Boston Marathon 2011

Posted on April 18, 2011 by drexel13

This was the second event of 10 I am doing to fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in memory of my friend Adam D. Milne.
The last few weeks of training which included some 20+ mile runs did not go well. I started exhibiting the classic overtraining symptoms: difficulty keeping pace during workouts, high heart rate, slow recovery, etc. Then I got the big symptom – a severe sinus infection which kicked the crap out of me. So, a few weeks prior to the race, I already knew that it was probably not going to go well. At the very least, I figured I should be able to finish (which is all I really managed – spoiler alert!). Of course, I’d give it a shot at a PR or re-qualification, but I’d have to know if and when to let up to avoid knocking myself out early in the run.
As I feared, I had overtrained. At first, I was maintaining a pretty decent, yet modest pace, but my heart rate was in high zone 4 or low zone 5 the whole time. After about 17 miles of that, I figured if I didn’t ease up, finishing might be off the table (bearing in mind also that I need to run another marathon in two weeks). It took slowing down to a 9+ minute mile to get my heart rate low enough and running at that pace worked over my quads much more than I’m used to. I still managed to run all the way up Heartbreak hill. The uphills were preferable at that point. With all the downhill it was getting too painful so I did a bit of walking in those section and even had to a bit on the flats. Up until the last mile, I kept going slower and slower, but picked it back up a bit for the end. Overall, I’m glad I realized a few weeks back that it was probably going to be a off-day for me. Had I been in denial about it, I think the mid-race realization would have been crushing. Instead, I don’t feel bad about this one at all. It was my slowest marathon time yet, but it’s still the Boston Marathon and that’s pretty awesome.

Time: 3:40:46,  pace:  8:26
Place: 10778/24338 overall, 7932/14057 Men,
3463/4931 M18-39
Age Graded: 57.5%

PHOTOS

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CANCELLED!

Posted on March 20, 2011 by drexel13

The second event I was supposed to do as part of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society fundraising in memory of my friend Adam D. Milne was cancelled! I drove all the way up to Santa Barbara to participate in the UCSB triathlon, knowing that it was going to be horrible racing in the rain – but they hadn’t cancelled the race, and as a matter of fact, an email was sent out on the 18th saying that the race was still on despite the weather forecast. Well, when I woke up at 4:50 AM today, there was a new email sent at 4:35 AM saying the race was cancelled. It was the smart thing to do. Heavy rain and wind not only makes the biking dangerous, and the run slippery, but also makes the swim fecal coloform-y. I have my hep-B shot and all, but I was not looking forward to sticking my face into that runoff. I just wish they had cancelled it a day earlier.
No information yet on when (or if) a new date will be scheduled. I hope I can make it though, otherwise I need to find yet another race to make it 10 for the year in honor of The Kid!

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San Dieguito Half Marathon

Posted on February 13, 2011 by drexel13

March 23rd of this year will mark ten years since my Friend Adam D. Milne lost his battle with Leukemia. To honor his memory, I am trying to raise $10,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through Team In Training. Officially, the Vineman Half Ironman is the fundraising event, but I want to do something bigger overall, so I’ve decided to do 10 events in 2011, dedicated to this cause. Right now, I don’t have all ten picked out, but included on the list are: the UCSB Triathlon, the Boston Marathon, Big Sur Marathon, and of course the Vineman Half IM. That is a chronological list of events and there’s likely to be some others that slip in there in addition to others after Vineman. But, number one on the list is the San Dieguito Half Marathon.
Since I’ve mainly been training for Boston, runs over the half marathon distance have been part of my program since Christmas. This not only makes 13.1 miles fairly un-daunting, but also afforded me the opportunity to run this race course many times and familiarize myself with all the hills. Race day was pretty cold in the morning, but not as bad as the few weeks prior and things warmed up fairly quickly. The first couple miles went smoothly, if not a little bit faster than anticipated. When the uphill started, it didn’t really slow me down too much. After about a mile and a half of climbing and a short downhill the course stays relatively flat until about 4.5 miles in. By this point, I had passed three aid stations, each with only water and no electrolyte. I figured there would be some sports drink at the turn around, which is actually almost 8 miles in because there is a loop on the way out that you don’t run on the way back. That loop starts with a long downhill for about a mile and a half, then turns and goes up a steep hill at about mile 6. From there the course rolls a bit until the turn around – where there was still only water. If I had known, I would have carried my own sports drink. This lack of electrolytes resulted in calf cramps starting at about mile 8. Then I remembered why I was doing this and thought about how the people who go through chemo tough-out real suffering and figured cramps aren’t really so terrible. Most of the last five miles is downhill and not too steep, so it was easy to keep up a quick pace. The last three quarters of a mile are uphill which was a bit difficult at the time, but not as bad as I thought it could be. I felt good crossing the finish with my second best half marathon time. Not bad for training through a race.
Also, there was free, good beer (Arrogant Bastard Ale) after the race. For reasons that would take too much explaining to be interesting, I ended up pounding two beers in about five minute which led to being pretty much instantly drunk. I realized I run my mouth a lot when drunk.
Special thanks to mom & dad for hanging around to take pictures.

Time: 1:29:01 Pace: 6:48 min/mile
Place: 85/1665 Overall, 74/852 Men, 17/155 M35-39
Age Graded: 68.7%

PHOTOS

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Scripps Ranch 4 Miler

Posted on December 12, 2010 by drexel13

Scripps Ranch was celebrating it’s 40th anniversary by putting on a 4-mile road race. This is kind of a unique distance and since I had been training for a 10K and 5K recently, I figured a 4 miler would be a pretty good distance to try out. Come racing morning though, I just didn’t feel like working that hard for that long. Things changed again when the race started because I quickly found myself keeping up with a lead pack and falling into a good rhythm that I felt I could maintain. I guess the training was working. There was only about 8 or 10 people I could see in front of me, so I figured that was pretty good odds for placing in my age group, which is always a good motivator. The first mile was uphill but not too steep until about a quarter mile from the first turn-around. Up to that point, I thought I might catch some of the guys in front of me, but they were able to take better advantage of the downhill and widened the gap quite a bit. The course continued back past the start where it went slightly uphill for a short section. Then it was the weirdest stretch of road I ever ran. It seemed like more downhill, so I was dreading the last mile after the second turn-around thinking it’d be uphill. After that turn-around though, it still looked downhill. It was very strange and I’m still not sure which direction was uphill. Near the finish, I almost caught one guy in front of me (see photo), but he still beat me by about 1/2 a second. I don’t think he knew how close I was. Since I placed well overall, I stuck around for damn near two hours afterwards waiting for the awards. They kept delaying and finally I saw what they had for results and more than half of the top 10 finishers were still missing (including me), so I left. A few days later the results were posted online and while the placing seems correct, my time is not. They have it as 25:13, but I have the GPS distance and timing data to prove it was 24:36. So, the results are not completely accurate and it’s possible I placed more like 10th overall and potentially lower in my age group if they missed some runners, but for now, I’m taking the 2nd place in AG. For those keeping score, that makes three races in a row I placed in. The logical thing to do might be to stick to the shorter races, but it’s time to start training for Boston, so it’s back to endurance mode.

Time: 0:24:36 Pace: 6:09 min/mile
Place: 8/519 Overall, 8/218 Men, 2/17 M35-39
Age Graded: 69.3%

UPDATE (12/20/10): As my better half points out in the comments: I received a rock with a sticker on it for 2nd place. Currently, I’m at a loss for how to mount that on the wall of race bibs and medals in the garage. It is my most prized rock, of course.

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Christopher Daily Turkey Trot (5K)

Posted on November 25, 2010 by drexel13

Last year, I ran this same race at the end of a tough season that had really taken a toll on me. Surprisingly, I ended up taking third in my age group, but didn’t even realize it until I was back in California. This year, since I had recently been doing a lot of speed work for shorter distances, I just extended that training over the last few weeks to get ready to race this event again with the hopes of (A) running a PR for the course and (B) placing in my age group again. What I was unable to rain for, however, was the 21 degree race-day temperature. Warming up was pretty much out of the question, so about thirty seconds after the start, everything tightened up and the cold dry air made my lungs hurt the whole way. The first mile is all uphill and I had a 6:16 split which boded well for a course PR, but the second mile has a lot of steep ups and downs and took me 6:26, which negated any banked time from that first mile. By this time I couldn’t feel my fingers at all and I tasted something metallic like blood. Fortunately, the last mile is all downhill and I ran it in 5:50, picking up the pace even more for that last tenth of a mile.
My lungs have never hurt so bad as at the end of that race. Every time I coughed and spit I expected to see blood (just some nice chunky phlegm later in the day though). But, it was worth it because I beat my time last year by about 3 seconds and took third in my age group again. Considering that it was twenty degrees colder than last year, I moved up to an arguably tougher age group, and there were 25% more runners, this was no small feat for me. Looking at rankings as a percentage, I did better this year than last as well.
I took a “victory lap” by running the 6.7 miles back to my parents’ place, after sticking around to collect my medal this time. When I got back, I checked the local newspaper’s website and saw my picture in an article about the race. I think I also set a PR for getting sick – never has a chest and head cold come on so quickly!
So, that makes three 5Ks I’ve run in NY now, and in all three I’ve placed. Maybe there’s something to that.

Time: 0:19:10 chip (0:19:13 gun) Pace: 6:11 chip (6:12 gun)
Place: 32/2512 Overall, 31/1107 Men, 3/99 M35-39
Age Graded: 69%

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Miramar MCAS Monster Dash (10K)

Posted on October 30, 2010 by drexel13

Being more of an endurance guy, I never really train for shorter distances (e.g. 10K), instead I end up running them as part of training for marathons or as the run leg of triathlons. Maybe I’ve lead on about this already, but if not, in the last year I’ve been consumed by the fear of getting slower as I’ve gained a little weight. Most of that weight is probably upper body muscle mass and that’s fine – as long as it’s not slowing me down. So, for this race, I decided I would actually do some 10K training in an effort to run a personal record and prove that the weight gain isn’t negatively affecting my speed. There was a total of five weeks between the 50K I just did and this 10K. The first week had to be recovery, of course, and the last week needed to be pretty easy so I’d be rested up come race day. So, I spent only a little more than three weeks training specifically for this distance, but even in that short period of time, I could feel a difference, particularly during speed workouts. When race day rolled around, I was feeling pretty good about my ability to run a PR.
That is until about 7:00 that morning when it started raining. The 10K didn’t start until about 8:15, so I held on to the hope that the weather would improve, but it only got worse. I don’t mind running when it’s a little cold, but when it is combined with rain and wind, it can make things difficult. A PR was looking less and less likely. However, I still had hope that I would fare well amongst the competitors since it was a pretty small group of people racing.
Once the race started, three of us went out fast – too fast probably, but I tried to stay right behind the lead guy as long as possible. We were headed into the wind at first with a slight downhill, so I figured at least the wind would be at our backs for the uphills on the return. The first mile split was 5:51, after which I slowed down a bit because I didn’t think I could keep that up. This put some more distance between me and the lead guy, and then a guy behind me passed. Since I really didn’t think I would ever even take 3rd place, I wasn’t worried about that. Nevertheless, I tried to keep up with the 2nd place runner as a way to just keep going fast, staying about 10 yards back from him at most. Near the end of the second mile, there was a pretty steep downhill – much steeper than I was anticipating. I knew it would be a pretty slow section on the way back, even with the wind helping. Yet, I remained hopeful, since I was banking a little bit of time early on. By the end of that second mile (6:05 split), I was pretty much soaked, so I stopped trying to avoid the puddles. There was a short flat section at the bottom of the hill and then a fairly steep uphill which afforded me the opportunity to gain a little on the 2nd place guy. From there, things became very unexpected. The course turned onto a dirt road, which was really a mud road at this point. There was another downhill that wasn’t very steep, but it was pretty treacherous given how slick it had become. That was just the start of a very muddy and slick mile which made for slow, difficult running. After the turn around, I gained on the 2nd place guy again on the uphill just before popping back out onto the paved road and heading back downhill. At the bottom is where I felt the worst because the flat section just felt like a lot of effort relative to the downhill. I had to suck it up though because the longest uphill was still ahead. Once again, I was able to gain a little on the guy in 2nd place and I was only a few feet behind him at the top of the hill. With about 2 miles still to go, I didn’t want to try to pass him yet, since it was too far to be racing neck and neck for 2nd place. The lead guy was way too far out in front to try to catch too – plus I never would have even considered that I might come in first, even in such a small race. I stuck to the plan of hanging out right behind 2nd place, using that as my motivation to keep the pace up. I had lost most, if not all of the time I had banked because of the mud and the hills, but I thought I might still be close to a PR, and even if I didn’t make that goal, it was pretty understandable given the conditions. Also a 3rd place finish seemed likely and that would be more than enough for me. With about a mile to go, 2nd place managed to get ahead of me about 10 feet or so. I still didn’t want to go for it yet so I just kept him from gaining any more distance on me. Slowly however, I started closing the gap. With about 400 meters left, I could see the finish but it still seemed too early to try to pass and be able to secure a 2nd place finish. But I was pretty much passing him anyway at this point, so I went just a little faster. As I passed, he took a few steps at a quicker pace to keep up. I managed just a little more speed to stay in front of him which actually made me really nervous because I kept expecting him to come by me at any second. So, I just kept going faster and faster, hitting a 5 minute mile pace by the end and he never passed me. I ended up beating him by only 7 seconds. My elation turned to confusion when I looked at my watch and saw a total time of 41:05 – almost slow for a 10K. Then I checked my watch and saw that the distance was a quarter mile too long. The first and third place finishers also had GPS watches on and we all compared distances. Sure enough the course is long – we all measured 6.45-6.47 miles (10K is 6.21). So, for me that is a PR pace for 10K if you don’t count the Carpinteria Triathlon – even if you do, that course is significantly flatter and the conditions were much better.
Also, as it turns out, the overall winner was military so I won the civilian division! First place! Considering the hills, the wind & rain and the extra distance, I’d say the extra muscle weight hasn’t slowed me down.
Supposedly, there are more race photos coming. I certainly hope so, because I’m sure the finishing photos will be entertaining. For now, the one above will have to do. That’s the top three civilian 10K runners with Colonel Richie. The guy to my left is the one who was in front of me most of the way.

Time: 41:05 Pace: 6:22

                          Civillian   Civ.+Mil.
Place overall:    1/61            2/85
Men:                    1/20           2/35
M30-34:             1/3              1/5

Age Graded: 69%

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Noble Canyon 50K

Posted on September 25, 2010 by drexel13

In 2009, I overdid it running two marathons and one ultra in addition to many shorter races. For 2010, I promised myself I wouldn’t do any marathons and would only do one ultra. In addition to staving off burn-out and injury, this would tie up my score for marathons vs. ultras to 4-all. The Noble Canyon 50K was particularly appealing to me since it is reasonably close to home, falls late enough in the season so that it doesn’t cut into triathlons too much, is actually 34 miles (almost 55K) and has a challenging elevation profile. This last point really left me scratching my head when it came to setting goals. 10,300 feet of elevation gain is no joke. Coincidentally, 9 Trails has almost the same amount of elevation gain (10,500 feet) and is only slightly longer (35 miles). It took me more than eight and a half hours to finish 9 Trails, but I always thought I could have done it in under eight, so that helped to set one extreme for goal times. I figured with most of the elevation gain for Noble Canyon being in the first half and it being a mile shorter, 7:45 wouldn’t be an unreasonable finish time. For the other extreme, I looked at my time for the Santa Monica Mountains 50K, during which I got lost and ended up running 33 miles in about five and a half hours, but with only about half the elevation gain of the other two ultras. I also took into account the fact that I did only a minimal amount of real training for this race, counting on a strong endurance base, a handful of trail runs 13-15 miles long, and two 20 milers. All things considered, I figured I might break 6:30 if the weather stayed cool and there weren’t any unforeseen complications.
Race morning, I woke up at 4 AM to get ready in time for an hour drive to the site, which is about 35 miles roughly east and mostly uphill. The temperature kept rising as I drove inland and gained elevation. As I drove past the “elevation 4,000 ft” sign on I-8, it was 75 degrees, at 5:30 AM and still dark out. That was not encouraging. However, as I dropped back down 400 feet to the event start, the temperature dropped into the low 50s. At this point, I didn’t know what to expect.
The first 25 miles went really well. The weather was a little cool, but once everyone got moving, it was a good temperature for running. That didn’t last though. There were major temperature swings along the trail. It would be low 60s one minute, then three strides later it was over 80. Another quarter mile and the temperature would drop back down. Hot, cold, hot cold for several miles. It was a really strange phenomenon. Eventually, it just remained hot and then continued to get hotter.
My biggest concern with this course was miles 5 through 10, which are all uphill. This section turned out to be not so bad though. During this stretch, I remembered a question I’ve been asked many times: “What do you think about when running for six, seven or eight hours of running?” The answer is mostly nothing, or at least nothing important. Actually, things I try hard to avoid thinking about, such as how much farther it is, how much it hurts, etc. The best thing for me is to get into a zombie runner mode – just moving, not really thinking, paying barely enough attention (hopefully) to not get lost. It’s pretty easy to pass a lot of miles that way.
One thing I remember thinking several times in the first half of the race was “why don’t I run ultras more often?” Ultras offer great scenery and I generally don’t stress out about the race since it’s simply too long to bother being nervous about. The aid stations in ultramarathons tend to be a lot better than other races as well. This race was no exception with phenomenal service at the aid stations. All the volunteers are also ultrarunners so they know what you need and understand how you’re feeling. They were all very attentive and did pretty much everything you needed, including mixing my Succeed sports drink powder for me. At the final aid station, one volunteer was waiting near the bottom of the hill leading up to the station. As I approached, he asked me what I needed, took my bottles and sprinted up the hill to have everything ready to go when I got there. Unbelievable!
My only complaint would be that after the loop in the course, I ended up going the wrong way – almost for a 2nd loop – after having confirmed with a volunteer that it was the right way. I only went about a tenth of a mile before realizing where I was going and turned back. When I saw the same guy, I asked if he was sure it was the right way and he again told me it was. He must have thought I was still on my way out, because when I said “but I’m at mile 23”, he then agreed it was the wrong way. Overall, I didn’t get sidetracked too badly.
Just before heading back down the long hill, I stopped at the second to last aid station. I specifically remember having a very lucid, coherent conversation with a volunteer while she was refilling my bottles. She told me I was getting pretty salty around my neck and asked if I had been taking any salt capsules to replenish electrolytes. I insisted that I didn’t need any, since I’d been drinking electrolyte, emphasizing that I’d completed other ultras so I know what I need, but thanks anyway. The thing I want to make clear is that at this aid station, I was perfectly fine and feeling strong. I’m not saying that salt tabs would have helped, but that is the conversation I had and is recounted here to demonstrate the capacity for rational thinking I had at the time. Remember how I said the first 25 miles went well? That second to last aid station was at mile 25. From that point, there was a rapid decline in my condition. It started shortly into the downhill section with some fairly severe left knee pain and the associated quad and IT band distress. That slowed me down a lot in that five miles of steep downhill. The temperature was getting really hot as well. At the time, I didn’t know, but it was well over 100 degrees. When I made it to the next (and final) aid station I was in pretty bad shape. As the aforementioned awesome volunteer ran up the hill with my water bottles to refill them, I managed a meager jog up to the station. Another volunteer seemed to bombard me with questions, asking what I needed; water, Gatorade, salt capsules, food? All I could say was “salt”, which he promptly fetched for me along with a cup of cold water. Yet another volunteer doused me with ice water after I gave her the nod to do so. That snapped my brain out the fog at least, but I was still feeling pretty wonky with my coordination and kept bumping into people until I made it out of the crowd around the station. I remember thinking about how incredible it was the difference in how I felt just five miles back. Around this time, I also remembered how I had been thinking about why I don’t do ultras more often. That’s why.
With just five more miles to go, the course went back uphill for a bit and I ended up walking a lot. This helped with my quads and IT bands though and this helped my knees to feel better too. When I got to the final downhill stretch, I was able to keep running, but I came really close to barfing a couple times. The last mile was unfortunately on the road, which didn’t make things any better. It was still hot, there was no shade and the road is extra tough on the joints after 33 miles. One last time, I had to resort to walking for a short section due to a smallest of hills.
The finish line was obviously a welcome sight. I was so beat, but I managed to keep up a jog through the dip in the now dirt road. One unique thing about this race is that they make you kiss a big ugly rubber rat before you cross the finish. No kiss, no official finish. At the beginning, I thought that was a bit gross and unhygienic, but after almost seven hours of running, I didn’t hesitate to smack one right on the rats nose.
One last thing I hadn’t considered until after the race on the way home was altitude. The course begins at 3600 feet, which has 88% of the oxygen normally available at sea level (which is what I’m used to), and it goes up to 6000 where there is 81% of oxygen relative to sea level. It’s not high altitude, but 12-19% less oxygen doesn’t seem insignificant to me. Regardless, I felt like I did really well for having done so little real training for the race. The endurance and stamina were there, but I wasn’t properly conditioned for the trails. Relative to 9 Trails, the race winners for Noble Canyon are generally about an hour fifteen to an hour thirty faster, so there may have been some improvement for me relatively speaking.
Special thanks to race director Scott Mills and all the wonderful volunteers. Thanks also to Charlie Nickell for posting free high resolution photos of everyone.

Total time: 6:42:13, Pace: 11:50
Place: 46/172 Overall, 39/124 Men, 15/40 M30-39

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Heartbreak Ridge 1/2 Marathon

Posted on September 11, 2010 by drexel13

The Heartbreak Ridge 1/2 Marathon is part of a series of races held on the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base. I had heard it was a hilly course, but having run Pier to Peak twice, I figured it couldn’t be too bad. I really was not sure what to expect of this course though and I think I underestimated it a little. It turned out to be a pretty exposed course, which was fortunately not made worse by heat and humidity. Anyone who read my last post would probably have already figured out that if I wasn’t willing to go 100% in a triathlon a month before a 50K, there’s no way I was going to go all out in a half marathon 2 weeks before. There was one last real long run on my schedule for the ultramarathon training, so I figured I’d do a short warm up, race this however hard I was willing to go and then run back to find my wife and finish the race with her. All that combined should get me approximately the 20 miles I needed to get in for the day.
Right off the bat, the hills were steeper than I had anticipated. The first mile was relatively down hill, but then there’s about a 2 mile climb that gets progressively steeper. From that point, the course is downhill for a little more than three miles. During this downhill stretch, it was possible to get going pretty quickly for long stretches and I was feeling really good until we got into a dusty section. Actually, it wasn’t that bad yet and I thought to myself, “man, I’d hate to be further back in the pack, this dust is just going to get worse”. Then it dawned on my that this was an out and back course, so I would be running through a lot of serious dust on the way back and it would be mostly uphill. This turned out to be 100% accurate, but I was still feeling good when I came back through the dust bin up the hills on the way back. It wasn’t until about the last mile that I started really getting tired. After 2 miles of downhill, you’re suddenly faced with these two little uphill stretches that really wouldn’t be bad at all if you were just starting out, but when I hit those, man did I feel them. Before long though, the finish line was in sight and, since I wasn’t giving it 100% before, I had some energy to burn, so I figured I might as well finish strong. I passed one guy with about a tenth of a mile to go but then saw one more I could probably get before the finish. In the last 20 meters, I caught him, but as I passed, he started to sprint and passed me back. Without thinking, I launched into an all-out sprint and just barely beat him across the finish. I turned around and shook his hand but neither one of us was able to actually say anything like “good job” or “nice race”. After all of about 10 seconds of reflection, I realized that little sprint at the end didn’t actually matter since it was a chip timed start and finish and there’s no way we both crossed the start at the same time. Regardless, it was pretty fun – I always enjoy a little extra excitement at the end of a race – and it made for some interesting finishing photos (e.g. the one above).
After I was finished, I got a little bit of food, water and electrolyte, then headed back out to find Janice. Most of the people on the course were giving me stink-eye for going the wrong way, but I did get a few funny comments as well. Janice really surprised me and showed up a lot sooner than I thought she would. I was glad though because I was pretty beat. I stayed with her most of the way to the finish. She was pretty happy with her performance as well, besting her La Jolla half marathon time on a more difficult course.

Total time: 1:37:46, Pace: 9:25
Place: 59/360 Overall, 49/259 Men, 13/52 M35-39

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Santa Barbara Tri – Long Course

Posted on August 28, 2010 by drexel13

With a 50K looming and only about a week of real training left for it, I couldn’t justify an all-out effort this year for the SB long course. In short, I just plain can’t take time off for recovery – or worse, injury. I needed to be able to do a three hour training run the next day, so I decided to try to keep a pace that was right at the upper edge of feeling good.
The ocean had been unseasonably cold, so I wore my long sleeve suit. As expected, the swim was cold – really cold. Supposedly, it was 58 degrees, but I don’t think it was more than 54. The first half, besides being cold, wasn’t too bad though. There were a few collisions with other swimmers and a couple times when I was literally swam over by another guy, but definitely not the most aggressive group I’ve been in. Things took a turn for the worse after the turn-around. The ocean was super choppy, making swimming, sighting and breathing all really difficult. Strangely though, I felt like I was struggling less than the others around me and managed to pass a lot of people in the water.
Once out of the water, I saw that I had a 34 min swim split. This was about the longest acceptable time I had set as a goal, but given the frigid conditions and choppiness, I didn’t feel bad about that. T1 was smooth and I was racked up near the bike out, so that helped keep it under two minutes.
Right away, the bike ride just didn’t feel good, even going easy-ish. After about 4 miles some guy said “55? you must have had an amazing swim!” After a second of consideration, I responded, “no, 35, terrible swim.” As it turns out the body marker put 55 for my age on my leg instead of 35. I didn’t even notice until after I got out of the shower after the race. Then, that guy’s comment made a lot more sense. The middle part of the ride was pretty fun with some good climbs and fast descents. I did have the unfortunate experience of getting hit with two snot-rockets from a couple bikers who passed me going down Gobenador Canyon. I was going about 35 mph and each of them got about 5 bike lengths out in front and then let a loose with a farmer-blow. At 20 mph, I would have been in the clear, but at 35, I got it right in the face. They should have (a) gotten farther ahead first and (b) blown to the left side. I was going way too fast to dry to dodge the mucus, but I did have the presence of mind to close my mouth, which was fortunate since I got hit directly in the philtrum.
After about 25 miles of biking I started getting bad low back pain. This was rather unexpected as I bike 40-60 miles with hills every Saturday, so this should have practically been easy. It got so bad in the last few miles I just wanted to stop. Fortunately once I got off the bike and into transition, the pain let up significantly.
T2 was also quick, again partly due to proximity of the run out.
The run actually felt good, and immediately so, but I had to pee real bad. Usually, I’d tough it out and hold it, but it really was taking away from the enjoyment of the run, so when I saw a public restroom ahead of me, I got my skinsuit unzipped and the top pulled down around my waist so I could run into the bathroom and get down to business ASAP. I had probably the worst “stage fright” ever and it took about 90 seconds for complete relief, but it was worth it. After that, I was able to step the pace up continuously and still managed to run the 10 miles in under 70 minutes.
Relative to the last two years, my time was 7 – 9 minutes slower, but for an 80% effort, I think I did pretty well. Somehow, I actually placed slightly better in my AG versus last two years. I thought the M35_39 age group was supposed to be tougher…

Place: 134/720 overall, 118/494 Men, 18/76 men 35-39
Total: 3:35:21, swim 34:39, T1 1:58, bike 1:47:59, T2 1:10, run 1:09:35

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Oxnard Triathlon – 2010

Posted on July 18, 2010 by drexel13

Last year, I had a terrible swim at this race and pretty much gave up, dogging the bike and run. In the end, I missed placing 3rd in AG by less than a minute. From that moment on, I swore I’d never give up on a race again. So, this year, my goal was to redeem myself by doing this race as hard as I could–even though I was moving up into a larger, more competitive age group and knew there was pretty much no chance of placing. The plan was to get through the swim, which really is the most I can do there, then bike as hard and fast as I could maintain and see what that left me with for the run. If nothing else, it would be a good experiment.
When I showed up on race morning, I was already a little panicked because we didn’t leave early enough (my own fault) and parking was pretty much non existent. My wife, Janice, was nice enough to let me out with all my gear so I could just bike to the event while she found parking. For reasons unbeknownst to me, the race directors moved the transition area north about 50 yards relative to previous years. There were about 100 more people doing the Olympic distance this year, so maybe it was to accommodate the additional participants, but it was pretty crowded nonetheless.
Panic is not a good feeling to have going into a race. I distinctly remember feeling like I wasn’t sure what to do next to get ready for the start, even saying out loud “OK, what am I doing?” After a little bit of dilly-dallying, I got it together enough to get all the preparation done. Body marking, sun screen, heart rate monitor, set up the bike stuff, lay out the run stuff, get the wetsuit on up to the waist, grab ear plugs, goggles and swim cap. As I walked out of transition, I kept thinking I was forgetting something. Then it dawned on me: timing chip! So, I jogged back with panic setting in because if I had the timing chip with me, I would have seen it and put it on. I searched my gear as the officials were trying to chase the last of us stragglers out of the transition area. The timing chip was no where to be found. There was no more time to look or try to figure out where it was, I needed to get a replacement, stat! I asked the nearest volunteer who directed me over to registration where a very nice woman gave me a spare packet (chip and numbers for your gear) and directed me to find the timing person who was supposedly at the swim start, way down the beach. As I began to jog down there, Janice stopped me and pointed out that there was a timing tent right behind me with a guy in it. So I talked to him and he changed the chip information for me then directed me back to body marking to change those numbers. The body marking didn’t work real great since I had put on sunscreen, but the important thing was the timing chip and the bib, bike and helmet numbers which I promptly replaced with the new number. Finally, I was ready to go!

Swim (1500m)
 Well, after all that panicked running around, I ended up with plenty of time to relax since the start was delayed. No one knew why, either. There were just no officials at the Olympic swim start. Mine was the second wave this time and it was a pretty big pack of people, so I hung out towards the back a little for the running start to get into the ocean. Thankfully, this year the buoys were fairly close to shore and were pretty easily spotted. The swim was not ideal. It was very choppy and every time I turned to breathe, not only did I get a wave in the face but the sun blinded me. This was further complicated by foggy goggles. I managed to stay on course mostly by judging the suns position in my field of view so that I would swim in a straight line. Once in a while when I looked forward, I’d manage to see the next buoy and could tell I was still on track. Once we got around the last buoy and turned back in to shore, I couldn’t see the finish for a while, so I just swam towards other swimmers. A pretty big set of waves came though and the life guards were warning people when they were about to get hit with a wave. For once, I was able to actually catch a wave and rode it a good portion of the way in before sliding right over another swimmer, probably kneeing him in the head. What comes around goes around; I’ve been on the receiving end of that a few times before. As I got out of the water, I checked my watch and saw I was just over 33 minutes. Not awesome, but better than last year and no matter what, I wasn’t going to let it influence the rest of the race. From there, it was almost three more minutes, mostly running through loose sand, to get back to transition.

T1
 The first transition was quick. I had no problems getting the wetsuit off or getting the bike gear on and grabbing the Gu for the road.

Bike (35K)
 The bike out chute was a good long trot before reaching the road where you could mount. Once on the bike, I quickly got up above 20 mph even though the wind was blowing in from about the 10 o’clock position relatively speaking. At first, I thought I wouldn’t be able to hammer it on the bike as planned, I was feeling stiff and my glutes were starting to burn. But after about two miles everything started feeling pretty strong. The situation got even better soon after that since we made a right turn so that the wind was more at my back. During this stretch, I was managing closer to 26 mph. Another right turn meant losing a little tail wind, but it was still beneficial, my speed only dropping a couple ticks. Next was a little out and back off to the right, so first it was almost straight on into the wind, but I managed to keep the speed up above 20 except for up the little hill right before the turn around. After turning around I was hitting 27 for that stretch, then back down around 23 or 24 with the wind at about a 4 o’clock position. Another right turn up over a bridge and into the wind meant a bit of slowing down, but it was only for a short period of time. Then the final right turn to complete the first loop and it was time to doing al lover again. I’m happy to say that the second loop I was able to push even harder , since I felt like I still had some more effort in me. I was concerned that I’d be too beat for the run, but there was only way way to know for sure, so I kept pushing. The whole time on the bike, I only ever got net-passed by one guy. I couldn’t see the number on his calf, so I don’t know if he was in my age group or not. I got passed by three others as well, but each time I caught back up to them within a few minute, passed and stayed ahead.
If you don’t count the time it took to trot the bike back into transition (which was probably over a minute) then my average speed on the bike was 22.6 mph. That made me pretty happy. The question remained though: did I have anything left for the run?

T2
The second transition was quick and uneventful as well. I had Gu’d twice on the bike (once at the beginning and once near the end), so I didn’t need to grab anything additional. Just a quick change of shoes, swap the helmet for the hat, grab the race belt and number then go.

Run (10K)
The run course is two loops that are supposedly 3.2 miles each, so it’s a little longer than 10 K. Also “loop” isn’t really the right word to describe it. It’s an out and back with another little out and back offshoot. That’s pretty much the worst kind of run for me. I hate out and backs, especially if you have to do them twice. At least it was a nice view for parts of it. The first loop of run I felt tired. Assuming that the mile markers were correct, I figured I was averaging about a 7 minute mile and that was just the price you pay for pushing hard on the bike. Even so, 5 or 6 minutes gained on the bike is a fair trade for two or three minutes on the run.
Pretty early on, two runners passed me and, unfortunately, they were (A) in my age group and (B) going really fast. One other guy passed me a little later on, but I caught up to him again and stayed ahead after that.
Some of the local residents were offering to spray runners with a hose which was a nice way to help beat the heat. I grabbed electrolyte at the far end and then remembered that it was Heed, probably the most foul tasting sports drink ever created. I hit the turn around a little more than 22 minutes into the run leg. Not awesome, but if I kept it up, a 44 minute 10K (that is longer than 10K) isn’t all that bad. After starting the 2nd loop (and having another cup of delicious Heed), I started feeling a bit more energized and was able to pick up the pace a bit. Slowly and steadily I went a little bit faster as I progressed through the course until I was at an all out sprint to the finish. As it turns out, I did that second lap in about 20 minutes and a 42 minute 10K at the end of a tri is pretty respectable. I was happy with it anyway. Did I mention the run course was long?

This year, I really feel like I redeemed myself. Even though I didn’t even come close to placing, I did what I set out to do and took almost 10 minutes off my time from last year in the process.
Janice did an awesome job of taking a whole bunch of pictures. Some additional photos were provided by my friend John as well as fellow tri club members Pamela Pomoloski and Kristine Kistler. Brightroom also provided some photos.

Total time of 2:20:51, swim 36:28, T1 2:02, bike 58:48,
T2 1:26, run 42:07
Place: 69/372 overall, 64/269 men, 14/48 M35-39

PHOTOS

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