On October 23, 2022 I competed in Ironman California in Sacramento. My daughter also competed over the weekend, at the Ironkids event held the day before my race. I was pretty excited for this event, since it took place near where I grew up, and I have trained and raced on various parts of the courses back in my younger days.
Race Summary:
Just the numbers...
T1: 16:43
Bike: 112 miles in 5:33:20
T2: 11:23
Run: 26.2 miles in 5:08:47
TOTAL: 12:05:33 (57th M50-54 AG out of 419, 480th overall out of 2874)
Pre-race:
My family and I made the drive to Sacramento on Thursday, the 20th. It would have been about 6.5 hours, but there was a bad accident that shut down I-5 completely, which forced a reroute and more than an hour of delay. By the time we were all settled, it was a bit late to do any shakeout riding. Rylie and I joined the PTC group and headed over to The Yard House for dinner.
Friday, I headed out with PTC to get a 15 mile shakeout ride and view a bit of the bike course. I made the mistake of thinking that we needed to head down Hwy 84 to follow the course, but after a few short miles, we realized we were parallel to, but not on the correct road, and adjusted the route. After the ride, we all headed over to the Athlete Village for check-in and to hear the athlete briefing. We checked in as a group, allowing us to be in the same rack in transition. While we were at it, Rylie and I also headed over and completed the Ironkids check-in. A little while after check-in, myself, Greg Magee, Gregg Sherkin, and Eric Otero headed over to do a short recon swim. Since it is a point-to-point swim, we parked Greg's vehicle at our exit point (near Tiscornia Park/Jibboom Street bridge) and had my wife drop us off at the starting point in Township 9 Park. We swam about 1,400 yards, getting out shortly before the Sacramento River confluence. That afternoon/evening, my family and I went to the Rio City Cafe in Old Sacramento and had an early dinner overlooking the Sacramento River and the race's swim exit.
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| T1/T2 was in a stadium. Though it was spacious, the distances we had to run to get in and out were a bit extreme. |
Saturday, we were up early to get Rylie ready for her Ironkids race (details about that are in their own section below). My Dad drove out to see her race, then we all had a late breakfast together. After that, I headed over to the stadium to take care of bike and gear bag drop offs. Drop off went smoothly, but I could see that the transition area was huge, and the approaches into it were pretty long. That evening, we went out to Roseville to visit and have dinner with my friends. They prepared a nice bbq for us, and I stuck to just the chicken and rice mostly. A perfect pre-race meal. After that, we turned in early to relax, get my feet up and get to bed early to get ready to race.
Ironkids:
We headed over to the Ironman Village at about 8am on Saturday to get ready for Rylie's Ironkids 1 mile race. The course started at an arch about 200 yards or so beyond the Ironman finish line and ran two loops around the area, finishing back at the finish line. At about 8:45am, The Voice of Ironman himself, Mike Reilly was there to lead the kids in some warm-up stretches. After that, they started off with the Toddler waves, followed by a 1/2 mile wave, and then finally the 1-mile wave.
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| Rylie with about 300 yards to go. She ran a great time, and her ability to run an even pace was impressive! |
Rylie decided not to push her way up to the front at the starting line, and crossed the start about 30 seconds after the horn blew. She started off at a very controlled pace. We didn't have much time to train for this race, so I was curious how she would pace it. As it turns out, she has a natural knack for it. I walked across the median to get to the end of the first loop, and somehow she passed me without being seen (but my wife saw her), so I moved closer to the finish line to see her come in after the second loop. I didn't have to wait long! She came through in a small group, with a huge smile on her face. She hadn't slowed down at all and held her pace through to the finish arch. She even got a high-five from Mike Reilly as she ran through the finish! Her time: 8:05! Very impressive for her first attempt at the distance. She was over the moon after the race, and I'm sure she will want me to start picking future races that have Ironkids events in the future. She decided to wear her race bib and medal for the rest of the day!
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| All finished, in 8:05! She had that smile for the entire race. |
Race Morning:
I woke up at 4:30am, quickly got dressed and threw my bottles into my morning bag. A bunch of us from PTC met in the hotel lobby, grabbed some quick calories and coffee, then started the walk over to the stadium. It only took a few minutes to get my bike set up completely (adding my fluids and nutrition, airing up the tires, and putting my computer on). I also dropped some extra gels into my bike bag. The majority of the time was spent walking everywhere. It was a very big transition area with only a couple of entrances to get in or out. Once we finished with that, a group of us headed over to catch the shuttle buses, which would take us to the swim start. The crowd waiting for buses was pretty big, but we were lucky enough to get onto a bus pretty quickly (many people were not, and I later heard that people on the last buses got to the swim start more than an hour after the first waves started swimming). Part of the problem seemed to be an intermixing of athletes and spectators trying to get onto the same buses. Clearly the athletes should have priority here, and we let a few people who were trying to cut in line know how we felt about it. Once on the bus, the ride to Township 9 park was pretty quick. However, once I was off, I quickly realized that we were a lot closer to the race start than I thought. I had to quickly take care of getting to the bathroom, getting my wetsuit on, and getting rid of my morning clothes bag. Fortunately, bathroom lines were short. But still, by the time I got to the swim lineup, I had already missed the first group. I did manage to get close to the front of the second group (the 1:00-1:10 group) which turned out to be plenty early. As a comparison, teammate Greg Magee was in the first group, and we were later able to determine that I was in the water only 5 or 6 minutes after he was. So even though the last 10 minutes or so were a little hectic, I couldn't have asked for a better start to the race.
Swim:
I walked pretty calmly into the water, and took the time to rinse my goggles before putting them on (seems to help prevent fogging), then I got started swimming. The water temperature didn't shock me at all, and I was able to get into my rhythm pretty quickly. Yellow buoys were easy to spot, and I seemed to be passing a lot more people than were passing me. For the next few hundred yards, I just focused on taking long smooth strokes, and trying to look around to see if there were spots with more current. I felt very relaxed. I noticed that if I moved further to the right, the current was slightly stronger, so I stuck with that until we reached the I-5 overpass and the Jibboom Street bridge. From there, I was trying to navigate to the next buoy that should mark the confluence with the Sacramento River. I spotted the buoy (the first orange one, denoting that we were halfway through the swim course) and tried to aim well to the right of it, since the current would soon be hitting me from the right instead of from behind me. I drifted a bit left, and had to swim pretty hard against the current for about 30 seconds to make sure I actually rounded the buoy, keeping it to my left. Once I got around it, I could really feel the push downstream. But, to my dismay, when I looked toward the left bank of the Sacramento River, I could see the vast majority of swimmers just skipped that buoy. Oh well, perhaps I wasted some time here, but I didn't let it bother me since, after all, I was following the course as it was laid out (NOTE: it seems that buoy may have inadvertently drifted toward the right side of the river, so I possibly went further than I had to by not cutting it out like others seem to have known to do). The river was a bit wider here than the first stretch through the American River. So rather than spending too much time trying to determine where the best current was, I just picked a building on the horizon and swam as straight as I could. Before too long, I could see the I Street bridge, and then after that, the Tower Bridge and The Ziggurat were visible, so I knew the exit point wasn't far. The dock where we exit was protected by a row of big wooden poles, designed to keep debris or errant boats from drifting into it. I swam right between those, and aimed for the first ladder I could see. There were very nice volunteers on both sides of my ladder, but I didn't need any assistance. I climbed up, took a look at my watch (which read 55 minutes!) and laughed as I started running across the dock. Why laugh? Because in a fair swim, I couldn't swim a 55 to save my life. But now, thanks to IM California, I can forever justify being in the front swim group for any race I ever do! At any rate, I felt great. That was a pretty easy swim. I may have been able to put out more effort for a slightly faster time, but having never swam in current like that before, who knows. Its a solid performance either way, and should set me up for a good race.
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| Exiting the swim (55 minutes!) and starting the loooong run to T1. |
T1:
To describe transitions at this race in one word is simple: Long! T1/T2 are inside of Sutter Health Stadium (where the Sacramento River Cats minor league baseball team plays). We ran up the dock from swim exit, behind The Ziggurat (weird pyramid looking building) and hit the wetsuit strippers. I chose to get my wetsuit removed so I could carry it, rather than run with it for the advertised 3/4 mile run into the stadium. There really wasn't much carpet to run on, so the majority of the run was over concrete and asphalt. At one point, I saw broken glass (safety glass from a smashed car window, likely) in one of the crosswalks that we went through. I had to be careful here because I was trying not to upset my hip before even getting to the run course, so at some parts, I was more or less tiptoeing while swinging my arms in a running motion. Once I reached the stadium concourse, I had no trouble finding my bike bag, then running the rest of the way to the change tent where I was very grateful to be putting my cycling shoes on. My hip hurt a tiny bit, but the real issue was the soles of my feet. They were feeling pretty beat up from that run. I quickly put on my helmet and shoes, stuffed swim gear into the empty bag, then did the awkward cycling shoe run the rest of the way to my bike. We had to go down an S shaped path into the stadium, then across these panels that were laid down to protect the baseball field. Once I got to my bike, I don't think I was there for 10 full seconds. Dropped the bag, grabbed the bike, and turned my computer on as I jogged to the Bike Out arch. I heard later on that we covered 1.2 miles in transition, to which I have no doubt. My time was very slow (16 minutes and change) but that was mostly due to the distance, and not being able to run at a full effort.
Bike:
The bike course is two loops, more or less heading south from the stadium. I took my time getting up to speed, and pushing higher cadence to let my legs warm up well. I noticed right away that we had a decent tailwind, which was nice. Once we were away from the roads around the stadium, it was easy to get into aero position (and stay there) and start pushing target power numbers. I was consistently passing other riders, and only rarely being passed. The scenery was nice: farms, vineyards, and roads meandering next to the river. There was a rough section with ruts in the road not too far from the start, then at about 10 miles, we hit Babel Slough road for the first time. This was a rough chip seal section, with plenty of marked (and unmarked) potholes. On the first outbound trip, there was mostly tailwind with a bit of crosswind, but there were also trees everywhere reducing their effects. The issue I had with that section was hitting a couple of unmarked potholes hidden by the tree shade. Other than that, it wasn't that bad. After Babel Slough, we had some nice long sections of very smooth flat pavement. I had a timer on my computer to remind me to drink and eat at regular intervals. I stuck to it perfectly on the way out to the turnaround point. As we proceeded down the long, straight sections with the tailwind, I was trying to mentally prepare for the trip back, with head and cross winds. Finally at about mile 24, I saw the overall race leaders heading into the wind, and even though these are the fastest people in the race, they were going pretty slow and swerving quite a bit. There is a quick left/right turn that takes you up a levee and across a small bridge, followed by a 90 degree left that puts you within a couple of miles of the turnaround. Its the last spot where you get to enjoy nice wind conditions for awhile. I hit the turnaround and immediately noticed the winds impacting me. From here, back to the stadium, I did everything I could to stay aero, while making sure I didn't waste energy pushing too many watts. I switched my computer to a page where I can only see power, cadence, miles, and my gear ratio. I didn't want to distract or discourage myself by seeing speed or ride time while fighting the wind. From there I just buckled down and focused on keeping a tight body position, keeping my power where it belonged, not allowing it to spike up to compensate for the slower speeds. I also concentrated on trying to keep my body as relaxed as possible while staying stable when the crosswind gusts would hit hard (not white-knuckling the grip on my aerobars, not tensing up my core too much). The only time I'd let my power creep up is when I needed to pass multiple riders in one push. And this happened quite a few times. Occasionally I'd get nice gaps where I had a long distance between myself and other riders, during which I would really put my head down and focus hard on perfect position and power, knowing I didn't have to worry about passing anyone for awhile. But, I would be surprised at how fast I was closing those big gaps. I seemed to be making very good progress relative to those riding around me in the windy sections. At one point, I did get knocked pretty hard by a gust, right when I reached for one of my behind-the-saddle bottles to refill my BTA bottle (I was riding one-handed when the front wheel got pushed). After that, I started timing my fueling and bottle refills for the sections when we were not getting clobbered by the crosswinds. I made my way back over Babel Slough and I could tell the winds were increasing slightly. And again, I managed to find another unmarked, in the shade pothole. Between Babel Slough and the stadium, there's actually a nice section along the river, then the last bad pavement section where you hit annoying ruts (just like on the river trails where I train a lot, so nothing new), then its pretty smooth sailing to the turnaround to start the second lap. I finished the first lap in 2:45. A bit slower than I had envisioned leading up to the race, but I didn't anticipate the wind conditions until a day or two before the race. The second lap was basically a carbon copy of the first lap for me, the only difference being stronger winds. I noticed my speed on the outbound part of the lap was a bit higher, and probably equally slower on the return trip. But again, I didn't look at speed while focusing on my position and power in the windy sections. I saw Greg Magee a couple of times, and tried to give him a wave or thumbs up as we flew by each other. He seemed to be riding extremely well. And then as I approached the end of the bike, I saw Lynda just starting her second lap. She looked super strong also. I sat up and pedaled very easily as I wound around the last few turns to the dismount line. I felt great, but was definitely glad to be out of the wind. I was the only athlete in sight when I got to the dismount line, so I had two officials scrutinizing me as I came to a stop and dismounted just inches in front of the line. Final time: 5:33:20, which meant I rode the second lap in about 2:48, which was 3 minutes slower than the first. I can probably chalk that up to higher wind speeds, and the fact that I naturally ease up over the last two or three kilometers to prepare myself to run. I felt fantastic, and as it turns out, that split ranked me pretty high overall (top 5% or so) so I am very pleased with it. Power numbers were spot on, and one metric I like to track, Variability Index (which is Normalized Power divided by Average Power) was super smooth at 1.01. I think this shows that the work I put into staying aero and being comfortable in the wind really paid off. To any of my Pasadena Triathlon Club teammates reading this: spending time getting long rides on the river trails can be boring at times, but it really is a superb way to prepare for flat rides with a lot of wind!
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| Finishing up the first lap, and not super excited for another round in those winds! We had gusts up to 35mph. |
T2:
Again, the length of transitions at this race were a bit long, but T2 was better than T1 in that regard. I jogged my bike back to the rack, hung it up, and grabbed my run bag. I took a glance around, and was surprised to see how empty the stadium was. I doubt there were 10 people in there. Also, the vast majority of the racks were empty. For the number of spectators out on course, and how crowded parts of the bike course were, this seemed strange. I was definitely the closest to the front of an Ironman race I have ever been. I made quick work of getting my socks and shoes on, then put on my race bib, cap, and sunglasses as I jogged toward the path that would lead us up to the changing tents. Since I didn't need to do anything in the tent, I was directed by a volunteer to bypass the tent to the right. From there, I followed the path which eventually took us back up to the stadium concourse (past where our bike gear bags were originally staged) and then out of the stadium. One thing that was confusing was that I didn't see an obvious Run Out arch or a timing mat to indicate where T2 ended and the run began. I must have missed it. I ended up starting my watch at the 1-mile mark (which turned out to be a little bit off) so I would at least be triggering my watch's auto-lap feature at the race mile markers.
Run:
A Note About My Injury: In early September, I managed to strain my left hip flexor (and by the feel of it, rather severely strained at that). I've done this once before, back in 2015, and it took months for me to get over it and back to running 100%. The pain from this injury makes it very difficult to walk, impossible to run regularly, and put in doubt my ability to participate in this race. I debated not doing the race at all since the injury occurred too close to the race to defer, and I didn't have the new FLEX90 options available. I also considered or just doing a SWIM + BIKE + DNF. In the end, I decided to 'SWIM + BIKE + See What Happens' in hopes that perhaps I could jog a few miles until the pain got to be too much, and then try to walk the rest of the way to finish. I don't recommend that people try this if they are injured. But in my case, I didn't want to waste the entry fee money, as well as the hard work I had put into preparing to race. My swim and bike fitness were great, and I knew I'd still enjoy the race even without being able to run to my ability. I also knew that if at any point I was causing permanent damage to my hip, I could stop. So at this point, in T2, I had no idea how things would go with the run, or if I could even run a few yards without pain. But regardless, I was going to give it a shot. With that said, here's how my run went...
I eased into a jog/shuffle and immediately felt some hip pain. It was tolerable, but didn't give me a lot of confidence that it would hold up for 26 miles. I focused on trying to jog as easily as I could, generating the least amount of force possible on my left leg, but was also careful to try and run as symmetrically as possible. I didn't want to put undue pressure on my healthy leg either. I was very surprised when my watch auto-lap told me my first mile split was 9:37. Also at around 1 mile, I saw my wife, daughter, and our dog. Rylie was ringing her red PTC cow bell, and the dog was pulling on the leash to try and get to me. I took a couple of seconds to pet the dog, and told my wife that I was feeling some pain, but felt like I could keep it going for at least a few miles. I kept up the same effort until I clicked off the 2nd mile split in 9:42. Even though as far as fitness goes, the pace felt very easy, I knew my hip wouldn't last if I stayed at that effort, so I backed off a bit. The next wo miles were closer to 10:30-10:40 pace, which seemed sustainable. So I aimed to hold things there. I had it in the back of my mind that the pain in my hip would slowly increase to a point where I would have to stop and walk the rest of the way. So my goal was to find whatever pace I could manage, however slow it had to be, to prolong that moment. I felt grateful every time I saw a mile marker or an aid station, as each one meant I was further into the race without walking. I was setting intermediate goals as I went along, "make it to 10k without walking" followed by "maybe you can make it to mile 8, or mile 10, etc". A little while after the mile 6 turnaround, I saw Greg Magee probably about 2 miles behind me at that point. He asked me how I was feeling, and I told him "So far, so good!" which was as good as I could have hoped at that point. I did some quick math and figured he'd catch me at around mile 16 if I could keep up my effort. The first time anything difficult happened it was just before we got into Old Sacramento, near mile 9. There was a decent downhill segment, which was very painful. At the bottom of that, I had to walk it off for a bit. Then, not far after that, we hit the cobblestones in Old Sac. Even though it was a very short segment, the instability going over the stones caused enough pain to force me to walk a short stretch. After that, I was able to resume my normal pace and carry on. As I was approaching mile 12, the pain level was definitely increasing. When I got to the aid station, I not only walked as I grabbed my fluids, but I went ahead and took an extended break to see if the pain would settle back down a little. I was worried that this was where I'd have to start walking the rest of the way. But after about 2 minutes, I slowly eased into a shuffle and was able to get jogging again. At the next two aid stations, I did the same thing. I walked from the first volunteer with water cups, all the way to the Last Chance Trash sign at the end to give myself a larger break from fighting the pain. Getting started jogging again was tough each time, but the strategy was working, and I was still moving forward at a pace much faster than walking. I was able to keep things moving pretty well through the turnaround in Discovery Park (about mile 14.5). As I was headed towards mile 15, I saw Greg Magee again, and now he was less than 2 minutes behind me. Obviously he was able to maintain his pace, as I slowed a bit. He passed me just before mile 15, a full mile earlier than I expected. I really wanted to try and run with him for a bit, but that would have been a bad mistake and likely have led to much more walking. Seeing Greg running well was motivating, and helped me make it pretty strongly to mile 16, but at that point, I needed another long break. And again, I thought I had reached the point where I was done running for the day. At the end of the aid station, there was a bench that I stopped in front of, and I use it to do some stretching to see if I could loosen up my hip flexor for one more push at running before I was relegated to a long walk. It seemed to help a bit, but after jogging for a short time, I had to stop again. Then at about 16.5 miles, I made one more attempt to get jogging, and somehow I was able to do it. I was sure that if I stopped to walk again there'd be no more running. So I tried to just slow down even more, now running at about 11-11:30/mi pace, and it worked pretty well. I was able to keep this up as we wound our way back toward downtown Sacramento, all the way to mile 22. I was still slowing down a lot at aid stations, but I had to do what I could to avoid walking entirely. I was really hoping that the sight of the capitol building, hearing Mike Reilly in the distance, and knowing I was starting the final two loops of the course would be motivating enough to get me running. But by now, the pain was excruciating. I saw my family and a couple of friends who came to see me finish, standing just a few hundred yards past mile 22. My wife could tell by looking at me that I was in some real pain. So I tried to play it off by smiling as I told her: "Well I made it way further than I thought I could!" I was able to keep it up until mile 23. From there, I planned to walk the rest of the way, hopefully able to run the finish stretch on the carpet. That mile took 16 minutes as a result of walking. Even though I knew I was going to finish, having to walk it in somehow felt like I was giving up. I told myself "...after all this training and preparation, and after all the work you've done today, you can't suck it up for two more miles? You don't need those $250 running shoes to walk!" So, I did it. I managed to start running again. My pace was back down in the 10:30/mi range, and I tried to do what I could to cope with the pain. It hurt like hell. My family had moved to another spot, closer to the finish line when I passed them, and they seemed surprised to see me running. When I saw the mile 25 marker for the second time (we do two loops around the capitol before a final finish stretch) I knew I could keep up the running. Turning corners, being on the slanted part of the streets, or anything that involved stepping up or down was causing pain to shoot through my hip and upper leg, but I kept pushing. I finally got to the point where you either do another loop, or break left for the finish line. Volunteers were there to try and ensure you did both loops before finishing, and one of them was in the middle of the finish lane with both arms out, blocking me as he asked how many loops I did. This will go down as the only time I have ever been rude to an Ironman volunteer as I said "Dude, get out of my way! I'm finishing!" He moved aside. Not long after that, it was a right turn and onto the carpet. I couldn't see much, because of bright lights shinning from the finish line, but I knew where I was headed. I heard Mike Reilly mentioning the Pasadena Tri Club and then saying my name. I somehow managed to pull it off, and not a moment too soon. I found my family on the other side of the finisher corral fence, and after standing with them for about 5 minutes, I was in so much pain I couldn't even walk. Fortunately, I had my wife carry a trekking pole to bring me at the finish, and I needed it for the rest of the weekend! It was an extremely slow time (5:08:47) but still way faster than if I had to walk all or most of it. Total race time was 12:05:33. Even though this is far slower than I intended to go had I been healthy to run, this is still my 2nd fastest full Ironman. And given the circumstances, I'm very happy with the result. I still think I'm a sub-11 hour Ironman guy, but I'll have to prove that another day.
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| Despite a very painful hip injury, I managed to run about 23 miles of the marathon, and still finish in a respectable time. |
Notes:
-Nutrition/Hydration
--Pre-race:
Race morning, I had a little bit of oatmeal, a cup of coffee, and about half of a muffin before we headed out from the hotel. Between then and the swim start, I drank about 2/3 of a bottle of Tailwind (caffeinated raspberry). Normally I shoot for between 750 and 1,000 calories before a full IM, but this time I was quite a bit under that. It didn't seem to impact me at all, as I felt plenty energetic for the swim and early in the bike.
--Bike:
I started the bike carrying 3 bottles, each with 300 calories worth of Tailwind (mandarin orange). I also carried two packs of Cliff Blocks, and four GU gels. I also drank a bottle of Gatorade Endurance taken from an aid station. I finished all of the fluids, chews, and gels that I took. Not including the Gatorade, that's about 1,500 calories. I also took water bottles at all aid stations except for one. I don't know the total volume of fluids consumed, but as far as I could tell, I was well hydrated, and seem to have absorbed all of the calories well.
--Run:
In the early miles, I would take a cup of water and a cup of gatorade at each aid station. Additionally, at a few stations, I grabbed a Maurten hydrogel. I alternated between the caffeinated and regular gels. Later in the race (i.e. mile 21 and on) I took a cup of water, followed by either coke or red bull (whatever sounded better at the time). I have no idea how much total fluid or calories I took in. But I had no stomach issues, felt plenty hydrated, but was still covered in salt after the race. Whatever I was throwing into my gut, I was absorbing it all without issue. I think the mild temperatures and the slow run pace made it easier than in previous races.
-Gear
--Overall:
I wore a one-piece short sleeved DeSoto Fli-Suit for the entire race. Since I was rushed to get into the swim group I wanted, I did not have time to apply chamois cream or anything. But I still had no issues with chafing, and the suit felt comfortable all day. It was also extremely aero and well fitting during the horrendous winds on the bike. I timed the swim and run on my Garmin Fenix 5X, it worked great as always. I wore a Wahoo TICKR HR monitor (chest strap). It did not work during the bike, but I was able to rescan for it with my watch during the run. This has happened to me twice before with the TICKR, and I'm now considering a new chest strap for future races (Polar H10 and Garmin HRM-Tri are top of the list).
--Swim:
I wore a Roka Maverick Elite full-sleeved wetsuit. It was great, though I think the water was warm enough to have considered my Roka Maverick Pro sleeveless. I wore my tri suit with the top/sleeves all the way up under the suit, and it worked fine. For goggles, I used Roka F2 in light amber lens color. These are the closest I have to a clear lens. The sun was never a factor in visibility, and I had zero issues with leaks or fogging.
--Bike:
I rode my Felt IA16 tt/tri bike: 53-39 chainrings with an 11-25 cassette, HED Jet+ Black wheels (60mm front, disc on the rear). Continental GP5000 tires with latex tubes, X-Lab Torpedo BTA up front, with two X-Lab Gorilla cages mounted behind the saddle. Computer was the Wahoo ELEMNT Bolt. I used my Giro Aerohead helmet. It got a little loud in the high winds, but I still think it was the fastest of my helmets for those conditions. My bike setup was great. There was a lot of discussion about wheels in these wind conditions, and I'll tell you the same thing every time: Disc wheel, baby! The only thing I would have considered changing was my front wheel if I owned anything shallower than 60mm.
--Run:
For shoes, I used my Asics MetaSpeed Sky. Even though I knew this run would be a slow grind, I still wanted to wear the fastest shoes in my arsenal. They were great, no hot spots, blisters or anything. I paired them with Roadrunner Sports Drymax socks as usual. I wore a cap (the finisher's cap from 70.3 Oceanside) and my Oakley Radar sunglasses with the red/orange prizm lens. It wasn't fully dark, though very near it when I finished, but from mile 21 or so to the finish, I didn't need the sunglasses anymore.
-Logistics
--Travel:
We drove from San Marino to Sacramento on Wednesday before the race. It would have taken just over 6 hours if not for the accident on I-5 that shut all lanes down for a couple of hours. I think flying to Sacramento would be a waste, and more hassle than its worth.
--Lodging:
We stayed at Home2Suites by Hilton. It was dog friendly, and had decent rooms with a kitchenette. The staff was nice and very accommodating (they didn't even mind a few of us drinking in the lobby after the race). The location was pretty ideal for getting to pre-race and race morning functions. We had a ton of PTC members there too, so I was finally able to be a part of more club activities at the race than I usually get to.
--Food:
The hotel had breakfast in the morning, including race morning. And there are all the types of restaurants you could hope for in the Sacramento area. The$25 meal voucher that comes in our race packets had a good list. Aside from the Yard House with the club, one of note was the Rio City Cafe in Old Sacramento. They gave us a great table overlooking the river, and were very welcoming of us with our dog. Food was great, too.
-Improvements
--Swim:
I don't have much to say here. I may have been a little faster in the sleeveless wetsuit, but as far as my actual swim went, I didn't make any mistakes that I'm aware of. I did manage to round that tough buoy that many people skipped. But since they weren't penalizing anybody for skipping it, I actually just wasted some time and energy fighting the current there. But in either case, the time saved (or lost) was insignificant. Overall, I'm calling it a good swim, and yes, I will be bragging that I'm a sub-60 minute Ironman swimmer!
--Bike:
The bike was easily the best discipline for me at this race. I stuck to my plan and rode an extremely even effort, whether I was flying south at 31mph, or leaning at a steep angle into a vicious crosswind. My power numbers (judging by W/kg) were a bit lower than I think I can go, but I also think part of that is due to the fact that I changed out a bunch of stuff on my bike (including the bottom bracket, chain, and cassette) and didn't recalibrate my meter. Once I get a chance to do some more quality rides on that bike, I'll know for sure. They say don't change anything on race day, but leading into race week, I had some big issues with my bike that required some emergency repairs and replacements to get it race ready. But regardless of the numbers, if my average power was X, my normalized power was X + 1, which is phenomenally smooth in my opinion. I can't think of anything I could have done differently to get a better result. The effort felt like just another 5+ hour day on the river trails, only without the breaks. And to top it off, I felt great to start the run.
--Run:
Considering my injury, there wasn't a whole lot I could do to improve this run. It was a matter of pain tolerance as opposed to fitness. In fact, I never even got my HR high enough to be considered in my Z2 training zone. About the only thing I could have done was maybe not linger so much on a couple of my 'extended' walk breaks. But even with that, I think my 5:08 time wouldn't have been much faster than maybe a 4:50 to 4:55. Perhaps that would have dipped me below the 12 hour barrier, but in the grand scheme of things, that's no big deal. I'm still proud of how I was able to fight through the pain and finish at all. The time really doesn't matter much.
--Transitions:
I think the actionable parts of my transitions (actually putting on and removing my gear) went very well at this race. The lengthy times were mostly due to the sheer length of the transitions. They required a lot of running, which I had to do very carefully in order to protect my hip. Had I been able to run full speed, I'd have easily shaved minutes off of both transitions. I used the bathroom in both T1 and T2, but being the data nerd that I am, I actually counted seconds and they took 20 and 22 seconds, respectively. Those 42 seconds are worth it to me to not be riding and running around in a urine soaked kit.
Conclusion:
What could have been a DNF or even worse, a DNS, turned out to be a pretty good race. I will always wonder what I could have done had I been healthy for the run segment. And I do still think my original goal of trying to break 11 hours was realistic, even with the wind conditions. But I'm confident that I'll get a chance to do that at another race. For what I had to bring to the table this weekend, I couldn't have asked for a much better result. On top of that, the weekend was fun altogether. My daughter's race was awesome, and I see her developing an interest in running (she has a beaming smile the entire time she's on the course). And I got to spend some time with friends that I grew up with, as well as see family in the area. I'm not sure I'll be back here in 2023, but if this race lasts, I'd definitely do it again.
Next Races:
Ironman 70.3 Indian Wells/La Quinta December 4, 2022 - I'm signed up for this, but considering my hip injury, it is likely that I either won't do it, or I'll have to consider having fun in the swim and bike, and skipping out on the run. As much as I'd love to do it, I'd rather heal up and get back to full training again, rather than risk further injury by continuing to race when I'm not 100%. I looked into it, and Ironman won't allow me to transfer into a relay team, and as it was with IMCA, I was injured past the cutoff for a deferral.
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