2014 Ironman California 70.3 Race Report

by: Manny Aragon

2014 hasn’t been a very consistent triathlon training year for me. Although I have been running fairly regularly and had two ½ marathons early in the season (January in Irvine and Feb at Surf City) I haven’t been in the pool in months and bike rides have been few and far between. Needless to say, sometime last year, I committed myself to raising money for the Challenged Athletes Foundation and specifically for their Operation Rebound fundraiser (which gets amputee and wounded veterans active in athletics ASAP after the injury for better success rates) for the Ironman California 70.3 (half Ironman race in Oceanside and on Camp Pendelton).

Honestly, since I’ve raced many Half Ironman distance races over the past few years, I wasn’t concerned about finishing. I knew I would finish and I knew that my lack of fitness would make it a bit painful. Ive never raced this course so my only goal was to go under 6 hours for the race. Luckily in the last couple of weeks leading up to the race my team,  FC Triathlon Team, held a few open water swim workouts with words of wisdom from Coach Tracy White and from Coach Joby which made a big difference on race day.

The day prior to the race I went down to Oceanside to pick up my race packet and goody bag, have lunch with CAF, and generally scope out where the heck I would need to be showing up at the god awful hour of 5 am the next morning. Luckily, the course is pretty straight forward- features a split transition (the first being at Oceanside Harbor where we would swim and the second transition area being just up the cliff from the finish line on the The Strand. I also scoped out a good looking restaurant that looked like it would be a great refuge after the race.

As usual, I was preparing my bag, food, supplements, bike, etc. for the race until a bit after 11pm when I finally got to bed. My alarm was set for 4am the next morning but for some reason, my wife was tossing and turning around 2:30 and woke me up. I rolled out of bed at around 3:30am and stumbled my way through loading my van up, putting in contacts, sunscreen, triple checking the contents of my bag and so on before finally getting out the door at 4:45am. The drive was quick and I arrived at 5:30am, well in time for the 6:43am start of the CAF wave.

Swim: 1.2 mi @ 36:37, 1:53/100m: 134 of 403 in AG

In 2011 for my first Iron distance race I swam 1:14 and for the next 6 months I swam 34:xx Half distance races pretty consistently. Then, for some reason in mid 2012 I began swimming 40 minute races. No idea why- I was actually six months into a masters swim team and my race times slowed down while my interval times in the pool were speeding up. Anyhow, I have swum 40min races since… until this year ( thank you Tracy White- it looks like I’m getting my mojo back…)

Anyhow, this was the first water start race I have done since Vineman in 2011 and it was a bit exciting- I must say that I prefer wave water starts after this race! Wave 1 was the male pros, wave 2 was the female pros, and wave 3 was the lucky stiffs who raised money for CAF (nice perk!).  I should add that CAF participants also got a preferred transition area as well- right next to the pros. Another kitschy perk for CAF is that we, like the pro waves and unlike the age group waves, also got a starting cannon shot…Like the Kona race =)

After the female pro wave started off, our wave swam out to the start line where we all tread water in close proximity (Joby training tip paid off here) until the gun went off. At this point, I sprinted for about 2-3 minutes and got off just behind the lead group- something I’ve never attempted but also something we practiced in our team swims that paid off as I pretty much avoided getting into the scrum at all- just a couple of whacks to the hands, feet and arms but not the head. Usually I am pretty meticulous about getting my cap and goggles on correctly (I also swim with earplugs) but for some reason, this time, my right goggle filled with seawater- burning my eyes.

I was not about to stop and be swum over by the mob so I kept swimming and after about 10 min, I chanced a quick stop to reposition my goggle. Luckily I was in an open space and nobody swam over me when I stopped. The rest of the swim was pretty uneventful except for the fact that the second half which usually goes quickly for me seemed to take quite a bit longer than the first half. Ironman is a pretty cush set up as far as races go and we had carpet under our feet before we even got out of the water and all the way through transition – an unusual but welcome experience!

T1: 5:39

My transitions can use a bit of help but a couple of notes: I use T1 to put on my toe sox for the run. This takes time but is worth it on the run. Because of the split transition, Ironman takes your T1 gear to T2 for you after the race. It takes extra time to put your stuff into the bag (and in my case, attach the bag to my backpack so they stay together). Otherwise, uneventful. I put my sox, shoes and sunglasses on, bagged my stuff, and took off on my bike.

Bike: 56 mi 2:55:45 @ 19.12 mph: 124 of 403 in AG

I pretty much knew that my bike fitness was not up to snuff but Joby’s advice on course strategy paid off despite my lack of fitness and I posted a decent (albeit slow) bike split. The first third of the course is pretty fast- I took it easy and stayed between 200-215 watts (under my target of 220 watts) on this section. As Joby predicted, guys were flying by me left and right, but I trusted his advice and held back as he suggested. The second third of the course is where the big hills are and I was predictably slow on the hills, still getting passed but not by as many as earlier. The third section of the course has the biggest hills after which, there is a long downhill and straight shot home. I killed it here and held 22-25mph the rest of the course.

Of note on the bike course is that I finally resolved my bike nutrition problem of the past 2 seasons. I have not been able to eat solid food on the bike and this time brought a version of my trusty morning breakfast shake- banana, protein and greens powder, coconut oil, almond butter, flax meal, a bit of honey, and coconut milk in a profile design bullet aero bar sipper flask. Totally worked. Actually drank my nutrition faster than intended. It went down easy and no GI issues whatsoever. AWESOME! One issue is that I broke the age old rule of not trying anything new on race day (I broke that rule several ways this race). First, the bullet bottle worked well but was placed too far back which made me take my eyes off of the road when I sipped- needs to be moved forward- an easy fix. Second, I decided to use the bladder bag hydration system that came built into my bike (Shiv Tri) for water and cut the  straw too short. This rendered it pretty much useless and I reverted to picking up squeeze water bottles on the course. Overall no biggie- I got off easy.

T2: 2:14

Normally T2 takes me less than 90sec but my feet hurt a bit and I decided to take the extra time to massage them out prior to starting the run. It helped a bit and got me mentally ready for the half marathon ahead.

Run: 13.1 mi: 1:48:50 @ 8:18/mi 88 of 403 in AG

The really nice thing about this course and time of year is that the weather is so temperate. Not cool, or cold or hot- really, its just right. There is a bit of a breeze on most of the 2 loop run course which mostly runs along the beach and this really helps. The wet sponges they were handing out on the course also really helped- I stuck two under each of the shoulder straps of my tri top and the breeze along with the water from the sponges kept my body cool.

This run course is great for spectating and there were tons of people out there cheering us on- Awesome! What was most awesome though, was having a big group of my team mates out there spectating and cheering our team on by name- This was huge as was seeing many friends and team mates out on the course and providing support to each other as we passed- just fun and it kept the race painful but not unbearable.

I ran pretty well until the first time we ran up the ramp from the strand boardwalk to the top of the pier ( there are two of these as there are two loops) when my pace dropped – and I was never able to regain it. For some reason, at about mile 8 , I decided to do something I have never done in a half- stop at a port a potty to pee.  While its possible for me to hold it, I decided I would be better off getting it out of my body. This is unusual because I generally don’t need to pee in a half Iron distance race until the end. Perhaps my meal of fat made me pee. Time will tell.

Anyhow, the second half of the run was slower- my hamstrings were sore and short and my feet began to get really sore as the whole run was on pavement and my shoes are really not suited to Ironman running on pavement. Time for a new type of shoe…

The highlight of the day, however was coming down the finish chute and finally getting to sit down at the end of a long day.

Finish time: 5:29:05: 513 out of 2424 participants 445 out of 1839 men and 88 of 403 in M 40-44 AG.

This is just 2 minutes off of my PR last year from Bayshore 70.4 which features a completely flat bike and run course. This was a harder course, I was not in good shape, yet I came close to matching my PR. Not bad for an out of shape guy!