I departed for the 25 hour drive the day after labor day chasing down my extended summer. As I drove down the street I realized I hadn't packed any long pants, a sure way of jinxing the whole endeavor, so I turned around and grabbed a pair. Fortunately I didn't use them until the very last day of the week long trip.
My home away from home...
This race was my first time swimming in the ocean. Yes, sharks are present around the Monterey bay area, but you never hear about shark attacks so I practiced in the 2 days leading up to the race blissfully ignorant of their presence. I was aware of the barking sea lions though. Santa Cruz has a super long pier that we swam around for the race and these big noisy creatures hang out there on boat landings barking away. It was kinda cool.
Transition
As for salt water swimming, everyone told me that you are more buoyant and indeed my swim time though 3 minutes slower than I'd hoped was still one of my faster 1/2 Ironman swims. Race day was windy so as we swam further out from shore, it got really rough and wavy. I'm sure I would have made my 35 minute goal time had the water been a little smoother. But that water was COLD! I thought my Canmore quarry had toughened me up but (just as happens in the quarry) towards the end of the swim leg I definately was getting hypothermic. My form was totally falling apart and using my hands to remove my wetsuit and put on shoes for the 1/2 Km run to T1 was exceedingly difficult. When I finally got there my fingers had the hardest time securing the buckle on my bike helmet. With the long run to T1 I ended up with a excruciatingly slow 7.5 minute transition time.
Heading out onto the bike I just wanted to warm up. the first couple miles take you along the cliff overlooking the ocean with lots of tight turns to get you through town and onto the Pacific Coast Highway. It was probably the most spectacularly scenic bike I'd ever had (and later the run), but I rarely looked up. I'm a little sad that I'm so serious about these races because with my head down straining for every aero second I could gain, I missed a lot of cool scenery.
The ride out to the turnaround was WINDY!! Like really hard windy. We could see how fast the speedy pros were going on the return and couldn't wait to get to the turnaround and have the wind at our backs. I'm not sure if you ever really make up the time having the wind at your back that you lost fighting it on the way out, but I do know that we were flying. There were times when I wasn't sure how fast I was going but would realize that my legs were spinning in my highest gear, so we must have been rocking pretty fast!!
Transitioning into the run is always a challenge on your lower back muscles. Yet I've done enough tri racing to know that patience is your ally. Just wait long enough and those tight knotted muscles eventually loosen their grip. I passed a guy that wasn't patient and he'd stopped and was somehow trying to grip those knotting muscles into some kind of cooperation, but that is futile. Sure enough after a few miles the tightness eased and I could stretch out my stride.
My biggest concern on the run was surviving a hot day. It wasn't blisteringly hot, but it's hard to train for heat in Canmore and warm races have in the past been my undoing. Fortunately, I've also got some experience. Years ago during the Desert 70.3 tri in Osoyoos I found that dumping ice into my jersey acts as a core air conditioner. As my blood races to the ice around my mid section it cools then pumps to the rest of my body. It sounds a little crazy as the ice bouncing around sounds like a Maraca, but it is so worth it!
I may not be the smartest guy to begin with but when I race I get really stupid. For some reason my brain didn't compute the Km's to miles very accurately. Somehow I thought that a 70.3 tri run is 12 miles... so I really started ramping it up at mile 10. Eventually I remembered that a marathon is 26 miles and obviously 1/2 of that is 13....duh. I wasn't too broken though when I made that realization, partly because I simply dialed things back (though I think my fastest miles were still my closing ones-always a rewarding feeling) and I also relished all the cheering as well as the amazing scenery of the Pacific Ocean right below us.
Post-race watching surfers do their thing
For the finish you fly down this super steep roadway onto the beach. You go from the fastest running of the day to the slowest. Fortunately the beach section was short. It was so fun to finish, hear my name being called ("Steve Sellers from Canmore Alberta!!"). Though I knew my "sub 5 summer" fell short once again, I was so happy. Happy just to be there, to finish, to be able to push my body quite hard for just over 5 hours... I feel super blessed. I'm still not sure of my results. I'll have to look them up. Deb told me over the phone, but honestly, once a race is over I don't like to think about it too much. I'd rather get on to the next thing. I guess I did have a 25 hour drive to contemplate things, but I hardly thought about triathlon the whole way. I'm not sure what or any tri race I'll do next summer, but for now I'm getting a couple PRP shots tomorrow to hopefully cure some niggling injuries. I won't be able to train for a few weeks to let the shots do their work. that's ok as my bod probably needs a break anyway.
Post race run up to the top of Schweizer ski area in Sandpoint Idaho
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