Race Report - 2017 Ironman 70.3 Taiwan

I was fortunate enough to travel to the south of Taiwan to compete in IM70.3 Taiwan on March 19, 2017. This was my first triathlon outside of the United States, which presented some unique challenges. Here's a report on my race:

Quick Summary:

For those who don't care for the details and logistics of my usual format, here are the hard numbers:

Swim (38 min 13 sec)
Bike (2 hrs 43 min)
Run (2 hrs 58 min)

T1 (8 min 55 sec)
T2 (5 min 48 sec)

TOTAL: 6 hours 35 minutes 35 seconds for 88th place AG and 621st overall.

The race was sold out near 3,000 competitors, but nowhere near that many actually finished. Most DNFs I have ever seen in any race. Read on (especially about the run) to find out why!

Pre-Race:

I decided to do this race as a kick-off to a family vacation in Bali, Indonesia. My wife's side of the family lives in Taiwan and will be coming with us, so I seized the opportunity to get the race in, and then relax in Bali afterwards!

We flew from LAX to Taipei on March 13 (actually Taoyuan airport) on EVA Airlines, which was able to accommodate my racing bike packed in a SciCon Triathlon soft bag. The cool thing about the triathlon version of this bag is that you do not have to disassemble your bike beyond removing the wheels. Since I was flying all the way to Asia, with my family, and had two weeks of non-racing stuff going on as well, I didn't want to have to lug a bunch of tools with me to work on my bike. After the 14 hour flight (and a 15 hour time change, meaning we arrived Wednesday afternoon, local time), I was able to get my bike bag and a large hard-cased suitcase full of my gear back from the airlines. Everything was in fine condition, not a scratch! From there, I used a shipping service that has a location at the airport to ship my bike and gear from the airport directly to my hotel in Taitung (we stayed at the Sheraton in Taitung, which was the race HQ hotel). From there, we took the THSR (Taiwan High Speed Rail) down to Tainan City to visit with my in-laws for a couple of days, and from there, we took a 3 hour train ride to Taitung City, arriving at around noon on March 17. After checking into the hotel and retrieving my bike and gear, I headed over to the race expo to do athlete check-in, purchase a couple of Ironman nicknacks and check out the expo a little bit. I also managed to get a 12 mile ride on a part of the race course, to make sure my bike was in good shape and to loosen up the legs and lungs after all of that travel.

My bike, ready to be flown to Taiwan!

On Saturday, the 18th, the first hiccup in the trip happened. I spent most of the night dealing with a fever, sore throat, and swollen lymph nodes. I wasn't sure if I was sick, had bad allergies, or just had some sort of bug from all the traveling. At breakfast that morning, I drank a lot of hot tea which seemed to help. By the time I had to take my bike to the transition area for drop-off, my fever was gone and I felt almost back to normal. That night for dinner, we ate at the hotel buffet. I stuck mostly to pasta and things I thought would digest easily. I must have had the right idea because I was in line next to Timothy O'Donnell and Ruedi Wild (who ended up finishing 2nd and 1st respectively). I was in bed by 9pm, and despite whatever bug I had, still felt ready to race.

Race Morning:

Though the alarm was set for 3:30am, I was wide awake by 3:15, so I got up a bit early. I applied my age group and race number tattoos, grabbed my drink bottles, and headed downstairs. I ate a quick breakfast (2 eggs, 2 croissants with jam, a cup of OJ, and a cup of coffee), then headed to the shuttle buses across the street. Once I was dropped off, the walk to transition took about 10 minutes, after which I made quick work of getting my fuel, tire repair kit, computer and sensors set up for the race. I noticed the weather seemed a bit warmer, stickier, and the clouds were very sparse. It had been unusually cool all week, and the forecast even called for showers. I was hoping to avoid the heat and humidity Taiwan is known for, but it was looking like a typical steamy day was about to start. I grabbed my swim gear and post-race bag, and headed toward the swim start area. I had about 20 minutes to spare.

Swim:

The swim was broken down into 3 waves, based on projected finish time (the honor system), which meant that half the field claimed to be able to swim under 35 minutes. I legitimately thought I would swim under 35, so I got into the first wave. The pros kicked off a few minutes before us, and they started off to the left of us (meaning they had a straighter line to the buoys). We finally got the horn, and after about 2 minutes, I was heading down some concrete stairs to start my race. I hit the start button on my Garmin, prepared to dive in, and promptly felt some poor kid bounce off of my right elbow and fall into the water. I dove in, swam up to him and patted him on the back and said 'sorry.' He smiled and gave me a thumbs up and we headed off. The swim was in a fresh water lake, which was about 74 degrees on race morning. I wore a sleeveless Roka Maverick Pro wetsuit to help keep me cool. My Garmin lost satellite connections about 500 yards into the swim, but my data showed a 1:33 per 100 yards average pace up to that point. It is a basic out and back course with just a single line of buoys. Navigation was easy, as you just had to sight on a big white turnaround buoy at one end of the lake, and then do the same coming back. One weird thing that happened several times: people in front of me would switch from freestyle to breast stroke so they could navigate, and I would go charging into them from behind. After the turnaround, I stayed a bit closer to the shoreline, which seemed to have less traffic, and I made a concerted effort to speed up. I felt really good, and my stroke was smooth and strong all the way to the exit. My Garmin read 37:28 when I got out, even though it didn't record the distance. I'm willing to bet we swam a bit long since we started out way to the right of the buoy line. At any rate, with a sleeveless wetsuit in fresh water, that's a decent swim. Turns out I was 26th in AG at that point and 183rd overall male.

A view of Flowing Lake. The site of the IM70.3 Taiwan swim. The pros started right here, while age groupers started quite a ways to the right of this shot.

T1:

The swim exit to T1 really sucked. The distance to where my bike was racked was just shy of 1.1 Kilometers! Also, part of the path, even though they covered it with red carpet, was super rough, and was painful to run over. And finally, the entrance to the back of T1 was up a very steep hill. My HR was pegged when I finally got to my bike. I used a sleeved tri top for this race, so I put it on in T1, which posed no problems. I quickly sprayed on some sunblock (it was sunny and hot already), put on my glasses and helmet, and was quickly running the rest of the lengthy transition area to the bike exit. It took forever, but a lot of that was running. I felt like I didn't waste any time here.

My bike in transition (just staging the night before). We had a little boxed off area to the left to put our gear, which was nice.

The extremely long transition area. This is about midway, and you can still not see the bike exit, way down there. I covered almost 1.1 kilometers from swim exit to my bike.

Bike:

I set my bike and shoes up for a flying mount, which I executed perfectly. There was a slight uphill to get started, but after that it smoothed out. The run to T1 threw me off a bit, and it actually took me around 8 to 10 minutes to get settled into a good rhythm. After that, things were going great. The bike was running smoothly, my HR and power were in check, and I was picking people off at a high rate. I got passed occasionally too. The bike course had a single short loop that brought you back close to the transition area before ramping you up onto a highway on which we did two very long (approx. 40K) loops. Because of the long loop length, traffic never got too crowded, despite the sold out race. One thing I found VERY annoying was the rampant drafting going on. There were at least three huge packs of riders bunched up together. One of them was only 8 or 9 minutes behind the lead pro women. After the turnaround on the first lap, one of the packs came up behind me. I intentionally ramped up my power to make it harder for them to pass me, which worked for awhile. But once they overtook me, I had to drop 12 meters back to avoid them. I took note of a few of their bib numbers, but I had doubts anything would happen to them. No marshals were in sight. I slowly watched them gain time on me and wondered how many of them were in my age group (Side Note: I looked up the bike times of those bib numbers I took note of, they gained about 6 minutes on me). The first lap came to a close, and as I started the second lap, the winds gave way to a noticeable increase in temperature. I held the same pace on the next lap,except with about 5 miles to go, I eased up a bit and lowered my cadence, trying to get my legs ready to run (my run cadence is quite a bit slower than my bike cadence). As I made the last sweeping downhill turn back off of the highway and towards T2, I saw my wife and daughter cheering and ringing a cowbell. As I waved to them, I almost forgot to get my feet out of my shoes for a flying dismount. I managed to get it just in time. That was a great ride for me. Very comfortable effort, and quite a bit faster than my previous 70.3 rides: 2:43, good for 33rd in my AG and 212th overall male.

T2:

I had a slightly uphill, but not very long run back to my rack. I got my bike and helmet put away quickly, got running shoes on, sprayed on some more sunblock and was heading back to the steep hill (going down it this time) at the back of the transition area, putting my bib and visor on as I jogged. I took the time to put socks on (I rode without them) and also to stretch my lower back and hamstrings, which were a bit stiff after the ride. All in all, not a bad transition but still not extremely fast.

Run:

So far, a great swim/bike with OK transitions. I have been focusing mostly on my run this year. Of the three disciplines, it is definitely the one I have trained most for. So, coming out of T2 in 33rd place (my wife gave me the info from the live athlete tracker when I exited T2), and having just the run left to go, I was excited at possibly overtaking a few people and getting into the top 30 (and top 200 overall), which is way, WAY better than I have done in an Ironman branded event. The first mile is a clockwise loop around the same lake that we swam in. From there, you take a turn and head back into Taitung Forest Park, where you do 3 laps around the park before heading up toward the park entrance to the finish. I came through mile 1 in 8:32 which is a bit faster than I had planned to, but I felt fine. It was probably the flattest mile I have run in awhile, so I wasn't alarmed at the faster pace. I proceeded to cover the next mile (which had a significant hill in it) in 8:53, and I did notice my HR was climbing higher than I wanted it to. I told myself to keep up the pace until I hit the first aid station. I was really feeling the heat and humidity and was looking forward to grabbing some ice, and getting some water. I got to the first aid station, and to my shock, there was no ice! And to make things worse, the water and cola they were handing out was warm, almost to the point of calling it hot! I was not expecting this at all. I went ahead and drank the warm water and started my first of three laps. Even though I had slowed to a shuffle to get water, my HR had not dropped at all. I knew I needed to ease up and get my HR under control, so I slowed my pace quite a bit. Still, HR stayed high, so I decided to try and walk for a bit to bring it down. That seemed to help. I let my HR drop back down into the 130's before starting to run again. However, it immediately shot back up and at this point I was on a long, hot, exposed section of the loop. The heat seemed to be pounding on my head and I really started to get worried that perhaps I never recovered fully from that fever episode the day before. I managed to push through to the next aid station, which again did not have ice, but they did have these huge bins full of water, with giant scoops you could use to dump water on yourself. I did this, and it made a huge difference. I started running again, and too my dismay, I was overheating with a high HR within a few hundred yards. I hadn't even made it to the 4 mile mark, and was already struggling with the heat. I was starting to think that perhaps my ability to finish the race was in jeopardy. From here out, I decided I needed to do some serious walking to see if I could get my body back into a state where I felt like I could run. Anytime the road tilted up beyond flat, I would walk. On the flats, I would alternate between very slow shuffling and walking. The only time I was running a normal pace was on the few downhill portions of the loop. My mile splits plummeted, and my hopes of getting a PR and a high finishing place plummeted with them. I was not alone, however. There were many people who were in the same condition I was. The EMTs were driving around on scooters, tending to people who had cramped, or were overheating and hiding in small patches of shade to get some respite from the sun. I managed to trudge along like this for the second lap as well, despite the aid stations becoming progressively less stocked each time you passed them. Finally, on the third lap, I caught a break. Just before I hit 11 miles, some cloud cover rolled in. Dark clouds, too. The drop in temperature was enough for me to regain a little bit of gumption. By 11.5 miles I was able to run continuously again, and salvage a bit of dignity as I headed out of the loop and on toward the finish chute. The last 100 yards or so is on grass. I was very glad to have made it out, but I just quietly ran across the finish line. No fist pumping, high fives, or anything. This is the slowest 13.1 miles I have ever run. It dropped me from 33rd to 88th in AG, and from 212th overall male to 548th. Needless to say, I was not thrilled with that performance.

Probably the happiest I looked on the run, less than a mile from the finish. Thank God for the cloud cover that moved in.

Details:

Some notes about the race and my preparations for it...

Nutrition/Fuel:

I carried about 72 ounces of Infinit GoFar on the bike, along with two GU stroopwafels. I ate the stroopwafels about half way through the first lap, and continuously sipped the Infinit until it was nearly gone when I reached T2. On the run, I carried nothing. The aid stations were poorly stocked compared to US Ironman events. Their 'sports drink' is basically a Taiwanese version of Smart Water called 'Thetis More.' I did drink it a couple of times. But I didn't find myself needing any other fuel or electrolytes on the course. I'd say my nutrition plan worked in this case. My real concern was controlling my temperature and staying hydrated.

Gear:

- Swim: I used my short sleeved Roka Maverick Pro wetsuit for this race. The water was warm (74 degrees) but wetsuit legal. Even though I know my full sleeved wetsuit is a bit faster, I chose the sleeveless to help prevent overheating before and during the swim I think it worked out pretty well. For goggles, I used my mirrored amber Roka X1's. There was no pre-race warmup. The first time I touched the water was when the race began. To prevent fogging, I broke the seal on my goggles and let a few drops of water come into each lense.

- Bike: I rode my Centric Prolog tri bike, with carbon clincher wheels (60mm front, 88mm rear) with a standard 53/39 chainring setup, and an 11x25 11-speed cassette. The course had less than 1000 feet elevation gain (think LA river trails ride to Long Beach). Because of the heat, and because in Asia they do not use Gatorade on the courses, I chose to use my 30 oz. Torhans BTA hydration system in addition to keeping two 24 ounce bottles on the frame. I know there is an aero penalty there, but I was more concerned with fueling and hydration. The bike rode magnificently. No issues whatsoever.

- Run: I ran in my Hoka One One Claytons. I love these shoes. Nice and light, snappy, and even when they get wet they perform well. I used a new tri suit, made by LG. It is a short sleeved two piece suit, and is absolutely awesome. I got scorched even though I put sunblock on twice, but everything protected by the suit was absolutely fine. It also absorbs liquid well, fit well, no chafing, and was very form fitting and aero on the bike.

Conclusion:

My kid got up on the podium, even if I didn't. She had a blast, which always makes these trips worthwhile.

What a great opportunity to come over to Asia and get a 70.3 in. I didn't treat this as an A race, but still managed to get my best swim/bike combo in. I really wish I had been able to back those up with a decent run, which I KNOW I had in me. I don't know if it was just the heat (and by the way, it was unusually cool all over Taiwan until the day of the race) or if the combination of travel, jet lag, etc contributed. But for whatever reason, I was unprepared for the heat and humidity. Maybe I'll come back someday and try to improve on that performance. We'll see.

Race Report - 2017 Surf City Half Marathon

Yesterday was the 2017 Surf City Half Marathon in Huntington Beach, CA. I completed it for the third straight year. I ran the Disney Star Wars 1/2 three weeks ago in 2:05, so my hopes for this race were to better that time slightly, and once again finish strong, and injury free! Here are some details:

Pre-Race:

I woke up at 4:00am, ate a plain bagel with strawberry jam, and drank a cup of coffee while making sure I had all the gear I wanted to bring. By 4:30 I was heading out the door to meet the PTC Sprinter van for the ride to Huntington Beach. The race isn't until 7:45am, but we roll out early to beat the insane traffic heading up Beach Blvd. on race morning. I relaxed in the hotel with the team, sipping on a bottle of Infinit Jet Fuel until it was time to head out to the Pacers tent and get set to race.

The Race:

The weather was nice and cool. Cloudy, low to mid 50's and barely any detectable wind. You can't ask for better conditions. I decided not to wear sunglasses, but opted to keep my visor on in case the clouds burned off. The last 5 miles can really suck if the sun is out, and right in your face. I went to the corrals and walked to what I thought was pretty close to the front. As it turned out, I was at the back of the 2nd corral, which turned out to be just fine. I waited a few minutes, and finally it was time to head out onto the course.

Miles 1 through 4:

I felt very relaxed for the first two miles. I chose not to look at my watch until the 2 mile split ticked off, to see what my pace would be if I just stayed extremely relaxed. I was averaging about 9:10 pace, which was ideal. However, over the next two miles, I started feeling a bit lethargic. I really had to focus to keep my form tight and my pace on target. I started to get the feeling that I was in for a very bad day.

Miles 4 through 11:

Just before 4 miles, there is a medium length hill to go up. I was not looking forward to it, considering my energy levels. But surprisingly, the extra effort I spent to drive my arms and knees up the hill helped me snap out of my funk. Once the hill flattened back out, I fell into a much more natural rhythm and started to feel a lot better. By the 6 mile mark, I was feeling so much better that I considered increasing my tempo, and even started thinking about whether or not to try and beat my 2015 time (which was 1:58). However, I decided to play it smart and keep an even pace. I promised myself that if I still felt this strong at mile 11, I could kick in the final two miles. I hit the halfway point in under 1:02, so I knew I had a 2:03 (or better) if I could hold my pace. The last stretch out to the turnaround seemed to take forever, but finally I got to the 8 mile mark, and the turnaround and still felt very good. I decided to play a little mental game by completely ignoring the 9 mile marker and just focusing on getting to 10 miles. That seemed to make things go by a lot faster. At the 10 mile mark, I focused a lot on my heart rate. The last real "hill" of the race comes before mile 11, so I wanted to keep things under control so that I could push the last two miles hard. My splits were are still really even, so I was still on 2:03 pace if I just maintained to the finish. I figured I had a realistic chance to drop an extra minute per mile off of the last two miles, putting me at around a 2:01 finish time. The 11 mile marker came up, and I slowly eased into a faster pace.

Mile 11 to The Finish:

My HR definitely rose along with my pace, but I was now less than 2 miles to go, and I routinely do negative splits on my training runs, so I was very confident that there was more than enough in the tank to get me to the finish. Since I increased my pace, I was suddenly finding slower runners to be obstacles. So, I moved to the far left were things seemed to be more open. I could see the 12 mile mark off in the distance, when all of a sudden I felt a very distinct and painful POP in my left ankle. My first thought was that it felt like someone poked the inside of my ankle (maybe an inch above the bone) with a sharp stick. It hurt enough to bring me to an immediate stop. I sat down on the median and took a look. Nothing looked swollen, scratched, red, or anything. And the pain subsided after I massaged the area for 15 or 20 seconds. I stood up and walked a few yards and all seemed well, so I eased back into a slow jog. I thought things might be okay but after about 50 yards, I felt the same sharp pain again. Now I was getting worried. Did I sprain something? Tear something? What was going on? I checked my Garmin and I was at 11.7 miles. I could certainly walk it in, but was not too happy about that. After walking for maybe 30 seconds, I started shuffling again. Every so often, I'd feel the sharp pain. But instead of stopping, I would just walk quickly. I knew I could kiss my 2:01 finish goodbye, but I didn't care. I was more concerned about whether or not I had seriously injured myself just a few weeks before IM70.3 Taiwan. I managed to do this shuffle/walk method until about 12.5 miles, at which point I discovered that if I took really short steps, without flexing my ankles too much, I could avoid the pain. So I did this, with a ridiculously high cadence, all the way to the finish. I was glad to cross the line, but it felt strange getting to the end without even being tired. The walk/run stuff allowed me to recover for the most part. My time was slow, but had it not been for the ankle pain, I am 100% sure I was looking at a 2:01 or so, which is still an improvement over my last race (as this course is definitely harder than Disney).

Finishing Time: 2:07
Overall and AG Place: ??? (didn't bother looking them up)

So the time was slower than I was hoping, but despite the problems, I felt strong at the end, and ran very evenly and controlled, even when I was having energy problems early in the race. This is a good confidence booster going into a 70.3, since it shows me I can fight back from a bad situation, even with a lot of miles left to go.

Update on the ankle injury: throughout the rest of Sunday and overnight, my ankle seemed to recover. I have no clue what caused the pain. By the time I saw my doctor (on Monday in the afternoon), there was no pain to speak of, and he could not find anything wrong with my ankle or foot. He thinks I likely strained something, but not badly enough for it to persist. The important thing was that no catastrophic injury like an Achilles tear or anything like that took place.

Details:

Some notes about the race...

Nutrition:

I ate a bagel with jam about 3.5 hours before the race (and drank some coffee), and sipped on Infinit Jet Fuel until about 25 minutes before the race. On course, I drank at about half of the aid stations. Once I drank the electrolyte drink they gave out, but otherwise it was just plain water. I had no hydration issues, no cramps (unless that weird pain in the ankle was some sort of severe cramp).

Gear:

I ran in my Hoka One One Bondi 4's again, but I used medium thickness socks instead of ultra thin, since I blistered at Disney using the latter. Oddly enough, it seemed to make no difference, as I blistered exactly the same way again. I have no idea why I blister in races, when I am running virtually the same pace I do in training runs. I may experiment with different shoe inserts to see if that helps. My Garmin 910XT and HR monitor strap performed just fine. I used RoadRunner Sports shorts instead of my Nike Dri-Fit, and had no chafing issues at all.

Logistics:

This is a PTC event, so we all meet up in Eagle Rock at 5am and drive into HB together. Even though we arrive almost 2 hours ahead of the race, it helps avoid the stress of finding parking, fighting traffic, etc. This is a huge advantage of being part of a team with a lot of experienced racers planning things out.

Next Race: I'm scheduled for the Firecracker 10K, but I am debating skipping it and focusing on swimming/biking/weights this week. We'll see.

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!