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This past weekend, I participated ("raced" doesn't really seem like the right word) in the California 70.3 in Oceanside.  I was returning to the scene of the crime, this having been my first 70.3 race two years ago.   This time though I was bringing two more years of triathlon experience, better skills in all three disciplines, and what I thought was better overall conditioning. 

Before I get into the meat of the story, I think I should pass on a couple of anecdotes in the way of foreshadowing: 

The first one involves my last attempt at a long ride prior to my taper.  I had planned to ride up to the top of Mt Lemmon at my half IM effort level from my house and back.  The whole ride should have been about 5 hours or maybe a little more.   As it turns out, the temperature and the wind chill at about 5000 feet of elevation was such that going any farther was impossible.  Despite all the layers I had on, I was FREEZING.  I figured I could turn around and knock out the remaining half of the ride in the hills north of where I live.  The problem with this plan was that as soon as I turned around and started riding down the mountain at 30+mph, the wind chill turned me into a popsicle.  I started shaking uncontrollably to the point that I couldn't keep the front wheel from wobbling.  Long story short, I eked my way down the mountain a couple hundred yards at a time until I made it to somewhat warm air.  My day was shot and I went home.

The second one is a brief conversation I had at the race expo with a gentleman named Paul Thomas from Kuota.  He mentioned that lots of people don't take into account how chilly this race can be, don't dress for it, and then wind up with muscles that won't work because they're too cold.  I made an off-hand remark about how my calves sometimes cramp when I'm cold like that.

 OK, now back to the story at hand. . .

The day started off on the chilly side, and I made the mistake of not dressing warmly enough--although I was a lot better off than a lot of the people I saw.  By the time I finally made my way to the front of the line at the porta john and then got into my wetsuit, I was already shaking.  Forgetting to bring flip flops to keep my feet off the cold pavement wasn't helping the situation. 

Here I am standing at the top of the boat ramp shivering.  They must have run out of green swim caps for my wave because there were about a half dozen of us who were sporting silver. 

How tall IS that guy to my right, anyway??

 They blew the horn for the wave prior to mine and off we went into the water to marshall for the start.  The water was 59 degrees and actually didn't feel too bad since it was warmer than the air.  I took my time adjusting my goggles and chatting with Gail Leveque from Gorilla Multisport who happened to be standing at the bottom of the boat ramp.  Then I took my time paddling out to the starting buoy.  Then I took my time taking care of some other, ahem, business.  In the meantime, the four minutes between waves elapsed without my realizing it.  This left me in a terrible strategic position to start the swim.  You'll notice that I'm there in my silver cap on the right side of the picture about 20 yards behind the front of the wave (NOT the guy in front of the dude on the surfboard).  When the horn went off, all the guys my speed or a little faster who I could have drafted behind immediately dropped me because I was so far behind them.  In the meantime, I had to swim through all the other guys at the back who were much slower than I am.  It probably took me 30 seconds after the horn just to get to the starting buoy. 

The good news is that my actual Open Water swimming was my best yet.  I swam in a straight line and I maintained a good pace.  At no time did I have any negative thoughts about what the heck I was doing out there, and before I knew it, I was in the last couple hundred yards.  Then, my right calf cramped which forced me to swim most of the rest of the way with my foot flexed upward (versus pointing my toes like normal).  Nice.  My time wound up being 36:29.  I was very happy with my effort, but I was disappointed with the time. 

As I jogged toward my transition area, my right Hamstring and both sides of my groin started cramping in addition to my calf.  Because of this, I took a little extra time to dry off in an attempt to get warm.  Then, I dug around in my bag to find my heavier socks and my arm warmers.  By the time I finally got my wardrobe straightened out, 6 minutes and 44 seconds had elapsed.  Good grief. 

As I took off on the bike, it became immediately apparent that my legs weren't giving me what I wanted.  They felt heavy and dead. 

My goal for the bike was to average 20mph, and that's exactly where I was when I passed 25 miles.  The problem was that the first 25 miles are the fastest part of the course and on that particular day, the wind was at my back for a good chunk of that distance.  Once I made the right turn onto Cristianitos Road, the wheels came off my race.  

The only time I felt anywhere near good was on the three 10% + gradient climbs.  I stayed seated on all three and turned a 39-27 gear ratio at a nice, even Cadence.  I'm not exagerating when I say I probably passed 100 people on those three hills combined.  The problem was that as soon as I neared the tops of the climbs and the wind hit me in the face, I would come unglued.  Those hundred people promptly passed me right back and they took 100 of their friends with them. 

At the 50 mile point, I was completely broken.  I was struggling to hold 15mph even on flat ground, and I was being passed like I wasn't even moving.  I decided that it wasn't worth my effort to try to run a half marathon because I was obviously sick or something. 

When I finally dismounted at the transition area, I realized that I literally couldn't feel my feet.  I hobbled over to my area using my bike as a walker and plopped down on the ground.  I took my cycling shoes off, and as the sun warmed me up on the pavement, the instep on my left foot began to hurt.  I put my running shoes on and tried to walk, but there was no way I was going to be able to do it because the pain from stepping on my orthotic inserts was too much. 

I laid back down, dug my cell phone out of my bag and called Bizzy, whom I figured by that point (several minutes had elapsed) would be wondering what was going on.  I told her that I didn't think I could run.  She informed me that I was going to.  Well. 

I took the orthotics out of my shoes and tried to walk again.  It wasn't as painful as before (except that I was now walking on the stitching on the inside of the shoe because there was no insert at all) so I decided to put on some sun screen and to at least go out and try to finish the race. 

To be continued. . .

Comments (2)

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Arrrggh! Post the rest already.....!
written by Karen, April 01, 2008

Dude, you can't just leave us hanging like that! Inquiring minds want to know.

Call from transition
written by Bizzy, April 02, 2008

In case you're wondering...a call from transition is never a good thing! Glad he called and took my "get up--you're not hurt" advice!

Bizzy Tri Girl

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