Today's race marks the end of the 2015 racing season. I am incredibly lucky that the season went flawlessly without any mishaps and/or injuries. It started with Oceanside 70.3 in March, to today's race in Santa Cruz, CA, totaling 5 races - 3 half IMs, 1 full IM and one Olympic. I couldn't have done any of this without the support of my wife and daughter. Anyways, this post is not about the season, but about Santa Cruz 70.3, so on to that...
I had little to no motivation going into this race. I had not even glanced through the athlete guide until the night before the race to reconfirm the start time of my wave. Usually I am pretty nervous the night before and can barely sleep. But last night I slept like a baby. I had to drag myself out of the bed when the alarm went off at 3AM. Then I was just sitting on the sofa half wishing that I could just cancel the race and sleep in. Somehow I mustered mental strength and started with the race morning routine. The great thing about this Ironman is that there's no need to stay in a hotel. I slept in the comfort of my home and made hot Chai tea to wake me up. Ensure breakfast had worked pretty well at Boulder, so I stuck to it. But I was able to drink only one bottle (140 cals), and sipped on the second bottle on the way to the race.
We reached Depot Park just before 5 and the transition had not yet opened. I quickly used the port-a-potty for round 1. We were one of first folks to get into transition. I had plenty time to setup, which doesn't always happen - I am always scrambling till the last minute. I tried to stay warm in my fleece pants and TriForce jacket for as long as possible. Chatting with other athletes and seeing other TriForcers in transition helped me somewhat get into the racing mentality. For most part was like... whatever, I just wanted to get over with it.
At 6AM, I put on the wetsuit upto the waist over the Octane. As I was considering heading to the beach early - transition closes at 6:30 - I felt the need to visit the port-a-potty for round2. So after that very important task was taken care of, we headed to the beach where the swim start was. The water temperature was < 65F, so neoprene booties were allowed. That made me very happy because the booties make the 0.25 mile run form the swim exit to the transition much easier on the feet. We reached at the beach by 6:45, with 5 minutes to spare for the first wave to be flagged off. I was in the M35-39 wave at 7:14AM, so had ample time to relax and try to enjoy the race atmosphere. When the horn went off for the first wave and the neoprene clad machines charged into the Pacific, I suddenly found a surge of race excitement in me. It felt like magic and all the lethargy, negativeness and fatigue vanished in thin air. I walked into the water waist-deep and stood there for a few minutes as the sun started peeking through the clouds.
Swim (33:xx)
Finally the wait was over. Considering I have never ever practiced a dry start with a dolphin dive, my entry was not too bad - much smoother than in the past. I started out easy and warmed up for the first 5 minutes. The Pacific was a bit uneasy that morning and it decided to pummel us around on the way out to the first buoy. I must have swallowed 3-4 huge gulps of salt water when breaking out to breath at the crest of a swell. It felt much smoother after the second turn around. However, lack of swim training was showing and my shoulders were teetering on shutting down. I found a pair of feet to draft which I followed for the last 0.2 miles or so. Luckily this time around I was not thrown around by the waves breaking near the shore. My Garmin showed 32:xx at the swim exit.
T1 (5:xx)
Neoprene booties made the 0.2 mile run to transition quite comfortable. I pretty much did a regular run all the way to my bike as opposed to a conservative easy jog. Booties came off surprisingly quickly. Getting the wetsuit off around the ankles was a bit of a struggle, but nothing too bad. Helmet on, bike shoes on and I was out of T1 in 5:xx. - one of the better transitions I have had.
Bike (2:39:xx, 180W NP)
Not conforming to conventional wisdom of waiting for HR to settle on the bike before eating anything, I immediately downed an e-Gel. In my defense, I was not wearing an HRM :) But in all seriousness, I knew I was lagging behind on calories as I had a very small breakfast. I quickly settled into tempo effort (180-190W) while doing lots of soft pedaling (>26mph) and coasting (>28mph). Not having HR to constantly monitor was a huge relief! I was going by perceived effort and in hindsight, that worked out pretty well. I was able to maintain a pretty consistent effort throughout the ride without fading out.
At ~mile 40, two guys passed me and they were looking strong. I dropped back within legal distance and continued dropping further as they were faster than me. I however also noticed that the second guy was blatantly drafting off of the other guy. I thought for a moment about catching up to him and giving him an earful, then thought it would be stupid to burn a match, and then decided to go for it anyways. I caught up to him in under a minute of doing 270W and tersely told him it wasn't cool that he was slipstreaming. It would have been embarrassing to immediately drop back at this point, so I kept pushing and passed the guy in front of him when I luckily hit a downhill. I was able to convincingly stay ahead of them for a couple of minutes before they passed me again.
T2 (2:xx)
As I was closing in to transition, I took my feet off a bit too early and ended up riding half a mile with my feet on top of the shoes. The flying dismount was smooth and I did a brisk jog through transition. This too was one of the faster transitions I've had. Helmet and socks off, put on vaseline lined (or should I say soaked) socks, Clifton 2s, grabbed bib belt and visor and I was on my way.
Run (1:32:xx)
There's a short stinger right out of transition and I decided to walk it up. Others ran up and ended up only 5 seconds ahead of me. I started with a comfortable 7:15 pace and was hoping to speed up slightly after a few miles. At mile 2 I had to go pee but 2/4 port-a-potties were occupied and the other two were locked! WTF! I waited for like 10 seconds when another guy came in behind me and swore under his breath about the situation. He then yanked on the door of the locked porta-potty to break the zip-tie, and I followed suit with the other locked one. This wasn't then end of it for me though. I wasted another couple of minutes to take off my damn Octane and put it back on. Anyways, the rest of the run went pretty well except for the PAINFUL blisters that developed on both my feet by mile 5. The blister on the ball of the right foot wasn't felt until later though, since my toes were totally numb for some reason. The blister on the arch of the left foot was super painful, but running on a right sloping road was helping keep the pressure and friction off. For a change my legs were feeling strong and there was no sign of cramping or weird aches and pains throughout the run. Unfortunately the blisters took the fun out of it a bit. The last 0.25 miles on the beach are always brutal, but the end is in sight so it is not that bad.
Total time: 4:52:xx (13th AG)
It was a great race overall. I gave it my best and I am happy that I was able to finally nail the elusive sub-5 goal! The fact that I was feeling strong throughout the bike makes me believe that I can potentially cut down 5-8 minutes from my bike time with more training under my belt. Less then 30 mins on the swim is definitely doable if I am training regularly. If on top of that I am able to maintain my run time, I may have a decent shot at a podium spot.
