Only two weeks after my Ironman, I raced the Big Kahuna 70.3 on September 12, 2010 consisting of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run.
Naturally, the first response I receive from everyone is "what are you nuts, a half IM two weeks after your full"? My reply to this is a logical approach, I'm mentally prepared for twice this distance & I worked so hard to get to peak race shape, why not double down. Plus, I have some good friends doing this race so I'll treat it like training with good friends, it just happens to be a race course. Because of this, my mindset going into this race is completely relaxed, no butterfly's & no expectations which is rather unique.
Arriving in Santa Cruz, I feel the beach culture. As a matter of fact, I'm wearing my flip flops (Ironman Logo) and granola bar apparel (Odwalla Logo) and smile as I recognize just how much I embrace this culture. I saved my race registration until the day of the expo in order to see how I feel after Ironman recovery and you bet I'm up for it. So I signed up to go big at the Big Kahuna 70.3
Doing an event at the beach, my experience is the salt water and beach air means I must stay well hydrated. On the 3 ½ hour road trip to the event, I brought my ice chest filled with waters and consumed plenty. It's actually really fun caravanning to a local triathlon with the car packed and bikes on the roof making the statement were off to play.
I always make it a point to have a conversation with fellow participants at the race registration expo. The couple who took our group's picture below was from Australia and arrived in Santa Cruz for a destination race (a race location that doubles down as a vacation). We traded stories on the course, the conditions and some of the plans we had for food/hydration and it was neat to have them comment on my Team Odwalla gear so I passed along a bar I had handy in my jersey pocket. I enjoy being an ambassador for my sponsor and it's pretty cool to not only use the product during my race but pass it along for others to try out for their race too. There is something I like to call a triathlon bubble during an event and it's in this spirit of offering advice, product or help to fellow competitors that creates an experience we all look forward to surrounding ourselves with.
After registration, we took our bikes on a short ride to check our gear and preview the course. The course setting was beautiful, hugging the cliff shoreline and taking in the clean ocean breeze. You could not ask for a more scenic trail and tomorrow, this would be set aside for us. I think that is one reason why I love triathlon so much, on normal days your training turf has to be shared with stop signs, stop lights, etc. and on the day of an event, there is a reservation made for you to re-claim this space from cars and let people dominate it. The feeling of flying through the streets non stop with the beach cliff and ocean to your side is going to be epic and I can't wait.
The night before the race we stayed at my Uncles beach house in La Selva. I'd have to say this is the best carb loading I have ever done as my Aunt was hosting a work party and had prepared a restaurant caliber pizza making station next to the outside wood burning pizza oven. Were talking home made dough, feta cheese, asparagus, olive oil style pizza a la cart so each time the guest created their own style, we sampled each others makings. All of the guests were her peer physical therapist from work so the conversations around their profession related to triathlon came easy making a good social event. That night after the carb load, I fell asleep early in the hen house (guest house) at 6pm in anticipation of the 4am alarm.
The morning of the event, we parked at my friend Justin's hotel and rode our bikes to the event, with our transition back packs on. This is a neat time of day, its just prior to sunrise so the beach streets are empty except for those of us headed to the event. I love this time of day and the anticipation of the main event. My morning routine is solid & adjusted to an AM schedule. Especially, my nutrition which consisted of an Odwalla bar, a yogurt, an orange juice, a banana, a small cup of coffee, 12 oz of water and electrolyte/salt pill supplements. The idea is to get nutrition just right and I think I have found what works for me. After my warm up & dynamic stretching, I put on my wetsuit and head off from the transition area to the ocean.
The ocean start is by age group, youngest to oldest. Being in the 35-39, I have two groups of female athletes to pass in the water before reaching the 30 - 34 year old males as my target so I take a mental note of the color of their swim caps now to help gauge my position in the water against the field later. As the gun goes off for my age group, I feel confident enough to be the first to jump in and soon settle in to roughly the third position as we pass the first marked boats.
As we make our way through the swim course, there aren't too many course markings. I think the swim course director in charge of setting up the buoy's the morning of the race ran into last minute issue's settling for only the farthest out buoys at the turn around points giving up on the other half denoted on the swim course map. As a result, our first waypoint was to swim between the two boats without the next waypoint buoy on the horizon at the start of the swim. I found myself headed toward the pier immediately following the first boats and soon heard a paddle boarder tell me to head left to the buoy. This was clearly a zig zap off the route but the good news was I had a clear path to settle into a pace and bypass the herd. My heart rate and breathing actually felt really good, sometimes after the start it jumps given the stress of a mass start but I found myself very relaxed and settled into the right pace. At the first turn around buoy, I was surrounded by the female age group colored caps so that was my gauge that good progress was being made. At the second buoy on the other side of the pier, I had reached the back of the field from the younger male age group which means I caught the slower swimmers who had that 15 min. head start. After turning around and heading to shore, I felt the current and intentionally sped up my pace for each wave set and recovered with a slower pace in between. This rhythm worked in my favor as I was able to over take those beside me. Its interesting, in the ocean distance is somewhat abstract so I go more by feeling instead of open water sighting like I'm used to in lake swims. My total swim time for 1.2 miles was 30:57 (a fast 23:47 minute mile pace).
The T1 location from the ocean swim finish was longer than most courses. Therefore, I took off my wetsuit in the water first, ran across the beach to the timing mat second, put on a pair of shoes I had stashed on the stairs to the boardwalk then proceeded to literally run past my peers moving along barefoot in wetsuits. My T1 time was 3:41, a fast transition.
The bike course started with a hill immediately after transition and I anticipated the correct gear to avoid a spiking heart rate starting this way. The route then led through the community streets where time was made by settling into an arrow position and taking the corners right. The majority of the ride is an out and back on HWY 1 which hugs the ocean on a rolling coastline. Pedaling my bike as fast as I could downhill and tucking into the aero position against the on coming ocean breeze, I managed to max out at 37 mph on my road bike where as my peers hit 45 on these same stretches on their tri bikes indicating the difference to be gained with a possible equipment upgrade. I did feel like my effort up the hills was at par with any bike on the road and held an average 20.6 mph for a bike split of 2:43. It's definitely tempting to think of going from a road bike to a tri bike to aim for the elite sub 2:30 bogie next year. Going this fast on the course was also thrilling as the weather conditions were extremely wet, enough to cause crashes on the slippery railroad tracks & painted road lines.
The T2 was also fast at 1:11. I made the smart choice to head out with my own hydration given the salt water/beach environment and later appreciated this as the aid stations were rather sparse in both frequency and small Dixie cups offered.
The run hugged the cliff pedestrian path before turning inland through beach community streets followed by an out and back on trails through the park. The views were spectacular, you could not ask for a better course. I always like out and back courses because you get a glimpse of the elites and its motivating to whiteness what's humanly possible. The aid stations volunteers and spectators got a kick out of my Odwalla uniform and the attention sure does put a smile on my face. I return the favor when positive vibes are sent my way, often sharing words on good pace, keep it up or thanks for your help volunteers to those around me. I gave the run my all, leaving nothing on the course and used any remaining training tokes I had saved from my prior Ironman leading to a 8:51 average pace for a 1:55 half marathon. This is good training feedback for me, leading into Q4 marathon season where I can isolate one sport and focus on improving my run.
The final stretch of the run lead us to the beach and under the peer through half a foot of water then through sand and a big aloha themed finish line with hula girls, announcements and cheers. The announcer picked up on my jersey and boasted about how much he loved Odwalla and uses it all the time so the crowd followed suit and gave me a "go Odwalla" as I finished. I finished the day with the total time of 5:14, my new PR for the half ironman distance. I definitely vision a goal of hitting sub 5 on this same course next year and I'm excited to put together a running plan to make this happen.
Good luck to all those reading this post race report & mahalo!
Pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37504&id=100000042438113&l=13834bbcd3
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