Got to meet MMFred and KestrelKerri this morning, and as always, ran into Longboarder and saw Mike Plumb along the course checking in on his coached athletes. Cottell said hello and JDubCX was there after a great showing last weekend in C-Bad.
Started the day with a 5:30am wakeup and grabbed a PB and banana bagel and Gatorade and headed out the door. Arrived in O’side around 6:15am. Beautiful morning…no clouds, still, already warm even that early. We weren’t allowed to rack our bikes until we had timing chips, and they weren’t handing those out until 7am, so lines formed at the tables. Around 6:45, they announced for everyone to rack their bikes, and then get their timing chips, but someone screwed up, and they still wouldn’t let anyone in transition, so we all lined up again.
So, after finally getting my chip, I went in and found a great rack spot on the end closest to the bike exit. Set up my stuff, and hit the portapotties. One thing about this race, you never wait in line for portapotties. They have tons! Moseyed down to the swim start and saw a guy who had stepped on a stingray while warming up. Bummer way to start the race!
Anyway, no revellie or anthem this year. I think they were behind schedule a bit. Finally, time for my wave start at 8:45 or so (this race starts relatively late). By now, a light overcast had moved in and a bit of an onshore breeze gave some relief from the heat. My goal for the day was to finish in 2:30. I’d have to have each leg go exceptionally well to make that goal, but thought it was possible! Last year, I finished in 2:37 in this race in my first season of tris.
Off I went. This time I had lined up outside, but in front and got pretty much mowed over and immediately tried to find my way to the outside to get out of the traffic. It took me a good 500 meters to break free. I did manage to have a few small pockets of drafting throughout the swim, but I generally like to be on my own out of the traffic focussing on my stroke. I gave the swim a solid effort and felt good, finishing in just over 25 minutes, which was on target for me.
Kept a good run going for the 300-yard soft sand/pavement run to transition, only stopping to get a quick foot rinse…minus 4 seconds there… and made it through T1 as fast as possible. Didn’t really give up any time here…had a good transition, and I was off. Almost dropped my bike at the mount line. Minus 3 seconds there!
Off on the bike. I was going to hammer it to reach my goal. I train this course every Wednesday and some weekends, so I knew how to ride it for my abilities. I seem to have a knack for hill climbing and did most of my passing on the uphills. Mainly sitting way back in the saddle and spinning up seems to work well for me. In the flats, I did get passed a few times, but definitely passed more people than passed me. At the halfway, I was on track for a PR, and saw my 2:30 goal within reach! I kept pressing and had a gel and kept hydrating. By now, the sun had returned and the breeze had backed off, so I knew the run was going to be a cooker. Nearly finished a bottle of Gatorade and one of water too as I bombed back into T2. Keep in mind, “bombing” for me today was 1:12 (slow for many of you, i’m sure!) which was a PR for me for 40K.
T2 was flawless for me EXCEPT for a brief second where I sorta lost focus and slowed down finding my rack…minus 2 seconds.
In and out of there in less than 30 seconds probably.
Immediately on the run, I was tight. I expected that after hammering the bike, but knew that I’d loosen up by mile 2. I puttered along at probably 8:30 or 8:40/mile initially. Grabbed water at the aid stations and poured it on my head and drank one mouthful each time. The bummer was all the aid station drinks were lukewarm. They had NOTHING cold, so it was hard to keep my core temp in check. The guy hosing people down as they came by was nice though. There was a light west wind, so when you ran eastward, it was baking hot, and when you ran toward the west, it was nice. The run is a two-loop flat course with one 50-yard steep hill in the middle.
After a couple of miles, I started to loosen up and picked it up a little, but still wanted to hold back a touch for the second lap. At the turnaround, I was looking around 2:10 (I think) meaning I’d have to nail down the remaining 3.1 miles in 20 minutes. Not likely as on a good day I run about 7:45 miles, and that is standalone running. I’d need sub-7 to do that. I wasn’t giving up though. I decided I probably wouldn’t make 2:30, but I’d see how close I could get. So, by mile 4 or so, I ramped it up and started catching people that had passed me earlier. My head was throbbing from the heat and my legs were burning, but I held on. It was very mental at this point for me. Trying to manage the incredible discomfort by thinking about other things seemed to help. I blitzed by a few others in the final 100 yards and crossed the finish line alone in…2:30:51! Aaaawww…so close!
I started thinking about where I could have made up 50 seconds and other than the few mentions above, which total about 10 seconds, maybe I could have swum harder? Maybe I could have upped my run pace a mile sooner? The bike was about as good as I could have hoped, but maybe…I only coasted down one hill…maybe I should have pedalled down it (got up to 33mph coasting). Anyway, so close to my goal, but a satisfying race nonetheless.
One minor disappointment this year…last year, the Marines were yelling and screaming at/for us the entire race motivating us. This year there was very little of that. The guys and girls seemed like they didn’t want to be out there baking in the sun. That aside, they did an outstanding job with the aid stations, marking the course, and running a great race for a great price! I’ll be back again next year! Thanks USMC!
Ran into MMFred after the race and he had gone something like 2:24? Didn’t really hang out too long as it was quite hot and the only free food was oranges, bananas, and warm Gatorade and water. I wanted to get home and have some lunch, so I showered, checked my results (14th in my AG), and left.
My next race is the Snow Valley Off Road Triathlon in 3 weeks. My first-ever off-road tri, so that should be interesting. I only mountain bike 1 day a week and I’m NOT good! Uh oh!
So, let’s hear the race reports guys and gals!
Congrats! I’ve always wanted to do that race. When I return to CA in another year, I’ll have to do it.
bump
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Hey Jay!
It was great meeting you today! Congrats on your race…you know you round your time, so you met your goal of a 2:30! 
I was 2.5 minutes slower than last year. 
2:40 for 11th in my age group. This has been a tough season for me…mentally and physically. I just need to get through Vineman 70.3 in two weeks and then I can just train, which is what I enjoy most. I am burnt out after 11 years. All in all a great race, I love Camp P.!! It was just way to HOT!!! Thanks for the cheers Mike P.!!
Great meeting you too Kerri! I love meeting ST’ers. I’m hearing about these long-time triathletes all getting burnt out. I’m in season two and still feeling fresh, but maybe after IM Florida and the 70.3 Championships in November I"ll be ready for a long break!
Jay
Great job 2:30:57! Good rundown on the race. It was good to meet Kestrelkerri,Fred and say hi to Cottell. I did not see Mike P.
As for my race, swim was “ok”. I hit the beach in 29 min. I got stung by a bee on the bike & popped my chain just before T2. 50 yds more and I could of coasted to T2. Got my chain back on 2 mins.(no glasses) but I felt good with my bike ride. The run was another story. It was HOT!(as you know) The drinking water is always warm at that race. I was just tooooo HOT! Kestrelkerri passed me on the run bad hammy/ back she looked steady. I admit I was toast today. I felt like I ran Marathon. Not sure about my time about 3 hrs. Drove home and took a nap & Mex. dinner w/ margs.
I will have to bump up my hot weather training before LA. I know that will be hot.
Good to see you today. Surfs up!
Kerri
It was nice to meet you today. You looked good on the run… as you passed me. Your right it was hot! You look like your doing well even if your having a tough season mentally & physically. Good luck at Vineman you know that race will be hot.
Bob, what’s up with your chain? Second race you’ve dropped that!
I’m surfing tomorrow for sure. Waves looked insane out there today! Vicki’s doing an Aquathon tomorrow at the San Clemente Ocean Festival.
I wish I was able to meet some fellow STers out at the race today. What an awesome venue! I really had a blast. I almost didn’t make it to the race. At first the baggage guy at the airport didn’t think my bike was on the plane, and this was at 9pm last night. Luckily he looked again and found it.
Race went awesome. I was the first out of the water with a fairly significant lead which I was able to stretch on the bike. I held on for the run 5:30 lead down to ~2 mins, so I got to cross the line first. 3 guys in older AGs ended up beating me for the overall, but it was lots of fun…exept for the heat on the run. Wow it was hot out there.
Nice job guys! What a fun race. I need to move back to San Diego…
Congrats on the AG win!!! Yeah, I couldn’t believe a guy my age won the entire race! Awesome!
Reply to: Bob, what’s up with your chain? Second race you’ve dropped that!
Jay
Might be me, different wheels/cassette. But I will have to look into it. I checked out the web site for the Festival you are sponsoring the bodyboarding and Vicki is racing you better to be there? Surf is going to be 4-6 ft. up here.
Great job on a tough day. I looked for you, actually your bike, but could not find you. Maybe one of these days. I had a good day, setting a PR for this race. I thought there was a lot more wind than in previous years and definitely hotter than usual.
Did you guys think the swim seemed at little long?
GREAT JOB! Congrads on the race. Glad they found your bike.
So this year has been interesting, after IMAZ I never got back into regular training. Instead I’ve been keeping up my cycling, but swimming a running have been anything but regular. Most of the summer I have been working off the base that I had built up over the winter/spring, with farly good results. I think that the base is finally wearing off.
Got to the Pendleton tri early. As a civilian member of the Camp Pendleton tri team, there is a lot of emphisis on this race and the team was out in force. After meeting with some team members, as well as some ST’ers, got an easy jog in and went down to the start to get a swim in.
The swim was fairly uneventful, never really found a pair of feet for any extended time. I came out of the water just under 27 min, but then proceeded to take over three minutes running in the sand to get to T1. Really hate that part!
Knowing the bike course fairly well, I was hoping to break an hour. Beside, I needed to catch my teammate that had beat me out of the water, despite starting 5 min back. Riding north, there was a nice tailwind, and kept a good pace. Turning back, I still felt strong, so I pushed pretty good over the rollers. I managed to get to the last mile or so before an hour ticked by. Well, damn. At least I passed my teammate (before he passed me back on the run and went on for 7th overall). Coming back to T2, I got in at 1:02.
Now here is where some more run training would have helped. I came into the race hoping to break 2:15 for the first time, which at 1:33 to T2 required just over a 40 min 10K. The first 5K went by in 20 min, but the heat was starting to really slow me down. At about 8K, I was on empty and getting some chills, despite the hot weather. So the last few K’s were just a matter of not stopping. Crossed the line just over 2:18. Oh well. It was good enough for 27th overall and 9th in the 30-34M group. Pretty happy with cracking the top 10 AG.
Sorry I missed most of you after the race. The wife and I had to make it back for a baby class. Nothing like sitting in a classroom for a few hours to tighten up the legs.
Now I am on break until the ramp up this fall for IMFl. I’ll be spectating at Solana Beach and probably the Pendleton sprint, so I hope to see people out there.
Jeromy
Hey Jeromy! We should have all entered the 20-25 AG. We all would have placed top ten! Well you did anyway! Great job!
I’m doing IMFL too, but have two more paid tris on my schedule before then. Where do you ride to get in your long rides for IMFL?
it seemed right to me. i got out in 27 min, which is my normal 1.5k time.
Thanks, nice job to you as well.
Regarding IMFl, I’m actually moving up to San Fran in Sept. So I will be doing my build in there. Leading up to Vineman last year, my long rides were mostly out into the east county. This also is prety good heat training. 
However for some flat training, probably have to stick to the coast.
Jeromy
Jay,
Great to meet you, KestrelKerri and Longboarder. I really enjoy this race. I just wish my running legs would agree with me. The swim for me went pretty well. I am pretty sure I was one of the first white caps out of the water. I looked at my watch when my feet hit the sand and saw 21:00min. While I was in the water I was feeling like the swim felt long…but this is about the time I was hoping for. The run back in the sand was a challenge, hard to get my breathing under control while running in soft sand. Bike was good, my best ever split at this race 1:10, PR by about a min. I thought the wind coming back was noticable. Then the run. It felt like a death march. Hot…Hot. I definatly drank too much on the bike (worried about cramps), I had a really bad left side pain just below my ribs, could not breath without pain the entire run. Tried to pick up the pace on the second lap but I was toast. Finished in 1:26 for a 6th place in the AG. A little disappointed in my run performance but hey, always room for improvement. Alway next year…maybe I’ll enter the military division (I’m a reservist) I would have won my age group there! Santa Barbara Tri is next…time for some hill training before then. I have to give a lot of credit to the workout program I am doing with Mike Plumb. In the span of just a year I have gone from a just breaking the top 20 AG in most races to consistant top 10. Gotta love that! Thanks Mike.
Mark
Blazing swim Mark! I did that swim in 25 minutes, which was good for me. For sure a hot one. I had a relaxing morning today…went bodyboarding for an hour.
See you in Santa Barbara!