I hope I’m not committing a faux pas! I had my second race of the year a couple weeks ago and it was my best race ever. This is my first time posting a new thread on Slowtwitch and first time doing a race report. I thought the excitement would calm after a couple weeks, but it hasn’t. Therefore, if you clicked on this, sorry!
A little background about me: I used to be lazy and fat. A friend got an old MTB from his uncle and we started riding in our local hills (I mean fields where there were old test bunkers for a pyrotechnics facility). We thought we were hardcore so we looked for a bike race. Couldn’t find one, but found a triathlon (whatever the heck that was…oh swimmming, biking, and running). Got my dad’s old Schwinn Paramount with clip on aero bars and signed up. We did laps in my buddy’s 30ft pool, ran around the neighborhood and did our little rides and thought we’d win. Well, sure enough, first race and I thought I was going to drown. Told myself it was stupid and I was going to quit after the swim. I didn’t and, for some reason, kept signing up for races. I did for a few years and never got good at swimming or running and focused only on MTB racing. Yet, last year, did a couple triathlons and repeated those two this year. Next year, I’m going back to Oceanside 70.3.
So, about Santa Barbara. I got a room through AirBNB, which was great. I’d do it again and recommend you all check it out if you haven’t. Experiences are dependent upon your host. So, race morning, I was able to walk down to transition and set-up. I loaded up my stuff when T1/T2 opened and grabbed a good spot. Picked out some trees to sight to find my stuff and did a quick run warm-up. About 40 minutes before start I squeezed into my 10 year old superfull wetsuit. This time, I remembered my goggles and my swim cap.
Swim started and I had the confidence to line up near the front, albeit to the far outside. I managed to stay out of the karate demonstrations and keep my goggles on. Settled into a pace on some feet for a bit before drifting off on my own and leading a small group. It was relatively uneventful, except after reaching the turn around and shifting my breathing from the right side to the left side, I felt awkward and developed a big rash on the back of my neck. Forgot to put bodyglide there. Swim was 29ish minutes.
T1 was excellent. Learned a new technique for wetsuit removal (step on wetsuit pull leg out, repeat). Finally got tri shoes and practiced the pre-mounted shoe technique. So, after exiting wetsuit, I put the helmet on and left. T1 was under 2 minutes.
Bike was the worst of the 3 for me, I felt (which surprised me considering I was always best on the bike in the past, by feel at least). I settled into my wattage and rode well over the first hill. Held the power to the second hill and pushed up and over. Grabbed a bottle to splash on myself and cool down at the hand-off. Then, on the descent about 30 seconds later (about 56 minutes into the bike course), but second bottle flies out of my rear bottle cage. I had just about finished my first bottle and was basically screwed. I reduced the pace as much as I could and started rationing the 6 oz I had left. Eventually limped back to transition area. Bike time was 1:38.
T2 was excellent again. I grabbed a few swigs from a spare bottle to get some calories before the run. Slid my running shoes and took off. I even stopped to relieve myself and left transition again in under 2 minutes.
I was expecting my run to be slow. My training runs were all around 8:15-8:30 for 5-6 miles and this was 10 miles. So, I got off the bike and ran at what felt like a comfortable pace. It ended up being around 8:20. As the miles started to tick off, my pace was increasing. We’d crest a tiny hill and my pace once it flattened out would jump to like 7:50 and I still felt comfortable. I hit the turn around at around 38 minutes (5 miles in) and was still feeling good. I made my only mistake here when I dumped two cups of water on my head, soaking my shoes. I’d get a blister 2 miles later. Regardless of the blister, I kept powering on down hill. Hit the flats and kept going. Actually caught and passed a guy on the run (first time ever) and was only passed by about 6 guys. Finished run in 1:14.
Overall, I think I was 38th, which landed me 3rd in my AG. I was so surprised to see that! First podium ever and it didn’t have to happen at a local tri with 3 registrants.
The only depressing thing, I looked at 2016 Oceanside 70.3 times and my average speeds for the race distance would net me like 40th place in my AG. At least I’m still riding this high and can hopefully carry the motivation on to train when I start back up in another month.