First of all, I had a blast in Oceanside. Arrived early Wednesday afternoon and did a little relaxing, walking along the strand and even a little swimming. This was my 2nd attempt at this distance and I was hoping to do better than my last in hot/humid Florida. Definately apprehensive about an ocean swim (my first) and swimming is not exactly my strong suit. Water temps was 59 degrees, Longboarder was right about cold water - no big deal, in fact I thought it was nice with my neoprene cap. Felt a little sloppy in the water but I managed to sight very well keeping right up side all the buoys on the way out (sorry fast swimmers if I was in your way), but on the way back in, the sun made it a little difficult to sight and I got a little left of centerline towards the end. Swim time of 43 mins.
Got on the bike after a pretty slow transition and discovered I forgot my removable chamy back at the racks. I guess this ride might be rough on the butt. I felt like the first part of that ride was very fast (what rollers?), but after the turn after San Onofre I felt like I dropped 5-10 mph. Those rollers seem to keep me from getting into a rhythm and the hills were challenging, but at least you saw those coming. The last 10-15 miles felt fast again and I got into a pretty good groove but my stomach felt like crap (shouldn’t had the cliff bar). Bike time 3hrs 6mins.
Getting out onto the run I felt like crap. I just wanted to throw up, but surprisingly my first 2 miles I averaged an 8:05 min/mi. Not too far off my goal of 8 even. I kept at it and about 4-5 miles into the run I felt like I was picking up the pace, but to my surprise I was slowing down to about 8 1/2min/mi. Oh well, just keep going and don’t stop. Onto the second lap I felt a calf cramp coming on. At the turnaround, I felt a hamstring cramp coming on and at mile 12 I felt my quad start to get really tight. I managed to continue and coming down the finishing chute I thought I would give the last 100 a good strong sprint finish. 25 yards from the finish I felt a shooting pain originate from the inside of my quad/groin area to my knee which stopped me in my tracks and left me very light headed (That’s going to make a nice race day photo). I slowly jogged/walked across the finish line in 1 hr 53mins for a total finish of 5hrs 53mins. I was somewhat pleased shaving over 30 minutes over my first disasterous attempt. Looking back on my effort I’m thinking the areas that could be easily improved upon would be bike and swim. With bike being the most time one could make up. ANY IDEAS FOR A STILL “WET BEHIND THE EARS” SOPHOMORE? Also, after one does several of these distance does one ever get over that “hit in the head with a hammer” feeling during the run?