California Half Ironman

This is me April 4, 2009, with finisher's medal after eight plus hours of racing in the Oceanside, California half ironman(including 35 minutes or so in the medical tent trying to recover from hypothermia). The ocean was about 60 degrees, which apparently my body did not like. Being a slow swimmer, I was in the water for almost an hour.

A half ironman is a 1.2 mile swim; 56 mile bike; 13.1 mile run. I signed up for this race in an iron-depression after failing to finish Ironman Arizona in April 2008. It seemed like a good idea at the time and a cool race. The only other half ironman races I had done were here in Arizona.

This race was a lot of firsts; first long road trip by myself, first swim in the ocean that was more than half a mile, first half ironman with real hills(my first two were Soma, which has a much easier bike course).

Other than being cold, the swim wasn't bad until the turn around, where the swells were larger. I was in the first wave of women, so after the turn around the waves behind me caught up to me and the water got really choppy. Previously, in other races I would get panicky at this point, but I decided to let people run into me and not fight it. I had no where to go anyway.

I got out of the water and immediately felt miserable. I had trouble getting my wetsuit off and in general was uncoordinated. A volunteer shanghaied me when I was heading out of the transition area with my bike and got me into the medical tent. I couldn't warm up for a long time and I shivered violently. They finally got a heat on me and I recovered a little. I didn't want to miss the bike cut-off, so I got the hell out of there.

The bike course is scenic and deceptively easy at first. It runs by the ocean for a while and also winds through the Camp Pendleton, which is relatively undeveloped. About mile thirty, you see a hugh hill. If you don't conserve your energy, this hill crushes you. Once you make it over this hill, there are two more smaller hills until you reach the flatter sections into transition. I didn't have a lot of speed on these hills, but at least I didn't walk it like some people I saw. The bike course made Soma's look like a pussy course.

By the time I reached the run course, my legs were toast. I had been hoping to run well, but I just ended up doing a survival slog. The run wasn't difficult except for some hills and a sand section, but it was pretty painful by this point. The locals were enthusiastically cheering everyone, which was nice because I didn't really have anyone else to cheer me on in person.

I would have liked to do better at this race, but sometimes finishing a race is an accomplishment in itself, especially if the race is difficult. When I was running, I heard someone say that they wanted to quit because she wasn't having "fun" anymore. The point isn't necessarily "fun" because at mile sixty in a half iron you are not having "fun". It hurts too much. The "fun" is the feeling of accomplishment that you get from finishing something that you weren't sure that you could do. It's everything.

As a final note, I would have also would have liked to have a halfway decent race photo. The race photographers always seem to catch my worst angles(assuming I have any good ones). It's hard to look good when you have been shivering, sweating and generally exhausting yourself for hours on end. At that point I don't care what I look like, let alone look good. Still you think I could have at least one good photo. Maybe someday. The same day I actually crush the run course in this race.