Oceanside 70.3

I've been putting off writing about this race because I am still disappointed in my performance. I felt more ready for this triathlon than I have in the past two years I have done this race, but yet I posted my worst time. Granted the conditions weren't the greatest, but I know I could have done better.

First, the swim is what I am most disappointed about. I have really, truly improved my swim form and times in the pool. My stroke definitely has improved and I am way more efficient. The whole time I swam in the harbor, I felt great! I felt like I was plowing through the water faster than I ever had before. I never got tired and I even sped up after I made the turn to come back. When I exited the water and looked at my watch and saw 43, I was very disappointed because I had hoped for 40. After reflecting on what went wrong, I think I'm not sighting correctly, nor am I swimming in a straight line. Sometimes I would be near the buoy and sometimes I would be way to the right. I need to find out how to do this correctly. I did compare the swim times from last year to this year, and many of the times were about one minute slower, which still means that I did about the same as last year.

I had a good transition, and then started the bike. I tried to block the disappointing swim out of my mind so I wouldn't ruin my bike ride, but it was difficult. I felt great on the bike and noticed that I was going faster than usual, but I didn't feel like I was overdoing it. I kept in the back of my mind what was coming once you turn right onto Christianitos Road! I averaged 19 miles per hour on the easy first 25 miles of the course, which is a new record for me! Then when I hit the hills and the brutal winds over the next 21 miles, I slowed considerably, but I still felt like I had good power. The last 10 miles I was able to pick up my speed, which was a good sign to me that I hadn't wasted all of my energy. My bike time ended up being 10 minutes slower than last year, 3:22.

SIDE NOTE: Every year, there are always some egos on the course. In the no-passing section on the trestles bike path, there were about four bikers behind an older gentleman who was going pretty slow, and some guy came flying past us. I yelled out to him that it was a no passing zone, and he looked back and said we were going too slow. Well, yep, I saw him later...walking his bike up the great big hill! And he never came past me again. (Sorry for the negativity, but he pissed me off!)

My run was 2:15. I really wanted it to be close to the 2 hour mark. I tried to keep my pace between 9 and 9:30, but I couldn't hold it. I had a bad side ache on my right side, but I kept thinking what Luke has told me in the past that there's going to be times during the race where you don't feel too good, but if you wait ten minutes, it will go away, and that's what I did! My side ache went away, and I felt a little better. Then when I began my second loop, I saw and heard Ted calling out to me. When I saw him, I just got weak, and I wanted to stop right there and hug him and cry. I wish I wouldn't have seen him there, but only at the finish. The second loop was harder than the first, and on the way back in, my side-ache came back. When I crossed the finish line at 6:30, I just went up to Ted and hugged him and cried my eyes out! I just felt very defeated. I had hoped for a much better day than I had had.

I had thoughts of giving up yesterday, but I'm over that. Now I want to know how to improve. I hope my next post is more pleasant than this one.