Olympic DistanceS - 1.5k | B - 40k | R - 10k 2:50:47 - #2 (55-59)
Up at 5:15am. Coffee, vitamins (hammer products - race caps, endurolytes, premium insurance caps, mito caps, super antioxidant, zobaline), oatmeal, banana, hammergel and protein powder by 6:00am. Left for race on my bike in the dark at 6:15am. It was a 10 minute ride down to Depot Park from my friends' house.
Checked into race in the dark - no line, thankfully an easy process.. I racked next to the Bike IN/Run OUT. The logistics had changed for this race since the transition area is now at Depot Park versus The Dream Inn parking lot. It seemed to be a reasonable place to rack, fairly close to Swim IN, and not too far from the Bike/OUT. I hung around the transition area until about 7:45, then headed down to the beach. I put on my full Xterra wetsuit at the last possible minute, walked down the beach in the water and went into the crowd of people waiting for our wave starts.
The good thing about starting in later waves is that one can watch the current and swells.. there didn't seem to be much of a problem with either. It was a cool, calm morning sea, minimal waves - unlike other years at this race!
Finally, after waiting in the shute, the starting blast went off and we took off running from the beach into the surf.. did I say minimal surf? I guess it wasn't *that* small, my goggles were knocked off by a wave... but it wasn't a disaster. I put them back on and kept making my way out to the pier.. next time, put the goggles under the cap!
There were no buoys at the end of the pier where the course takes a turn into the beach.. so everyone got really, really close to the pier and all of the sea lions.. it was eerie to be so close to the giant barking beasts... I didn't like it much but I had to stay in line with the majority of the swimmers if I wanted to get out of the water in good time.
The tide was coming in, so the finish seemed to get further and further away with more water coming up onto the beach.. it was amusing. I got to the dangling carrot of the beach, ran up to the strand and sat on my usual spot (the cement wall) and took off my wetsuit and ran like heck to the transition.
I had put my bike shoes on my bike so that I didn't have to run the long way out of transition and up the hill to the mounting spot on my bike cleats... I thought that I might break a cleat if I did. I ended up carrying my bike part of the way, but it seemed to work out okay.
My bike ride was fine, I passed lots of people and was passed by a woman with 55 written on her leg at about 18 minutes into the ride. I passed her a few minutes later, then she poured it on, passed me and I never saw her again. And thank goodness, no mechanical issues or car issues on the bike, just a good fast ride.
The run.... I really should have run 6 or 7 miles at least once or twice prior to this race. I simply cannot run the distances that I did in the past.. my knee and hip won't allow it.. SO.. the run was tough. I managed to keep a 9:10 per mile pace.. gone are the days of sub 8 minute miles.. I'm sad to say. At the second water stop, the volunteers had run out of water... uh oh.. I really needed some water. I managed to get to the end of the race and ended up taking 2nd in my age group. So happy to say. Prizes were great, I went home with a nice bottle of wine!
