The Great Magnetic Wife dropped me about as close to the transition area as a car could go at about 5:00 am, took a few pictures and went back to the hotel for a little more sleep. She can never understand why I want to get to the race site so early, but I'm not sure she understands exactly why I do this. She's a trouper though. I keep telling her that she is under no obligation to come to these things, and she always answers, "don't be silly." She once said, "As mid-life crises go, racing triathlons is preferable to a Ferrari and a young girlfriend." So true.
I had my backpack stuffed with all of my gear and awkwardly rode my bike, wearing my Crocs instead of my cycling shoes and made it to transition. The Ironman races actually assign each participant a place on the rack. You don't have to fight for your space. Very nice. I spent a long time setting up, before searching for the bathrooms.
When it was time for the pro men to begin, I watched their swim start. About every three minutes another wave began. I was in wave 17, so it was almost an hour after the first wave that I was to start. I got in my wetsuit, went to the bathroom one last time, ate a final pre-race Powerbar and headed for the start. I was kind of just hanging out with a bunch of other dudes in light blue swim caps, figuring that we had time, when I noticed a guy in a light blue swim cap frantically rushing through the crowd. I wondered if he knew something that I didn't. I followed and noticed that the people lined up in front of me in orange and green caps were standing behind signs that read "wave 19 and wave 18." Yikes, I gotta go! I rushed through the crowd, "excuse me, pardon me, sorry about that, I have to get through!" as soon as I approached the boat launch, my wave was just getting in the water. I would have felt really stupid had I missed the start.
We swam to the starting line and did a water start. I actually like these better than running into the water. For some reason there is less jostling and kicking than a shore start. I still felt like I was swimming in a washing machine, but I seemed to get kicked less.
I have always had trouble sighting in an open water swim and always seem to go off course. I decided that I was going to look up every 10 strokes. I figured on a 1.2 mile swim, It would be a particularly bad idea to add up to another 20% of distance by getting lost. Whatever time I lost in spending so much time making sure I was on course, I would save in energy that I could use later. The swim was uneventful, since we were swimming in a protected harbor, the water was fairly calm. The only hard part was coming back and having the sun right in our eyes. It was hard to see anything. I finished the swim in 46:09. Not a great time, but the plan was to take it easy and not spend all of my energy at the start.
The plan was also to take my time in transition. This being my first half-ironman, I just wanted to finish. I was not going to worry about a minute here or there. My T1 was a little over 10 minutes.
I headed out on the bike and quickly realized that I was doing the exact same course as the Camp Pendleton International Triathlon that I did last July. The first 15 miles or so, were the same. It was nice, to have some familiarity with the route. About 10 miles into the course, I passed my friend and fellow L.A. Tri Clubber, Frank Deese. We were also in the same pace group with the L.A. Leggers.
My only real goal was to finish the bike before the cutoff time, but somewhere in my mind I thought I could complete the 56 miles of the bike in 3:15:00. The first half was great, I was averaging about 20 mph through the first 28 miles. At one point I was going up a long, but mild up-hill section and I looked down at the speedometer and saw that I was doing 23 mph. "We obviously have a strong tail wind," I thought to myself. "On the way back we will be on the other side of the mountains, maybe the head wind won't be so strong." Wrong!
I completed the first half of the bike in 1:20:00 and I was feeling great. Then we turned south. The head wind was strong. There were times on a flat road that I couldn't go any faster that 9 mph.
Then I looked ahead and saw a hill that I was really hoping was not part of the course. But as I looked a little harder, I could see cyclists trying to get up. I could also see people walking their bikes. Fortunately, there was a downhill before it, so I was going to get as much momentum as I possibly could. I should have been able to get up to 35 mph on the approach, but with the headwind I could only get to about 18 mph. At least half the racers were walking their bikes, I was determined that I was not going to get off of my bike. I was struggling, going about 5 mph, I looked over to the side a saw a guy vomit. This is gnarly! I looked ahead and saw someone serpentine up the hill. What a good idea. So, I started doing it too, and was able to get all of the way up. There was another pretty steep hill about 10 miles later, but once I was up that monster, nothing was too much. The wind was still slowing me down and continued to until about the last 5 miles.
My final bike time was 3:38:23. That headwind was a killer. I was a little disappointed with the time, but I'm not sure what else I could have done. I was glad I put aerobars on my bike, because every time I went into aero position I gained about one mile per hour.
I set my Garmin to beep every 15 minutes. This reminded me to drink and eat. This worked out well. I often get famished during training rides, because I forget to eat and drink until it is too late. But because I was constantly fueling myself, I got off of the bike feeling strong. Although with all of the drinking and eating, I did have to go to the bathroom, so at least half of my 6:47 T2 time was spent in the port-a-potty.
I went out on the run with a plan. I trained for the L.A. Marathon by using the Jeff Galloway run-walk method. I ran for 5 minutes and walked for one. There was another L.A. Tri Club, Laurie Nye, member who went out on the run at the same time and seemed to have the same run-walk plan. For the first 4 or 5 miles, we passed each other numerous times. We finally got in sync and ran-walked for the rest of the half-marathon together.
It was great to run with someone. That is one of the great things about being a part of the L.A. Tri Club. At every part of the race, when ever I passed another member of the club, whether I knew the athlete or not, there was always encouragement. Go L.A. Tri! It really does spur one on.
As the I got to the last quarter mile, the crowds were cheering, I heard, "Go L.A. Tri!, Go Thum, You're almost there!" I felt good and so I ran as fast as I could for the last 100 yards and finished in the half-marathon portion of the triathlon in 2:35:40 and the whole thing in 7:17:16. The Great Magnetic Wife was there and it was wonderful to see her.
I asked myself whether I could do that whole thing again right then and there? No. But my November I will be able to. On to Ironman Arizona!
