Oceanside 70.3 Race Report

I registered for Oceanside as an excuse to visit my old roommate and good friend Jessica. Plus who wouldn't want to go to San Diego. It's perfect there! I however didn't think we were going to be stuck in a continuos winter vortex making training a nightmare here in DC. With that said I spent way to many hours on my trainer and was only able to do a handful of bike rides outside. Oh and motivating yourself to go run when it's in the teens and the feel like temp is even colder, yeah not fun. I'm not sure I will ever do a March 70.3 again. Training in the winter sucked. But at any rate I pushed through it and even though it wasn't my best training cycle I felt ready to race even though I wasn't expecting much.

 

This is a the first race that wasn't in driving distance to me. So, my bike made it there before I did since I used tri bike transport. I think it is a great service however I was disappointed that I actually couldn't roll my bike from their tent to my rack as advertised. We had to rack the morning of and they did not offer morning services. So a rental car it was. ugh. inconvenient

 

Anyhow, my friend lives in San Diego which is about an hour from Oceanside so we were out the door early the morning of the race. We made it there with plenty of time to spare. This is a two transition race so we set up our run stuff then rode our bike (about a mile) to T1 and the swim start. My wave started around 7:30 so I had some time to hang out. I basically wished Jason good luck since he started around 7 and then put my wetsuit on and ate the rest of my snacks. My big mistake of the morning. Not putting enough slide glide on my neck. OMG why did I make this mistake?

 

Swim: 1.2 miles, 36:40 (1:53/100m pace)

This was an in the water start, so we had to swim out to the first buoy. I liked this as the cold 60 degree water wasn't as big of a shock and it was nice to get used to it before the gun went off. I positioned myself in the middle near the buoys. Once started I couldn't find any open water and was getting stuck behind people swimming slower than me. Once I finally found some open space I felt pretty good. I've never done a swim in salt water before and I hated it. I'd accidentally sallow the salt water and gag and almost throw up. It was nasty. Other than the salt the water was calm and made for a good swim. After the turn around it seemed to take forever and I didn't think the swim was ever going to end. I also felt my neck rubbing after about 10 minutes in and knew I was going to have the biggest wetsuit hickey ever! But at that point there's not much you can do about it but try to swim faster to get out of the water faster so your neck can stop hurting. I was happy to be finished and had the volunteers help unzip the top part of my wetsuit.

 

T1: 3:51

It was somewhat a long run into T1 from the water on a little strip of carpet rolled out. I didn't waste anytime and off on the bike I went.

 

Bike: 56 miles, 3:01:19 (18.53mph)

Well this was my worst bike split ever, but I'm not surprised. The course itself had some climbs that I just wasn't expecting and some nasty head and cross winds. Out of T1 the first thing I did was drink lots of water to get all that nasty salt water out of my mouth. The first 20 miles or so were good and I think I was right around 20mph. I really was just enjoying the nice sunny weather and had a smile on my face. I was so happy to be riding outside and not freezing my ass off! There was some no pass zones and at every single one I got stuck behind someone going super slow.... 8mph on a flat? Come on. 20 mph down hill, ugh. 14mph the entire last mile. rage. Anyhow, some people were walking their bikes up the big climb. I was proudly going 4mph. lolz. After the big hills we faced terrible head winds from miles 30 - 40 or so. Maybe it was a false flat but I couldn't seem to go faster than 12 mph and my legs were burning. The last 10 miles of the course were great and I was clipping out around 22, that is until the last mile when I got stuck behind Mr slow poke and couldn't pass him. Overall I had fun on the course and was happy to be riding even if I was on the slow side.

 

T2: 1:55

Not sure what the hell I was doing in here. I fumbled around with both my bike and run garmins. Then I used the porta-potties. I just couldn't bring myself to pee on the bike. Maybe when I'm going after a 70.3 slot I'll pee on myself :)

 

Run: 13.1 miles, 1:50:48 (8:27 pace)

I was happy to be on my feet as I usually am. Once I'm out of the water and off my bike I know I can finish the race. It's was a two loop course that runs along the coast line then around a little neighborhood. It offers no shade. Just pretty palm trees and ocean views. It was hot but I felt great pretty much the entire first loop despite overheating and taking sponges at the aid stations. I kept telling myself I'm going to go sub 1:50. Woot. However, the second loop told a different story for me. I was taking coke, IM perform, and water pretty much at every aid station. I was really scared I was going to bonk like I did at my last ironman. No bonking but my stomach started giving me issues and I thought I might poo myself but I really didn't want to take the time to go. My miles got slower and it was hard to keep them in the high 8s. However, the time was still passing by quickly in my head and before I knew I could see the finish line. I put a smile on my face and tried to look pretty for my picture as I finished :)

 

Finish: 5:34:33 - 18th in my AG

Overall I had such a fun time at this race and am super excited now to race again. I loved CA and I loved there weather. This is def a great race to travel too! I also think it's kind of neat that I was 18th out of the water and finished 18th. I never changed spots! That's so strange. Anyhow, now to somehow shave 15 - 20 minutes off my time. Ha.