 4am (again!). I ate two gels and had a quarter of a bagel with some peanut butter along with plenty of water. To be honest i was really bloated from food the evening before and had very little appetite. Race morning was fresh (40f) and I was hoping it would warm up a little as I did not want to be bothered with arm warmers and stuff. The water temp I was told was a very comfortable 60f (balmy). Anyhow racked my bike, set up my kit and went to stand in line for the bathroom (a very long line). My start was 7:04am (wave starts). I got to my wetsuit at about 6:55 and then rushed to put it on, begged some bodyglide and quickly rushed off to the coral (sp!) to try and get to the dock before my start. I got to the front just as my wave was entering the water and had three minutes to wait until the start. Yes, no warm-up, not ideal! ANyhow got on the front as usual and took the swim out hard. I took the outside line and seemed to be leading my wave for a while. Within 200-300m I was having to negotiate the slower swimmers from the previous waves. This was painful and slowed me a little. I tried to be as courteous as possible but this is not easy and I ended up swimming over the top of some people! Got to the turn fast and in control. Upon turning the sun was in my eyes and navigation on the return leg was tough. I swam left and nearly re-joined the outward buoys. Canoe brought me back on line and I exited the water in a comfortable 28:13. I was pleased with this considering the circumstances although sub 28 would have been nice. T1 was uneventful.

The bike course is cool, literally cool in fact cold early in the ride. After an initial mile or so of flat the course climbs a short steep grade and then levels out for the next 28-30 miles or so. ALthogh this section is not flat it is certainly not hilly and allowed me to settle into something of a rhythm. I did the race purely as training so left my aero helmet and 999's at home. I was the odd one out! Every man and his dog had there disc wheel and aero helmet on and I although I was comfortable with my decision I was a little jealous of all the guys cruising by on there discs, it was an ideal disc wheel course. I aimed to consume 400 cals and hour on the bike and roughly hit this. I had plain water on my bottles, used gels for cals and took endurolytes for my sodium etc. This works well for me and althogh I ran a little short of calories towards the end of the ride I felt okay. I did bike perhaps a little faster than my ability right now and knew the run was going to be tough. For me even though I am running quite well right now on fresh legs in a triathlon I rely on good bike fitness to execute a good run. I did not have this bike fiitness and it told on the run! The bike course gets very hilly (with two pretty serious climbs) in the last 26 miles which really hits the average speed and fatigues the legs. I climbed in my lowest gear 39/23 and wished I had a 25!

Anyhow back to T2 and this again went very smoothly. Out onto the run and imediately I knew it was going to be slow. I was running slow but aerobically struggling. I did settle into a rhythm and managed to run consistently stopping at every feed station along the way (as is normal for me) taking on water and coke along with a few endurolytes every now and again. I take no gel/solid calories during the run in a HIM. Anyhow I ran evenly although slowly and managed to acheive my goal of sub 5 hours. I ran 7:55 miles (stopping at every aid station) which is my slowest HIM run ever! The lack of bike fitness was the culprit and perhaps riding a little above my ability. The run course is two laps, out and back along the beach and through Oceanside. It has two or three decent short climbs which sap the leg strength a little and take you over threshold if you are not careful.

To summarize - Mission accomplished, sub 5 hours! A nice course and a race I will do again. The competition is very deep. I don't think I have ever finished as low down in a field with this many competitors. I was 234th out of 1896 athletes. I was 41st in my AG out of 274 athletes! It is hard to come down here and really be competitive when you are trying to train through a Seattle winter. Next year I will take it a little more seriously and hopefully perform a little better.

Over and out!

Ben

[BryanU]

Nice work on a tough course.

Ben,

Nice work!! I was down for the event (i'm the fat guy that shows up occasionally to your tri swim class at Samena) and found it very challenging for an early season race yet was amazed at how fit/fast the field was for March. I'll be back in the pool in the next couple weeks as 3 swims prior to 1/2 IM isn't the best prep.

Cheers,
darren

[benbiggles]

Those Californians and others from that neck of the woods are always firing at that time of the year, lots of people surprisingley use this race as a last chance for adaptation before IMAZ, two weeks would be one week too close for me but I guess we are all different.

Definitely will do this again next year and this time will make sure I am a little fitter! Perfect season opener so if anyone else wants to make a trip of it next year let me know and I shall plan something.

Cheers
Ben