Race Report - 2017 Disney Star Wars 1/2 Marathon

I haven't been posting race reports in quite awhile. With injuries ruining most of the 2016 season, there wasn't much to report! But now, I'm starting 2017 off right... Yesterday I ran the 2017 Disney Star Wars 1/2 Marathon in Anaheim, California.

Pre-Race:

In additon to the half marathon on Sunday, the race series has a 5k on Friday and a 10K on Saturday. My wife and a few of her friends were entered in the 10K, so we came out to Anaheim on Friday afternoon and stayed at a hotel that was about a 15 minute walk to the start/finish area. My daughter also came along, so once we got settled into the hotel, we went over to the the theme parks and took her on as many rides as we could. Saturday, I was up at 4:30am to take my daughter out to see my wife run her 10K. After that, we spent the day at the theme parks again, and at 6pm had dinner at the Napa Rose restaurant in the Californian Hotel (a Michelin 1-star restaurant). I had their petit filet mignon, and some really great wine. Definitely not a smart pre-race meal, but I was so tired from two days of Disney theme parks, I didn't think it mattered anymore what I did to prepare for the run, so may as well enjoy myself! After dinner, we finally headed back to the hotel so I could get off of my feet. I laid back with some recovery compression socks on, and sipped water in a vain effort to recover a little before tomorrow.

Race Morning:

I woke up at 4:15am, and checked the temperature outside. It was crystal clear, no wind, and 49 degrees. Perfect conditions. I put my gear on, mixed a bottle of Infinit Jet Fuel, and sipped on that as we woke our grumpy 3-year-old up and got her ready as well. At about 5am, we started the walk over to the corrals, The first two corrals are seeded by time. When I registered for the race, I submitted a time from my Surf City 1/2 marathon, which got me into corral B (they had a total of 9 corrals labeled A through I). At about 5:20am, I took off my warm-up suit, got my Garmin and Stryd powered up and ready, and walked over to my corral. The start area was in full Disney/Star Wars fashion. A huge jumbo-tron screen, bright lights, and Star Wars music everywhere. They definitely had the right mood!

The Race:

The race started right on time. At 5:30am on the dot, the A corral (elites and top seeded age groupers) took off. My corral shuffled to the start line. I was about two thirds of the way to the back of the corral. At precisely 5:35am, we were sent off to the sounds of the Star Wars intro theme music. It was pretty cool. I walked for maybe 20-30 seconds before I reached the timing mats and started my Garmin and my Stryd app. Even though it was crowded, everyone was moving at or near the same pace. It was one of the cleanest starts to a large race I have ever seen.

Miles 1 through 4:

I'm going to talk about the first few miles most, because they are what make this race unique. The first 4 miles are entirely inside of Disneyland and California Adventure theme parks, and the adjacent roads that allow you to run from one park to the other. It is really cool being in the theme parks pre-dawn with nobody else there. There is so much happening as you run through, it is hard to describe it all. Everything is lit up, the rides are moving, spinning, etc, Star Wars music and movie dialogue blaring, actors in full costume interacting with the runners, or acting out scenes right in front of you. There are a few photo opportunities set up for you, but you have to actually stop running and get in line to take your picture in one of the scenes. I didn't want to stop running for that long, so I just checked them out as I ran by. I saw the BB-8 droid photo op, the C-3PO + R2-D2 one, one where you look like you are riding one of the speeder bikes on Endor in Return of the Jedi, one where stormtroopers are holding you captive, and one where you act out the trash compactor scene from A New Hope. My favorite part, however, was when I ran up on a battle scene being acted out by about 15 people. It was Kylo Ren and his 'Knights of Ren' versus a group of Jedi. Aside from the Star Warsy stuff, it was also neat to run by the 'Cars' part of California adventure when it was all lit up (it makes a very cool looking desert mountain backdrop) and the 'world of color' light/water show is actually going on as you circle that area near the scream machine roller coaster. There is a lot to see, so much that I am sure I missed stuff. But it makes the first 4 miles go by fast.

The 5th Mile Onward:

Once you leave the theme parks, the race turns into a well spaced out, very flat course. The huge streets around Disneyland (like Harbor Blvd, Chapman Ave, etc) have one or two lanes coned off from traffic, so there is a ton of room for everyone. Despite having nearly 13,000 people in the race, I literally had no problems with other runners getting in the way, having to take bad lines at corners or anything like that. I just settled into a nice rhythm and counted off the miles. At around the 5 mile mark, there is a stretch of probably 1/2 mile or more fully lined with high school marching bands and cheerleaders, and a decent amount of spectators rooting us on. It got quiet for maybe a mile or so at about the halfway mark. At mile 8, I was feeling so good that I told myself that if I still felt this relaxed at 10 miles, I would try to hammer the final 5k to see what kind of time I could run. But by mile 9, fatigue really set in. I'm sure the previous two days of NOT resting and preparing to run were kicking in, but I still felt confident I could hold my pace. My quads were starting to feel sore, and by mile 10 I was feeling hot spots in both of my arches. There was another section of high school bands, and also a stretch that was lined with members of a Star Wars fan club called the "501st Legion" who are quite fanatical. They had costumes on that rivaled (and exceeded) those of the actors inside Disneyland. To show my appreciation of their presence, I was hi-fiving sith lords, forearm bashing stormtroopers, etc. It was a lot of fun and renewed my motivation to finish strong. I had definitely picked up the pace on the second half of the race, but it was requiring a lot more effort to keep it up. The stretch from mile 10 to mile 12 seemed to take forever, but once I knew I only had a mile to go, I rallied a bit and made my last mile one of the fastest of the race. I saw my wife and daughter right at the 13 mile marker, and then cruised it in for the finish. My Garmin read 13.08 miles when I was in the finish chute, so I actually started it back up and jogged until it read 13.11, so I would get the 1/2 Marathon Challenge credit when I uploaded the data to Strava!

Finishing Time: 2:05:25
Overall Place: 1458th out of 12,434
Age Group Place: 196th out of 1000+ (they only list results for the first 1000 in huge age groups)

My time is nothing to write home about, but for me, that isn't the point. I am very happy about this race because it marks a return from some very long injuries that have plagued me for over a year. I can finally cover 13+ miles without any injuries (and have fun doing it), and I am ready to start doing some real training for IM70.3s and other events. I think with proper rest and preparation (NOT what I did the 3 days leading up to this event) I can run at least a few minutes faster with a similar controlled effort.

Details:

Some notes about my equipment, nutrition, and observations about this effort...

Nutrition:

Like an idiot, I ate a very heavy meal the night before the race (red meat, lots of veggies, alcohol, etc) but I wasn't really aiming for a 'race' performance so I didn't worry too much about it. I did make a good effort to stay hydrated though. And in the morning before the race, I ate no solids, just drank about 12 ounces of Infinit Jet Fuel. During the race, I took fluids at most of the aid stations after the 5K mark (alternating between plain water and Powerade). I think I had plenty of energy and was well hydrated through the event. No issues there.

Gear:

I ran in my Hoka One One Bondi 4's, which were great as usual. I wore a pair of ultra-thin no show socks, like I always do, but for some reason I got a minor blister on my right arch and a hot spot on my left arch. Not sure why that happened. I wore a short sleeve Nike Dri-Fit shirt, Dri-Fit shorts, and wore the free hat I got from IM70.3 Oceanside. The hat and short sleeved shirt were fine for the weather. The hat came in handy when the sun came up, as I used the bill to block the sun in my face for a straight 2 mile stretch. I did get some chafing from my shorts, which is very strange as I have never had that before, and these are shorts I do long runs in all the time. For timing/data I used my Garmin 910XT with HR strap, and I wore my Stryd running power meter on my left shoe. I also wore a waist belt that had my iphone on it (so I could link up with my family after the race, and also to run the Stryd mobile app to catch more running data). The 910XT was fine, but I did have about a 2-3 mile stretch where the HR data reported low. I have been having issues with these HR straps, and think I am going to ditch them and use a Wahoo TICKR instead. Also, the Stryd app on my phone completely died and captured zero data. So, wearing the device and carrying the phone was a waste. The Stryd meter itself seems to be good, but the IoS app for it totally sucks. If you do not have a device like a Garmin 920 or 735XT that can read the Stryd data, I would not recommend the Stryd power meter.

Logistics:

One negative thing about this race, is that because of the time and location of the events, you are almost forced to stay in a hotel nearby in order to participate. The races start promptly at 5:30am, and there is nowhere close by to park your car and walk in. We stayed at a hotel on Harbor Blvd. right by the Disneyland Dr. entrance to the compound. This made for about a 7-8 minute walk to the Downtown Disney area, and about a 15 minute walk to where the race corrals and start/finish area are. You can stay even closer to the race area if you go to the Disneyland Hotel or the Californian, but those are very expensive. The race entry fee is already very high, so we tried to minimize the lodging costs. If you are a Disney/Star Wars geek (or your family is) it is a lot of fun to tack on a trip or two into the parks, as we did. But that did take a toll on my legs leading up to the race. I was mostly running it for fun, and just to get a long run in so I didn't care about the end results (aside from finishing). But honestly, if you wanted to, this could be a very good course for a 1/2 marathon PR. Get into one of the first 3 corrals, and you can fly. But yeah, not the most economical race out there.

Next Race: Surf City 1/2 Marathon on February 5, 2017

Race Report - 2016 Ironman 70.3 California

Yesterday, I participated in the 2016 Ironman 70.3 California in Oceanside, CA. This was my second time doing a 70.3 race. Since I haven't been able to shake this right hip injury for a long time, I didn't really want to do the race. But at the same time, didn't want to forfeit the costs of entry fee, pre-paid hotel, etc. So, I decided to do it, but to take things easy and not push it.

Because of the injury, a new job and some other family issues, my training volume this year has been extremely low. I took a quick glance at my Garmin and Strava data for 2016. I've done roughly the following to prepare for this race:

Swimming: 5 pool sessions and one short open water swim to make sure my wetsuit fit.

Cycling: 11 bike rides, including the last minute test of my tri bike before I drove down for the race.

Running: 19 runs, ranging from 3 miles to 13.1 miles, including the Surf City 1/2, and the Firecracker 10k. These were all at slow pace. I think I've gone under 8 minutes/mile for maybe 1 or 2 miles.

Needless to say, this is NOT much training. However, I figured it was enough to get by, so I could at least finish, and hopefully enjoy myself while I did it.

Pre-Race:

I drove down to Oceanside on Thursday, got squared away in our hotel, and headed over near the pier to take care of athlete check-in. You learn pretty quickly that Oceanside has two areas of concern to triathletes: the harbor area (swim start, T1/T2) and the pier area (athlete check-in, expo, race finish). The check-in process was pretty quick and painless. However, I felt like they didn't do a very good job explaining the logistics for the Friday bike drop off, how you should get to the transition/swim on race morning, etc. I figured most of it out by talking to other people who have done the race before. The Friday bike check in went fine, though I felt it was unnecessary. Most people decided to leave their bikes, but bring all their gear Saturday morning to avoid it getting blown around in the wind, or wet from sitting near the ocean all night.

Race Morning:

I woke up at 5am, ate 1/2 cup of oatmeal, grabbed my transition bag and made the ~20 minute walk from my hotel to the transition/swim start area. I loaded my bike up with my liquids, and laid out my gear. The air temperature felt pretty cold, so I wasn't sure what I wanted to wear on the ride, so I wore a tri top under my wetsuit, but had a cycling jersey standing by to change into in case I thought it would be too cold. Once I had everything laid out, I grabbed my swim gear and morning clothes bag and headed out of the swim entrance. I waited as long as I could to put on my wetsuit, since I was in the 21st wave out of a total of 23 waves. I'd be waiting a bit before I got into the water. I found a place to stand and watch the pro men and women go off. And I was still there when they exited the water. It was cool to see guys like Andy Potts, Lionel Sanders and Jesse Thomas go running by. Since the race finished at the pier, and I was an hour away from my start, that was likely the only time I'd see the pros all day!

Swim: (1.2 miles in 39 minutes)

After a long wait, my wave finally hopped into the water, and made the short swim to the start buoys. I was only there for about 30 seconds before we were sent off. I wasn't warmed up at all, but wasn't concerned. I settled into a nice smooth and easy stroke. The yellow buoys and the red turn buoys were easy to spot, so navigation on the way out was a piece of cake. Someone came along side me and splashed water directly into my mouth, which made me gag/dry heave for a few seconds, but aside from that, things started off well. I never quite got clear of other swimmers. There was a lot of physical contact the entire way, but nothing I couldn't handle. We made the 3rd turn and headed back toward the swim exit. The sun was just up on the horizon making things tough to see. I could no longer make out the color of buoys. I could just see their black silhouettes. My dark amber mirrored goggles are awesome, but it would take an astronaut's helmet to kill off the glare that was on the water. We finally made the slight right turn heading towards the exit, which made the glare a non-factor. Before I knew it, I was making the sharp right turn to the exit ramp. I expected my time to be 43 to 45 minutes, but was surprised to see 39 as I exited the water. I can say without exaggeration that this was extremely effortless for me. The run to my bike was more taxing than that swim. So, despite almost no swimming this year, I was happy with that performance.

T1: ( 8 minutes! Yes, I know, slow)

The run to my bike was pretty long, and when I got there, I could see someone had bumped into the section where my bike was racked. My gear was scattered, and my helmet and sunglasses actually rolled under the rack to the other side. I had to get on all fours and crawl under the rack to retrieve them. Once I got everything together, I decided it was warm enough to ride in my tri top, so I just got my helmet, glasses, and HR monitor on, and started the long jog to the bike exit. My mount went OK. I had to avoid a couple of riders swerving on the way out, but no big deal.

Bike: (56 miles in 2 hours 56 minutes)

The first 2 miles of the bike course are a little weird. I remember at one point being in what looked like an alley with dumpsters on the side, being warned by volunteers that we had bumps ahead. Once we were on normal roads, I settled into a nice rythm. I remember in my last 70.3 (St. George) I was surprised at how many cyclists were blowing past me. But since I was in nearly the last wave, I was actually passing a lot of people. However, at around mile 12, I saw Ben Vanmarcke fly by. I wanted to ride up to him and say hi, but after a few seconds of chasing, I realized the wattage cost was too much. He was moving! For the most part, it was easy to maintain the level of effort I wanted, which was fairly light. I seemed to be hanging around the 20 to 21 mph average speed. We hit a No Pass Zone and I got stuck behind some very slow riders (like 12 mph slow). But I didn't let it bother me. Things sped up nicely after that. Nearing the halfway point, I saw Lynda Newman and said hi. She seemed to be cruising along very well. And then a couple of miles later we finally hit the first climb. I will admit, this caught me off guard. It was fairly short, but way steeper than I had heard. I found myself in my 39x28 gear quickly, and was pushing big watts to keep myself moving. I had to really buckle down and focus to get over this one. The next two climbs were progressively easier. And we had to deal with the other 25MPH speed limited No Pass Zone. Now that I have seen the descent, I see no reason to have a speed limit there. But whatever. Once the climbing was done, there was a stretch where I got knocked around a bit by some crosswinds, and finally in the last 8 miles, we hit a long stretch of nearly direct headwinds. And like everyone said, tons of riders were smoked, up out of aero position and I easily picked them off. I had done well conserving energy all day, and was able to stay aero and keep a very even pace during this last part of the ride. Finally, we made our way back to the harbor and to T2. Once again, I was happy with the pace I was able to ride, given the training, and my perceived effort. This was a pretty easy effort for me. I definitely felt some accumulated fatigue, but was well within myself. I did a couple of 56+ milers in the 2:40 to 2:45 range in the past month, but over an easier course. I think if I had wanted to, I could have ridden this course in 2:45 to 2:48 or so, as a race effort. I thought 20 mph was a reasonable average speed goal, and I ended up at 19, which was fine. I'm happy with the sub-3 hour effort.

T2: (6 minutes 30 seconds)

Another very slow transition. The jog to my rack was actually very short. I was looking forward to a fast transition to make up for a terrible T1. However, once again, my gear was ransacked. One of my running shoes was gone from my mat (I found it under someone's wetsuit near where my helmet had bounced earlier in the day). I had placed socks in the shoes, and the one under the wetsuit was damp. So I dug through my bag for a spare pair of socks (which I had!) so I could at least start off the run with dry feet. I also took time to stretch my lower back and do a quick hip mobilization stretch I learned in physical therapy. I had a long run out of transition to the actual run start, but was finally on my way.

Run: (13.1 miles in 2 hours 33 minutes)

The run has been my achilles heel since I began this sport, and I knew today would be no different. I originally planned to run to each aid station, walk for 1 minute, rinse and repeat until I finished. Instead, I ran the first 2 miles, then sort of took random walk breaks. I had absolutely no time goal. I just wanted to finish, with minimal damage to my hip, which has been healing nicely. Anytime there was a hill, I'd walk, and anytime I let my heart rate creep up too much, I'd walk to get it down. I felt a little disconnected from the race at this point, since I was purposely not putting out much effort, but it was fun getting to talk to people, and to cheer on the PTC folks I saw running (Alvin, Ben, and Peter). I saw my wife, daughter, and my dog at the top of the steep pitch at the pier a bit after mile 8 (my daughter was actually asleep!). And from there, I just kept up the same effort. Once I reached mile 12, I wanted to pick up the pace and finish strong. I saw one last aid station and decided to swig a Red Bull and go for it, only to realize the finish line was only a few hundred yards away. I felt kind of lame, but went ahead and ran it in strong, doing the hi-fiving, etc. My family was at the finish line, and the volunteers let my daughter hang my medal around my neck. It was pretty cool. This was far from a race effort, but I still had a fun time. I will say, even when just doing it for fun, a 70.3 is no joke. It was a challenge and I'm glad I did it.

Total Time: 6 hours, 25 minutes

This was the exact same time I ran at St. George, which is a much more difficult course. However, I was trained for St. George. Here? Not so much. At any rate, I promised myself that after this race, I would discontinue racing until I was 100% healthy. So, this is it for awhile. I'll be swimming and biking a lot, but no running, and no registering for races until I am race ready. Finishing is fun, but I'm through with limping through these events, not being able to give it my full effort.

Details:

Mostly for my own information, here are some facts about my race:

Nutrition:

For this race, I fueled with nothing but fluids. Absolutely no solids whatsoever. On the bike I drank 48 ounces of Infinit Go Far, and probably 2/3 of one of those Gatorade bottles you get at the aid stations. On the run, I drank Red bull, and/or Gatorade at every aid station except for one. I usually paired it with a cup of water. I did have some stomach sloshing at around mile 5 of the run, so I skipped one station and it went away. No stomach issues, no cramps, no energy problems.

Gear:

Swim - I used my Roka Maverick Elite full sleeve wetsuit. No problems. Water temp was recorded at 62 degrees, which I had no issues with. My swim at Corona del Mar the previous weekend seemed much colder. I used my Roka X1 goggles in Dark Amber Mirrored color. No fogging, no leaking. However, there was a stretch of the swim where the glare was extreme. I don't think any goggle could have cut through it, however.

Bike - I rode my Centric Prolog, with 53/39 oval chainrings, and a 11-28 11-speed cassette (Ultegra Di2). The gearing was fine, except for that first steep climb. Compact or mid-compact chainrings would have come in handy. Having the bigger gears never really became an advantage like it did at St. George, for example. Wheels were carbon clinchers with butyl tubes (60mm front, 88mm rear). I had a Torhans 30 oz. aero bottle, and kept a 24 ounce bottle on my seat tube. The Torhans bottle worked well, though I made a mess when refilling it with gatorade in the aid stations.

Run - I ran in Hoka One One Bondi 4 shoes. They felt great the entire time. I used ultra thin no-show socks from RoadRunner Sports. No blisters, hot spots, etc.

Race Location:

The race was in Oceanside, CA. We stayed at La Quinta Inn on North Coast Hwy, since it was close to other PTC members hotels, and was pet friendly (my dog goes everywhere with us). The hotel itself was fine, however, it wasn't in the best part of town. Directly next door was a Gentleman's Club, which attracted some unsavory people, to say the least. Also, most of the time I would walk from hotel to car, there would be vagrants hanging around, and almost always smoking marijuana. I understand people's freedoms, etc. but for what the hotel cost, I'd hope for a slightly nicer atmosphere. In fact, the marijuana smoking seemed to be a huge trend in that town. Everywhere we went we encountered it. To my shock, the people in the back part of the Athlete Check-in (handing out the t-shirts) were smoking weed!

My overall impression was that the event was decent, but not great. I didn't care much for the city of Oceanside, overall. The course was pretty good, and it is hard to beat an Ironman event this close to home. However, if I am looking for a 70.3 this time of year in 2017, I think I'll go back to St. George instead.

Race Report - 2015 Hermosa Beach 'Day at the Beach' Triathlon

This morning, I competed in the Day at the Beach Triathlon in Hermosa Beach, CA. I was looking forward to this race, because it was on roads, and a part of the strand that lived near for about 4 years, but never had the chance to race on. Since I had a very busy week, I managed to do zero training since the BOD the previous weekend, but I wasn't that concerned with results today (well, that's not entirely true, and you'll see what I mean below). But this was a short sprint race, so I thought I would do OK anyway.

Pre-Race:

I got everyone packed up and on the road by 5:30am, including my Dad who came down for the weekend to visit. We showed up, found parking relatively quickly, and I was in the transition area and set up by about 6:35am. The race started at 7am, and I was in the 4th wave, so I had a little time to relax. However, the lifeguards were keeping people out of the water, so I actually got no warmup whatsoever.

Note: All times below were measured from my Garmin 910XT and Edge 500, which I judiciously started/stopped/lapped in auto-multisport mode. I have very high confidence in the accuracy.

Swim: 457 yards in 6:31 (1min25sec per 100yards, my best yet!)

Even though this is the shortest swim I have ever done in a race, it was no joke. This was the roughest surf I have tried to do an open water swim in. I was hoping our wave would be sent out between 'sets' as the surfers say, but no such luck. We had to duck dive some decent sized waves. I managed not to get tossed by any of them, but on the first big one I had to dive under, my goggles got knocked down around my neck. I was easily able to get them back on, and had no issues after that. A lot of swimmers were panicky and seemed a bit scared, and really clustered up around the two buoys we had to go by. To avoid the clusters, I intentionally swam a few extra yards around them, and this worked out well. The swim was a rectangle, so we had a very choppy and rolling swim parallel to the beach, and it is here that I gained on a lot of people in my wave. Once we rounded the second buoy and headed for shore, we got to take advantage of those bigger waves and ride them in like body surfers. I was in the water for such a short time, I wasn't even remotely tired, but plenty of people were staggering as we ran up the beach and jogged a short distance on the strand to get to T1.

T1: 3:58 (measured from the water exit, not the T1 entrance)

The transition was pretty crowded. A product of the short swim not separating us by much. One cool thing about the organization of the race was that you were racked with your own age group, so it was easy to see how you were fairing. The bike course was a climb immediately out of the exit, so I chose not to do a flying mount this time. I used my full wetsuit today, and went heavy on the trilube on the calves. The wetsuit slipped right off this time. It was a smooth, but not overly fast T1. No complaints.

Bike: 10 miles in 24:57 (Avg Speed 24.05 mph) measured with my Garmin Edge 500

I was excited for this short bike course, because it literally rode right past were I used to live back in my single days. I knew the road well. However, it was a short 3-loop course. So congestion became a humongous problem. This race is billed as extremely beginner friendly, and the bike course is where you feel it the most. I have no problems with that. Its awesome to see so many people giving this sport a shot. But yeah it definitely hindered faster cyclists. I had to sit up out of aero position for at least 1/3 of the ride to make sure I could safely avoid/pass slower riders. It was very tight, as they coned off one lane for the race, and one lane for vehicle traffic. Also, we had a 180 degree turns at one end of the loop, and two close proximity 90+ degree turns at the other end, which people really struggled with. Twice, I had a rider near me wreck because they leaned too hard into these sharp turns while going over the crosswalk paint. Despite all that, I was happy with my ride. I didn't realize how fast my average speed was until I started typing this race report, and that is off of very low avg and normalized power, due to the slow rider dodging.  Also, my HR and RPE were quite low. I was very relaxed as I finally descended back down Pier Ave to the transition area, and did a perfect flying dismount, leaving my shoes on the bike.

T2: 1:09

This was a breeze. I had a decently long run in T2 back to my rack, but I was delighted to see the M40-44 racks were EMPTY! I was in first place! Apparently plenty of others had just as much trouble (and more) as I did with the bike traffic. Excited to see I was leading, I made quick work of racking my bike, dropping my helmet and glasses, and getting the shoes and bib on. As I dashed for the run exit, I saw 2nd place show up at the rack. This was going to be interesting!

Run: 3.1 miles in 23:23 (7:32 per mile)

Ok, so my running has sucked all year. But this course is pancake flat, other than some stairs you go up (and later back down). Out and back on the strand, essentially. Furthermore, it is on a section of the strand I have walked, beach cruised and jogged hundreds of times before when I lived in the area. So I knew it inside and out. I knew the likelihood of holding 1st place was slim, but I thought a podium was definitely realistic. I tried to avoid going out too fast, but that guy in 2nd caught me pretty quickly, not even at the 1 mile marker. However, I was running smart, and felt pretty good. My hip wasn't even bothering me. Once we went up the stairs, I knew the turnaround was close, so I picked up the pace slightly. Usually on the run, I am looking at peoples calves as they pass me to see if people in the wave are going by (if ages are written there, as they were today), but today was different. I was actually passing way more people than were passing me. My pace wasn't blistering (in the 7 minute mile range), but that is good for me. After passing the 2 mile mark, I felt confident that I could increase the pace and not blow up, so I did. Finally with about 1/2 mile to go, a 40 year old guy cruises past me, relegating me to 3rd. I tried to stick to him, but he was moving a litle too fast for me. However, I did increase my pace over the last 1/2 mile to minimize the damage, and that 40 year old was in fact the only person to pass me at all in the last mile. Even though it still isn't a fast run, it is clearly the best I've done all season. I was stoked to cruise into the finish, in 3rd place AG, and I managed to go sub 1-hour to boot! upon further analysis of my data, overall time was correctly reported as 1:00:59 after they made a correction. My AG place, however, is still incorrect!

Total: 1/4 mile swim, 10 mile bike, 3.1 mile run in 1:00:59 (3rd AG, 46th overall out of 559)

Officially, I was given 10th AG, 53rd overall, but read below... that wasn't correct.

Post-Race: OK, things didn't end up turning out well...

I was excited to see the results get posted, knowing that I finally got on the podium. But I was stunned when I saw them: they listed me finishing in 1:03:58, in 10th AG. WTF??? Exactly 4 minutes slow. I even spoke with the guys who took 1st and 2nd (who finished in 57 and 59 minutes, respectively) and they knew I was closer to them than that. Other guys in the AG also noticed their times were reported exactly 3 minutes too slow. So, we let the officials know, and they acknowledged a timing issue and told us a correction was coming. So I felt better. When they finally posted the official results, I wasn't any happier. They decided to do a blanket subtraction of 3 minutes to ALL people in the AG, including the people who already had correct times. I was still officially in 10th place. The winner and 2nd place were now 54 and 56 minutes, which was wrong. I told the officials there was still an issue, but they were adamant that they had resolved the problem. I was prepared to show them my Garmin data (did you read my Long Beach Tri report fiasco?) but they were not interested. So, I am in the books as finishing 10th in a time of 1:00:59. Needless to say, I am unhappy with that. I am considering reporting it to USAT as a bunch of us did with the Long Beach Tri run course screw up. And if anyone asks, I don't care what the results show... 3rd AG in 1:00:59 baby! That's what I got.

Lessons Learned:

I don't have much to say here. Everything went according to plan. Gear all worked great, I managed my energy well (other than the bike, were I chose safety over speed numerous times). Transitions were good, etc. Not a bad way to end the season, timing issues aside.

For people considering this race next year, I'd say go for it. If you want to drag a beginner out, this is definitely a great race. However, if (like me) the bike leg is your strength, you will be leaving some money on the table versus the fastest overall folks who get to be in the first wave or two. The volunteers were great, and they did run the event well. I have no clue how they managed to fudge my overall time. But I won't let that ruin the event. I still had a great time, and I'm sure you would too.

Race Report - 2015 Bonelli Olympic Distance Triathlon (The BOD)

Today was the Pasadena Triathlon Club's championship race, which took place at the Bonelli Olympic Distance Triathlon in San Dimas, CA. I did this race last year, but as the swimmer/cyclist on a relay team. Today was my first time doing the entire race as an individual.

Pre-Race:

Since this is a local race, and it is quite close, I didn't have to wake up particularly early. I drank a bit of coffee, as usual, but didn't eat any food. My nutrition 'plan' for races of this distance is to just get liquid calories on the bike. Seems to work well for me. I got the mini-van packed up, got the family loaded up, and headed out. We arrived at the park at about 6:20am, and I was surprised to see no lines of cars waiting to get through the gate. We cruised right in, and got a very close parking space. I got my bike and transition bag out of the car, and headed for the PTC tent. I bumped into Joe and Steve on my way. The registration lines were also unusually short, so getting my packet, and getting everything set up in transition was a breeze. I found myself with plenty of time to relax, and get mentally prepped for the race ahead, and plenty of time to get suited up and warmed up in the water.

Swim: ~1800 yards in 28:33 (recorded on my Garmin as I exited the water, not as I entered T1)

With water temps at about 76 degrees, I chose to race in my new Roka Maverick Pro sleeveless wetsuit. And since the sun was out, basically cloudless skies, I once again wore my mirrored amber Roka X1 goggles. To avoid having my trisuit top hanging out, I just left it in T1 rather than wearing it under the sleeveless suit. The race officials and life guards took quite awhile getting the buoys in place for the BOD swim course, and they had to explain to us several times what order we were supposed to hit them in. Eventually, the race started, and I got into my groove on the swim pretty quickly. The pack thinned out right away, and I had very few incidents of contact. However, at about the halfway point, somebody managed to wedge themselves underneath me, and deliver a rather powerful kick to my chest, standing me completely upright. It didn't cause any problems, other than a couple of seconds getting back up to speed, but it caught me off guard for sure. The only other issue on the swim is that a few of us were guided a bit off-course to an additional yellow buoy that we probably didn't need to go around. As a result, we swam a bit long. I recorded just under 1800 yards for the distance, but when I look at the GPS map of my swim, I don't see any abrupt direction changes as a result. So I am not too concerned about it. My pace was good, and that's all I care about.

T1: 4:52

My T1 was pretty slow, for a couple of reasons: 1) I had to put my top on since I chose not to wear it under my wetsuit. It is a pain in the ass to put those on when wet. Lesson learned. 2) To avoid the issues I have been having with my wet HR monitor strap not registering, I didn't wear it on the swim. So I had to put that on as well. 3) Maybe its the new wetsuit, but I had a tough time taking it off. I have pretty big calves, and sometimes it is tough to get the suit over them (yes, I know about tri-lube, etc).

Bike: 24.96 miles in 1:15:32 (measured on my Garmin Edge 500)

Course knowledge definitely helped me here. Last year, I rode 1:22 on this course, even though I put up some pretty big wattage numbers on the power meter. This year, under worse conditions, I rode 7 minutes faster, with lower average and normalized power. Part of that is also the tri bike (I rode my road bike with aero extensions last year, versus my Centric Prolog this year). I clicked off three 25 minute laps. The only issues I had were both on the steep descent after the really terribly paved climb near the end of the lap. On lap 1, a car was on the course. I passed it doing 48 mph (I was amazed to be hitting that speed), and then he decided it would be cool to pace alongside me for a bit until a cop on a motorcycle came up and told him to GTFO. On the third lap, in the exact same spot, I was once again bombing the descent in the upper 40s mph, and a rider ahead of me made an abrupt move to the left, forcing me to brake. But other than that, it was smooth sailing. I wasn't quite expecting the wind out by the airport, but that was just a matter of not getting caught up worrying about speed, and watching the power output, and my RPE. Overall, I'm very happy with my ride. I took a quick glance at the results, and it was roughly the 15th best bike split in the field.

T2: 2:38

I had a bit of a jog to my rack spot, but otherwise, I think my transition went OK. I took the time to put on socks, and to stretch my lower back for a few seconds. Since I wasn't sure they had anything but water on the run course, I also consumed a gel packet, and swigged some water before heading out. I saw Peter Day leaving at the same time as me (he started a wave behind me) so he must have had a good swim and bike.

Run: 6.2 miles in 59:12 (measured from my Garmin 910XT)

I didn't have any high expectations from my run, other than to get through it with as little trouble as possible. I've been nursing a right hip injury, which has hampered my run training a bit. But it felt fine as I headed out, and did not bother me at all on the entire run. My strategy was to run at what I felt was a manageable pace, walk through the aid stations to give myself a chance to cool off (it was pretty warm), and make sure I was able to finish strong, but not with too much left in the tank. It worked out pretty well. I also chose to walk up one of the steeper hills on the course, as sometimes these aggravate my hip. That cost me some time, but was worth it. The first 3 miles went by quickly, as did the last mile. Before I knew it, I was cruising in to the finish.

Overall: 2:54:28 (38th Overall, 8th in M40-44 AG)

I was actually quit pleased with this performance as a whole. None of my performances were particularly great, but all of them were decent (for my ability). Anytime I can string 3 good events together like that, I'll take it. I think it also put me 2nd in the club championship, which ain't too shabby (I know some of our super fast guys were not there, but hey).

Lessons Learned:

The only things I would have changed today: 1) find a better way to get that trisuit top on, and 2) maybe practice getting that new wetsuit off quicker. Everything else pretty much went to plan.

Well, that's it. Next Sunday (Oct. 18) I have the Hermosa Beach 'Day at the Beach' sprint triathlon, and that is it for the 2015 season.

Race Report - 2015 TriRock San Diego

I raced the TriRock San Diego Triathlon this morning. Here are the details...

I did this race last year, which was my 2nd triathlon. I really enjoyed it, and it was a great venue to bring your family to, so I decided to do it again this year. I did the sprint last time, but today I moved up to the 'intermediate' distance, which is 1500 yard swim, 22 mile bike, 6 mile run. Just shy of an actual olympic distance.

Pre-Race

Just like last year, I stayed at the Bayfront Hilton, which is a very short walk to the Swim Start/Transition/Finish area. This event has designated rack spots for each athlete, so no need to get to T1 right when it opens to get a good spot. I tried to sleep in until 5am (the race start is 6:30) but I was wide awake at 4:40am so I got up. My 'pre-race' fuel ritual only consisted of a cup of coffee, and I sipped on water for a bit. No solid food. I figure for olympic distance or less, that should be fine. I grabbed my bike and transition bag, and headed to the transition area. Setup was a breeze. The people racking around me understood how to alternate which bikes face which direction, so we had plenty of space. I walked the transition area to make sure I knew where my rack was with respect to the swim exit and bike exit. It was still pretty dark, so I had a tough time deciding which goggles I wanted to wear. The sky looked clear, so I figured the rising sun would be in our faces on the return portions of the swim, so I decided to go with my Roka X1's in mirrored amber color. I noticed it was warm, and quite humid, and the water was reported to be 74 degrees. Despite the warm conditions, I chose to use my wetsuit anyway. I grabbed my swim gear, dropped my gear bag off at check-in, and found a comfy place to sit down, stretch, and wait for my wave.

Swim: (1.1 miles - 33 minutes)

They do time trial starts at this race, since we enter the water from a metal stairway (no beach). I was the 5th wave. So I didn't hit the water until about 15 minutes after the first wave started. Right away, I started catching people. By 300 yards I was already catching people from earlier waves. However, my goggles fogged badly (we don't have access to the water until we jump in to start racing) so I had to pause for about 4 seconds to get them cleaned up. After that, no issues. The mirrored amber color was perfect for the light conditions. The course had buoys every 100 yards, so it was super easy to navigate. I was hanging with my age group wave pretty well, with the occasional fast guy passing me, and we could see that we were catching lots of people from earlier waves judging by the different colored swim caps we were passing. I felt strong, and very fluid with my stroke. Once we were closer to the turnaround point, a rather large ship passed pretty close, and sent some huge wake towards us. It reminded me of the first time I swam at Zuma. It also caused some really strong current for about 5 minutes, which was a new experience for me. I finally passed the last buoy heading back to the stairway to exit. I was shocked to look at my time and see 33 minutes. On a good day, I can swim a HIM swim that fast. As it turns out, the course was way long. 1.1 miles, instead of 1500 yards. To put that into perspective, 1500 yards is about 0.85 miles. So, we swam about an extra 440 yards. Taking into account the section where we hit current, my swim wasn't so bad after all. I was happy with it, and started the long run to T1.

T1: (3 minutes 55 seconds)

The run from the swim exit to the bike racks is a bit far. I remember last year logging over 1/2 mile of extra running between T1 and T2. So that's where most of the time goes. I did OK (not great) getting my wetsuit off, and I was off with my bike very quickly. I chose to do the flying mount, since the bike exit is perfectly flat. It worked perfectly this time.

Bike: (22 miles - 58:35)

The course is two laps, and is flat, except for a bridge overpass that you climb both sides of twice, and another kind of short hill that you hit twice. I settled into a pretty fast pace right away, and immediately started catching droves of people. One big problem with this course is that the pavement on Harbor Dr in San Diego just plain sucks. There is a long straight stretch of this road that looks like somebody threw hand grenades on it. Last year, I was on a road bike with carbon tubular wheels, and I remember the road being bad, but not this bad. Also, there are a huge number of very narrow 90 degree turns (25 of them, in fact). And it seemed like every time I approached a tight corner, there was a group of people who's bike handling skills were, let's just say, not stellar. I definitely wasted a lot of speed in these bottleneck situations, having to get out of aero position (and often having to brake hard) to safely navigate around the slower riders, not to mention the disruption to my power output. Still, I was happy to see that I finished the first lap in under 30 minutes. Last year, I think I did one lap for the sprint race in 32 or 33 minutes, so I am definitely way faster now. The second lap was about the same as the first, except I managed to go just a bit faster. I ended up averaging about 22.53 mph, which on that winding course with terrible road surface and crazy turns, I think is pretty good. And here is a bonus: check out this pic that was taken and posted on the Triathlete Magazine website:

That's me approaching the end of the bike course (I am reaching down to unstrap my shoes in prep for dismount). That woman behind me is in the sprint race, and as you can see, was drafting off of me. I actually yelled at at least 8 people to tell them to quit drafting off of me.

To see the photo spread on Triathlete Magazine for this race, go to HERE My picture is number 12 in the list.

T2: 2 minutes 15 seconds

My bike dismount went perfectly, and I had a medium length run back to my rack, but not too bad. I took the time to put socks on for the run, so that added a few seconds. I felt pretty smooth and relaxed. I don't feel like I wasted too much time.

Run: (6.3 miles - 1:03)

Ok, so my swim was decent, bike was good. But my run totally sucked. I felt okay for about two miles, running just under 8 minute miles. After that, my right hip started acting up, forcing me to walk. I had an injury to the labrum of my left hip earlier this year, and now I have another injury (doesn't feel like the same thing) to my right hip. I've just never managed to get things going with my run training, and I am pretty bummed about it. Anyway, I managed to jog/walk the rest of the way, but my time was so slow I am embarrassed to even type it up there. After scouring the results for my AG, I could see that I was in 5th place starting the run, and wound up finishing 19th in AG. I'm not too happy with the overall result, but glad I at least stuck it out and finished.

Total Time: 2 hours, 42 minutes (19th AG)

Like I said above, I'm not happy with that overall time. I was looking at maybe a sub-2:30 if I could have held my running pace. But oh well. I think it is time to step back, not worry about racing for a bit, and get my running on track. The swim and bike are obviously clicking for me though.

Lessons Learned:

Not much to report on this one, aside from being injured, everything went pretty well. One repeat problem is that after the swim, my Garmin HR monitor didn't work on the bike and run. This is the second time in two races this has happened. The strap (and transmitter) seem to work fine. I can use them for cycling or running. But all of a sudden, if I wear them under my wetsuit for a swim, they do not get picked up by either my Garmin Edge 500, or my Garmin 910XT.

Also, I wore my Orca 226 two-piece in the race. It definitely works better for me than my Champion Systems gear. I am bummed not to be wearing PTC kit when I get my pic on Triathlete Mag's website though!

Race Report - 2015 Long Beach Triathlon

Today I competed in the 2015 Long Beach Triathlon. They have two different events (a sprint, and a super sprint) and I was in the longer sprint event. The course was supposed to be an 800 yard swim, 11 mile bike, and 3 mile run. But as you'll see, it didn't quite work out that way.

This event has some significance for me, since last year the 2014 Long Beach Triathlon was my first race. So, I was very motivated to get a good performance in so I can see how much I have improved after being a triathlete for one year.

Pre-race

One nice thing about a race in Long Beach is that I can sleep in my own bed, and just drive to the race site in the morning. The transition area opened at 5:30am, and my goal was to be there in time to get a decent spot. Last year, I was a bit late and had a tough time finding a place to rack my bike.  I was still a few minutes late this time (getting wife, 2 year old daughter, and dog out the door on time is a challenge). But, I still managed to find a spot on the very inside of one of the racks. There was a median between my rack and the next one, so I had a nice spot to lay out my gear where there would be almost no way other racers would accidentally interfere with it. I got my gear laid out, got my Garmin 910 and Edge 500 booted up, double checked that all my sensors (power meter, speed/cadence, HR) were reading, grabbed my swim gear, and headed out.

The swim start is a bit of a walk down the beach from the transition area. I remembered from last year that you could avoid the insanely long porta-potty lines (the race organizers rent way too few of these) by walking down and using the public restrooms just past the swim start. I did this, and it worked perfectly. Volunteers were also setting up an aid station near there, and let me grab some water. After that, I got my wetsuit on and headed down to the starting area. The water felt pretty nice. Not cold enough to give you that shock when you get in, but cool enough to where I felt comfortable in my wetsuit. I swam out to the first buoy and back as a warmup, then I headed up to the corral area to wait for the start.

Swim: 940 yards - 14:11 (last year's time ~17 minutes) 

This race does what they call "swim stream" start, which basically means small waves are sent out every couple of minutes. A big mistake I made last year was getting too far back from the first wave. So, this time, I got close to the front. After about a 12 minute unexplained delay, we were finally off. I was towards the back of the first wave, which was fine with me. I know I can swim a decent 800 yard split, but no need to tangle with the hardcore swimmers. I had no problem finding clean water right away, and I was surprised to see that not only was I keeping up, but I was easily passing a few people. I settled in to my stroke easily, and was at the first buoy in what seemed like no time. Roka was a huge sponsor of the race, and for some reason chose to put Roka branded buoys on the course. The color of the buoys? Black. The rising sun was to our backs, so I honestly didn't have a hard time spotting buoys. I just thought it was a poor color choice. When I looked down the course to spot the next buoy, I noticed what I see at literally every triathlon I have done aside from Ironman St. George - people cutting the swim course. We are supposed to keep the buoys to our right, but of course dozens of people cut, keeping them to the left. Annoying, but whatever. After a few minutes, we reached the merge spot where the "super sprint" swimmers get onto the course. Suddenly there were a lot more swimmers around, but I still had no trouble finding space. This has to be the only race I have done where I never made contact with another swimmer. It was kinda nice. We finally rounded the last buoy before heading to the swim exit. And yes, once again, a steady stream of people cut that buoy as well. I started to kick a little harder, and got to the beach quickly. I wasn't too tired, but also not too rested (which has been a problem I have had in the past, not pushing hard enough on the swim).

T1: (4:42...that's about 3 minutes running up the beach, about 1:50 in T1)

A unique thing about this race is that you run quite a ways up the beach, through the sand before getting to T1, and they count the time it takes you to run this toward your swim time. This annoys me, so I actually counted it as my T1 time. It took me just under 3 minutes to run to T1. I was able to plant my butt on the curb of the median to make it easier to get my wetsuit over my calves and ankles. After that, I had my gear on, and bike un-racked very quickly. I chose not to do a flying mount, since the T1 exit is immediately uphill, and has very rough pavement. I was able to mount my bike quickly and was onto the bike course ready to fly.

Bike: 11.4 miles - 30:53 (last year's time 35:38)

I got out of the saddle and cranked my way uphill to the U-turn at the top of Shoreline Dr and Ocean. Once I made the turn, I dropped into my big ring and ramped up my speed. I was comfortably holding 25-26 mph on the flat and slightly downhill parts. I was surprised to see someone pass me in the first mile. But that was literally the only time it happened. I was ripping past other people with ease, and I wasn't pushing it too hard at all. Something went haywire with my HR monitor, as it wasn't registering on my Edge 500 or my 910. I didn't care though, because I know my power numbers and RPE well enough to ride this with knowing my heart rate. The course is fairly flat, except for the beginning, and when you go over the bridge to the Queen Mary. It is two laps, so you do the bridge climb (in both directions) two times. I was able to keep up enough speed over the bridge to stay in my aero bars, which i noticed nobody else doing. I continued passing people at will, and finished the first lap in about 14:50. I was excited by the fact that if I could duplicate that effort for the second lap, I might break 30 minutes on the bike. However, the second lap was made difficult by the sheer number of riders, most of them from later waves. I immediately found myself having to swerve to avoid people that didn't hold a straight line, and even had to slam on my brakes a couple of times. Keeping my power up was tough. I finally made it back to T2, and the chute leading to the dismount point was a mess. It seems a bunch of people got confused and were riding into T2 before realizing they had another lap to go. I probably killed 30-40 seconds just trying to coast that last couple hundred yards to dismount. The course officials were clueless. Even spectators were trying to yell to people to tell them where to go. Oh well, i was still pleased with my ride. A massive improvement over one year ago.

T2: (1m 42s)

Because of the mayhem getting off the bike, i also chose not to do the flying dismount. I came to a full stop, unclipped from my pedals, and did the clippity-clop run in my cycling shoes. I had no issues getting back to my spot. And I was very pleased to see my entire rack was empty. In fact, T1 was nearly empty. There were not very many people ahead of me! I quickly got my shoes on, grabbed my bib, and headed out to the run course.

Run: ~3.8 miles (27:32)

Ok, this is where things get confusing. The course is an out-and-back two loop run. I remember roughly where the turnaround was from last year, but I noticed as I approached it, nobody was there, and nobody was turning around. In fact, I was surprised to see that I was about 1.2 miles into the run, and hadn't even seen any of the leaders coming back yet. Was I this close to the front!?!? As it turns out, no, I wasn't. What happened was this: no course marshals went out to the turnaround, no chip mat was there, no aid station, nothing. So, those of us in the top 10% or so of the overall race just kept running. I finally saw the first semi-pro/elite or whatever they are coming back. But I still didn't see the turnaround. As I ran out, the fast people started to trickle back. I could hear one or two of them yelling as they ran by saying "it's un-marked!" which I immediately knew they meant the turnaround spot. Finally, I saw an area up ahead where a few people were turning around. A race official had ridden up there on his bike, and was standing there, waving people around to head back. I was trying to do math in my head and figure out how to gauge my pace. Do we still have a second loop to run? Is the finish line somewhere else this year? What's going on? I realized that even if I ran straight back to the transition area, I'd be covering about 4 miles instead of 3. I had to adjust my pace accordingly. My run has been my weak link for quite awhile, so I knew the pace I had set out to maintain would be fine for 3 miles, but not 4+ miles. To my dismay, when I got back to the place where the turnaround was last year, I could see that officials were there, preventing other participants from overrunning the course. So now, a bunch of people I was WAY ahead of, where getting to turn around to head back to the finish in front of me! I was able to pass quite a few, but I'm pretty sure plenty of people finished ahead of me clearly because they didn't run as far. Also, none of these people went back and ran the second loop, so I am sure they ran less than 3 miles, while I was running close to 4 (later I found that some people ran 4.7 or 4.8 miles, so I didn't even get the worst of it). I finally got close enough to the finish area to see there was nobody turning around for a second loop, so I mustered up what little speed I had left and pushed hard to the finish. I was bummed to see my overall time at 1 hour 20 minutes, because I knew when I started the run that i had a good shot at a 1:14 or 1:15. But also, my overall distance was over 16 miles... and if you add up the distances (including the whacky sand run after the swim) it should have been closer to 14.75 miles. I scrolled through the laps on my Garmin 910 since I had multisport mode on, and record run splits every mile and I could see that at lap 3 (which should have been where I finished) it said my overall time was 1 hour 10 minutes, which seems way too fast. So I actually don't know what my time would have been to compare to last year. I'm estimating maybe 1:15 or 1:16. At any rate, even running the extra mile or so, I was 8 minutes faster than last year.

TOTAL TIME: 1 hour, 20 minutes (last year's time: 1 hour, 29 minutes)

The preliminary results had me at 86th place overall, and 13th in my age group. I know this is erroneous, because there couldn't have been more than 30 or 40 people ahead of me by the time I turned around on the run, and maybe 3 or 4 people passed me coming back in to finish. There is no way to really know where I finished, but my best 'guess-timate' puts me in the top 50 overall, and top 10 in AG, and that's being conservative. Last year, I was 191st overall, and 30th in AG. So, needless to say, I have made some drastic improvements in one year.

(UPDATE: The officials adjusted my run time, bringing my overall time to 1 hour, 16 minutes - which places me 8th in AG and 57th overall.)


Lessons Learned:

The run course problems dominated what would have otherwise been a decent event. The race is run by a company called Pacific Sports, which also has several other local races like the LA Triathlon, and another one in Newport Beach. I think I am going to avoid events run by this company. They seem to have a ways to go in terms of knowing how to manage a race like this. I'm curious to see what they will do to rectify the mess from yesterday. They took down my information, along with several others who obviously overran the course, including the entire elite field. So, we'll see how they handle it.

Gear:

All of my equipment performed flawlessly, except for my HR monitor. I still have no idea why it crapped out on me, even though I tested it prior to the race start. It is quite new, so I know the battery is good. And I have raced with it before, including in salt water swims.

The other issue with gear was my Champion Systems PTC tri top. Once that thing was saturated with water and/or sweat, it became quite a hindrance. As much as I love flying PTC colors, I think I am going to retire that top. hopefully the newer one I ordered recently will fair better. I have an Orca 226 top and bottom, and they work infinitely better than my black PTC suit, so I know the issue isn't just my high sweat rate.

Thoughts:

So I've been doing this sport for a year now. I remember a little over a year ago deciding I wanted to give this sport a try. I was very unfit, weighed over 200lbs, could barely swim a stroke, etc. So after a year, I have successfully done sprint, olympic, and even Half-Ironman distances. I've become a decent open water swimmer, and quite fast on the bike. My running is actually not bad either, if you account for the serious injury I battled back from this year. And I managed to slim down a little, closer to 185 lbs now. So overall, it has been quite a transformation in 12 months going from where I was in July 2014, to where I am now. I'm excited to see what I can do in another year.

Hardware collected over my first year.

Ironman 70.3 St. George

So, my A race finally came and went. Ironman 70.3 St. George was held on May 2. This was my first attempt at a 70.3, and only my 5th triathlon. So I'm still sort of a newbie, but I think I actually did okay in this one.

The hardware... I thought about that medal a lot when the run got tough.

Pre-race:
I rolled into St. George on Wednesday along with my wife, daughter, and my trusty dog. After getting settled, I found time to bike the run course with other PTC members (I managed to puncture my rear tire on that ride, which made me a bit nervous), and I drove the last 20 miles of the bike course so I could get a look at the Snow Canyon climb. The climb didn't look bad from the car, but I was also warned by many that it feels a lot harder than it looks. This was my first time doing a race that didn't start/finish at the same place and have only one transition area, but I found it to be pretty straightforward getting my gear separated into drop bags, and getting everything checked into the correct transitions areas the day before the race.

Race Morning:
My hotel provided an 'athletes breakfast' at 4am, which for me was just a bowl of cereal, orange juice, and coffee. They also provided a shuttle to Town Square, where we could catch official race shuttles to Sand Hollow Reservoir for the start of the race. Before catching the race shuttle, I stopped by my spot in T2 to make sure my run gear was okay, to make sure I knew the route in and out of transition, and to add nutrition and sunblock to my bag. I hopped right onto a shuttle and was out at Sand Hollow pretty early. I went over my bike and gear, made sure everything was set for the race. After that, I had a bit of time just to take the event in. I ran into Luis, Lynda, and Gregg and also spent a few minutes checking out the pro area to see who I could spot. I was bummed to see that Sebastian Kienle wasn't there, but it was cool to see people like Tim Don, Mirinda Carfrae and others getting ready to rumble. I finally went and dropped my morning clothes bag off, and got ready to start the race.

The Race:

1.2 MILE SWIM (time: 36 minutes):
I was in the 3rd wave (first age group wave) which was immediately after the pro women. After waiting in the pen for a bit, we were finally walked down to the lake and were allowed to get in a few minutes after the pro women were off. The swim start was an in-water start a bit offshore. I actually liked this, because for once, I was able to get in the water for long enough to get warmed up! We lined up, and the horn sounded to start our wave. I started all the way to the left (nearest the buoys) and found myself immediately brawling with about 5 other guys for space. I've had issues with this in previous races, but this time I held my ground (or water) pretty well. After about 5 minutes of this, I finally noticed while looking up to see the first red turn buoy that me and these 5 guys actually had plenty of clean water near us. So, I surged hard for about 30 seconds and finally broke clear of them. It was smooth swimming all the way after that. I felt very comfortable, and my stroke felt very efficient. I usually glance at my Garmin 910 once in awhile to see how my pace is, but this time I stayed focused on just swimming. It seemed like quite awhile before I reached the second turn buoy, but from there I could easily gauge the rest of the swim to shore, and focused on speeding up a bit. Some fast swimmers from later waves were catching me at this point, and i attempted to draft off of a couple of them, which didn't work too well. But I reached the end without issue. I thought I could hit 32 or 33 minutes, but wound up swimming 36 minutes. I wasn't tired at all, and wondered if I just wasn't pushing hard enough. Oh well, better to save it for the bike and run.

T1:
The run to my bike was a little long, but it left me close to the Bike Out arch. So, I didn't bother with a flying mount. I just put my shoes on and ran the bike out. I did one thing I don't normally do in shorter races: put on socks for the bike. My transition was okay. I didn't rush it at all (no idea what my time was though).

56 MILE BIKE (time: 2 hours, 57 minutes):
It took me very little time to settle into a good rhythm at the right power output. My hamstrings felt a little achy, but not enough to impact me. At my other races, I immediately start passing people on the bike, but here it was the opposite. For every person I passed, at least 2 or 3 others passed me up! There are a lot of strong athletes at these Ironman branded events. I didn't recon the first 30 miles of the course, but I found it easy to manage my effort over the climbs. The hardest part was keeping my power up on the very slight downhill parts. Many times I'd be holding 30mph, but only pushing 140 watts. I knew I'd pay for this 'free speed' later in the day though. During the entire ride, I kept reminding myself that Snow Canyon lay ahead, so if I was in doubt about how hard to push, I'd err on the easy side, vowing not to be one of the unfortunate ones to blow their lid on that climb. The miles leading up to the actual climb are pretty easy. At one point, we even skirted around a little league field on some sort of walking path, where we were forced to go pretty slow. Once the climb finally started, we actually took a hiking path to the left of the road called Whiptail. After some rolling and climbing on this trail, we descended back down on the main road, flipped a 180, then climbed to the top of the canyon on the main road. The climb wasn't too bad at the bottom. Although I was passed by a lot of riders in the earlier miles, I was definitely passing a lot of people in the canyon. I was being careful not to push my watts too high. When we got closer to the top, there were a few steeper pitches, and I noticed that my 39x28 climbing gear was not quite easy enough for me to keep a high cadence. I would have loved to have been using compact cranks here. However, I only had to go out of my power zones for a little bit, so I didn't freak out. The last 1.5 miles of the climb seemed to take a long time, but we finally made it, and turned right onto Hwy 18 to make the descent back into St. George. At this point, I knew I didn't blow too much energy on the climb, because I was passing people like crazy (and exactly how the Endurance Nation guys said we would if we climbed correctly!). I was keeping my watts up until I exceeded 35 or 36 mph, then I would coast. However, I did manage to stay on my aero bars, which most people were not doing. Once in awhile, I'd feel a gust from a crosswind, but it looked as though others were having more trouble with it than I was (my CENTRIC Prolog does great in the wind!). After just a few minutes, I was back into town, and heading down toward T2. I was hoping to average 20mph for the entire ride, but I lost that once we hit the big climbs. I nearly made the time back up on the descent though. To me, the important thing was that I had a good ride, no problems, and my legs still felt pretty good. I coasted into T2, had a clean dismount, and was ready to get running.

T2:
Just like in T1, I had a relaxed and smooth transition. I took the time to sit down and stretch my back and neck for about 15 seconds. I also changed socks, in hopes of avoided blisters (and it worked!), and also ran through the sunscreen tent to have sunscreen applied to me much like a factory coat of spray paint is put on cars.

13.1 MILE RUN (time: 2 hours, 40 minutes):
This is the part of the race where I had a lot of uncertainty. After dealing with a pretty severe hip injury, I hadn't run since March 8 (other than a few short treadmill sessions as part of physical therapy). Because of this, I threw any time goals out the window, and decided I just wanted to finish the race. Once I got going, I was surprised at how good my legs felt. I kept a close watch on my heart rate, and once it climbed up a bit too high, I'd walk for a few seconds to get it back down. For the first few miles, I was able to coincide this with hitting aid stations. So I'd basically run at an easy pace, then walk through each aid station. On the steeper hills, it was impossible for me to keep my HR in my endurance zone, so I also had to walk parts of those, then run the downhill section. Overall, I was making decent progress, staying hydrated, and not overheating too badly. At the turnaround near halfway I was thinking it was going to be easy. Then, at about 8.5 miles (on a pretty big hill) my right calf seized up in perhaps the most painful cramp I have ever had. It seemed to come out of nowhere, because I actually felt pretty good beforehand. I had to stop and try to massage the area a bit. I was concerned that I wouldn't even be able to walk at this point, but after a minute or two, I was able to start hobbling. I went back and forth hobbling a bit, then stopping to massage the cramp. I was able to jog a bit on the downhills, and kept this routine up until the aid station at mile 11. From mile 11 to the finish, it is a very gradual downhill. I was looking forward to running that entire section to make up time, but my calf got to the point where I couldn't find a pain free way to run. I finally just bit the bullet past the 12 mile mark and pushed through the pain, because I wanted to make sure I ran the final section, and especially down the final chute to the finish line. I finally made it to the finish, but the walking, especially after the cramping, slowed me down tremendously.

Total time: 6 hours, 25 minutes


I was extremely pleased to have finished that race. Not only was it my first 70.3, but anyone will tell you St. George is not an easy one. Despite coming in with no running fitness, I found a way to get to the finish. I have full confidence that when I can get past my running injury, I have a good shot at a mid 5-hour time on a course like this, and I'm very pleased with that prospect.

For those into excruciating details, here are some random notes about my race...

Nutrition:
My nutrition plan worked pretty well. I had plenty of energy all day, and no stomach issues. I didn't seem to have any dehydration issues either. I did have a bad calf cramp, but I attribute that to lack of run fitness, and not dehydration or electrolyte issues. Here's what I did:

Bike - I carried a 30oz 'between the arms' aero bottle, and a 24oz bottle on my seat tube, both with Infinit GoFar. I drank both of those, and refilled the aero bottle with Gatorade from aid stations. Also, at each bike aid station, I grabbed a water bottle, chugged as much as I could, then immediately discarded the bottle. I never refilled my bike bottles with water (just Gatorade). For food, I ate Clif Blocks while riding up the climb near mile 10, and again just before the start of Snow Canyon.

Run - I didn't eat any solid food on the run. I ate one GU gel that I was carrying, but other than that, all I did was drink anything and everything in the aid stations: water, gatorade, red bull, and coke. My body seemed to be absorbing it well, because I only noticed a little sloshing in my stomach at the very end, and never had any stomach problems.


Equipment:
All of my gear worked great in this race. No issues whatsoever. I chose to use my Orca 226 two piece tri suit instead of my all black PTC suit. I wanted to fly club colors, but that suit doesn't fit well, and I wanted to avoid the black top in the extreme heat we were to face. For timing, I wore my Garmin 910XT for the entire race, and had a Garmin Edge 500 on my bike. I captured the entire race in auto-multisport mode on the 910, and separately captured bike data in the Edge 500.

Swim - My Roka Maverick Elite wetsuit, and Roka X1 goggles were perfect for the conditions (62 degree water, clear skies with sun in your face for the long leg of the swim). My amber mirrored lenses were perfect for the light conditions, no fogging issues, etc.

Bike - My CENTRIC Prolog performed flawlessly. I used carbon clinchers (60mm front, 88mm rear) with butyl tubes. My gearing was a standard 53/39 chainring setup with 11x28 cassette (I have 11-speed Di2 on this bike). There were times in Snow Canyon where I would have been more efficient with some easier gears (52/36 mid-compact chainrings for example) but my setup was totally doable. I used my Specialized S-Works Evade helmet, and even when it got hot late in the ride, I had no problems with ventilation.

Run - I used my Nike Vomero 9's. I debated wearing my Hoka One One's, but the Nikes have a bigger heal to toe drop, and when I run hills, that tends to be more comfortable for me. The shoes worked well, as I had no blisters or hot spots, and my feet didn't take much of a beating.

Things to improve for next time:
For the swim, I think I could have pushed myself a lot harder. I seem to have a tough time being aggressive in the water, and finish the swim too rested. I'm probably only giving up a minute or two, but I'd still like to be able to push harder. Maybe when I do open water swims in training, I can break them up into sections and focus on trying to swim harder/faster. For the bike, things went really well. I think on some of the easier sections I could have pushed more watts, but I did really well on the climbs. Having a mid-compact (i.e. 52/36) may have helped efficiency on the steepest pitches, but overall I didn't think the climbing was that difficult. My legs felt great to start the run, so I am sure I didn't overdo anything on the bike. On the run, obviously I need to get 100% healthy and get some fitness back. My run time totally killed my overall race time. Even without the swim and bike, I would have struggled to finish that half marathon. So the fact that I did it at all is surprising. But next time I need to race it 100% healthy. Now that this race is over, I'll focus on two things: getting healthy enough to run, and dropping some more weight. I can easily lose 15 pounds without impacting my lean muscle mass, and that would pay huge dividends on both the bike and run.

Fun Post Race Stuff:

I didn't get a chance to hang out with my club members much at this race, since I had my family (including dog) with me. But we managed to check out some surrounding areas. Here are a few pics:

A day after the race, in Zion National Park with my family (an offshoot from the Pa'Rus trail). Getting to do stuff like this with my family is a huge bonus of getting into this sport.

A view into Bryce Canyon from Rainbow Point (at over 9000 feet).

The "Natural Bridge" a few miles from the top of Bryce Canyon.

My wife Amy, daughter Rylie, and our dog Seamus near Checkerboard Mesa in Zion National Park.

A good view of Checkerboard Mesa in Zion National Park

Anyway, that's about it. I can say that even though this was my first 70.3, I really liked the distance. This may turn out to be my favorite race distance. After I get a few under my belt, I'll decide if I want to take on a full or not.