"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."
- Goethe
The weekend was amazing. We flew out to San Francisco on Thursday, 5/1, rented two vans, stuffed everyone with luggage in the two vans, and headed south on the 3 hour drive to Lake San Antonio. Stopped half-way to eat lunch and pick up food and other essentials. My two "critical" supplies turned out to be a set of ear plugs (for sleeping) that I brought from home and a $15 air mattress that I bought at Target (as an afterthought) on one of our stops. Both items ensured several full night's sleep particularly before my event on Saturday. Very important!
On Friday we went for an early morning swim after posing for a team photo and picked up our bikes which had been shipped from Cleveland. I tried out my bike on a couple of the steep hills near the lake and judged it "ready for action" for the following race day.
After a good night's sleep thanks to my ear plugs and air mattress, it was time for me to head down to the transition area from the camp site to get ready for the start of my race. The temperature in the morning was cool, in the 40s, but warmed up pretty quickly once the sun burned off the morning fog before the 9:05 start of my group. The race started at the end of a boat ramp into Lake San Antonio. The swim start was on the left side of the ramp and the swim finish on the right.
Our campsite.
The transition area filled with contestants readying for the race.
Triathlons are an individual sport. In general, the "rules of the road" specify that the athletes stay to the right, pass quickly on the left, and above all not interfere with the progress of the other competitors. This applies easily to the bike and to the run. It does not, however, apply at all to the swim. The triathlon swim is generally recognized as a "contact sport". You can see what I mean in the two photos of the start of one swimming wave. My strategy was to get away from the crush of bodies as quickly as possible even if it meant staying toward the back and swimming more slowly at the start. About 5-10 minutes into the swim I found some room and was able to make steady progress toward the far buoy. Before I reached the far buoy, the wave of women that started 5 minutes behind us started to catch up to me and the water got a little more crowded again.
43 minutes and 1.2 miles after the start of my wave at 9:05AM I am regaining my footing and starting up the ramp to remove my wetsuit and get into my bicycling gear. I grabbed my helmet, put on my shoes, socks, and gloves, and about 6 and a half minutes later headed out to the 56 mile bicycle course. The course is notoriously difficult consisting of several very challenging climbs one of which, "nasty grade", is a 1,000 foot continuous climb over a 4 mile stretch. I hit the course hoping that the hill work during my training was sufficient to keep me going.
One big difference between the Olympic distance and the Half Iron-man distance is that you have to eat during the race. In my Olympic distance race last year I just needed to stay hydrated. In the longer race you must replace the 400-500 calories per hour that you burn during the bike race. I'm not sure what all I shoved down my gullet during the almost 4 hours I spent on the bike. I do know that I learned to peel a half banana while pedaling at about 15 MPH. Bananas, oranges, goo, power bars, all are standard fare for the triathlete on a bicycle. I tried everything!
The hills yielded to my efforts. I was pleasantly surprised that "nasty grade" was not as difficult for me as I had thought it would be. I even enjoyed the large pink bunny positioned near the top to cheer us on. 3 hours and 53 minutes later I was back in the transition area ready to begin the third and final leg of the race.
In and out of the second transition in 5 minutes and I'm off on the 13.1 mile run to finish the triathlon. The run was about 40% roads and about 60% trails with an elevation change of about 400 feet. I started the run and immediately knew it was going to be trouble. The swim and the bike went by pretty easily compared to the run. I battled muscle cramps in my calves and a charlie-horse in my right quad through much of the race. Luckily, there were water stops about every mile and my race ended up being a series of 1 mile run/walks between water stops. But, of course, I made sure to run every time I saw a camera. 2 hours and 36 minutes after starting I was approaching the finish line for a "photo" finish and one final pose wearing my finisher's medal to show that I was still standing.
After the race we all walked back up to the camp site. This last picture is a beautiful view of the venue. Lake San Antonio is in the background with the start of the swim in the center of the picture. We had to walk up and down this hill when going to and from our camp site.
On Sunday, I screamed myself hoarse cheering for my teammates (and everyone else) in the Olypmic distance race.
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