Race Report: Redondo Beach Sprint Triathlon

My anniversary race, that's all that really needs to be said. 3 years ago, I showed up at the last minute with all kinds of incorrect and makeshift gear, knowing nothing about trying to do 3 sports in a row. Here I am 4 runnings later making ever so slight improvements each year, something so difficult to do in such a short race. Looking back is crazy to realize how far you've come. It's been quite the ride.

Quick note about this one, but I had forgot my Garmin Forerunner 910XT in my gym bag along with my HRM, so I have no real race data... Sad...

Race details:
Redondo Beach, California
Swim: 0.5 mi - open water, ocean
Bike: 6 mi - road, 2 loops on Catalina and Esplanade
Run: 2.0 mi - run, 1 loop along Redondo Pier waterfront

Course Recorded Finish: 1:01:14

Historical Comparison:

Because this is my anniversary race, I decided to throw up the historical stats and do a quick comparison. Some interesting notes here:
-Swim took a dip down in 2014 before getting quick in 2015 and 2016
-T1 has only gotten faster :)
-Bike has similarly gotten faster :)
---Although this leg is the one aided by gear as I went from a suspension unlocked mountain bike with platform pedals TO a road bike with clip-ins TO adding aero bars TO adding the rear aero wheel
-T2 has also only gotten faster :)
-Run has gotten a tad bit slower after SIGNIFICANTLY improving in 2014
---This could be attributed to the focus on going long in 2015 and 2016 whereas 2014 was more of a year of the Olympic distance
-But the good news is that my time has always gone down and I've made 1 HUGE jump from my first to my second and then a couple of 1 minute decreases. Hopefully that trend continues and I can finally break the 1 hour mark next year! We'll see...

Race Analysis:
Transitions:
Nothing much to say here. It was a sprint so I chose no wetsuit (which made it quite cold). That kept my transition time down a relative amount. Nothing much to be said otherwise. I mean the quick transition gave me a brief moment with Dave in T1, but otherwise, nothing eventful. There is a sweet pic that Amanda got of me with a Honey Stinger in my mouth as I'm grabbing my bike!

Swim:

The swim was great! Despite being a little cold, there weren't too many waves and there wasn't a ton of traffic (although I mostly stayed out of the front group charging in because there were mentions of stingrays in the area). But the swim was pretty good and solid outside of me briefly sighting off another group of swimmers who had deviated wayyyyyy left... A quick course correct and I didn't lose too much time.

Bike:

This bike is always a little tough. It's short at a touch over 6 miles. So it's really hard to make up any ground on people plus you really have to pound the pedals as a lot of folks can really push it for such a short distance. I admittedly wasn't ready for this kind of short, struggling, painstaking surge. It used to be something I loved, but since going long, it has become somewhat of a weakness that I just can't overcome. Essentially, no NOS switch in my gas tank.... And Dave was beastly as I saw him in transition, he said "come get me" and I tried. But Dave's superior bike skills opened up a lead and I never really saw him again...

I also looked like such a n00b in this one. Not as bad as the suspension mountain biking, but I had a normal road front tire and an aero Zipp rear tire. I discovered my front tire to be broken the morning of the race so I had to do a quick switcheroo and use this silly setup. I also now need to get a new front aero wheel... Sad...

Run:

The run, which has become my calling card, kinda let me down. That's tough to say when I ran 16:48 for 2.5 miles off the bike, but at this point it's my only real leg where I can legitimately make up time. But for this race, I just didn't have that extra gear. I think I tried a little hard to catch Dave and that kinda gassed my legs a bit. I just didn't have the ability to really push it on the run. But I did run well, I didn't walk and was able to finish relatively strong.

Pics:

Pre Race:

Swim:

Bike:

Run:

Post Race nom hoarding LOL:

My awesome spectator:

Race Report: IM 70.3 Honu

First of two "Race Near My Roots" races with CTF! This one is Ironman 70.3 Honu on the Big Island of Hawaii! This is an epic race because it shares the same race venue as the full distance World Championship event that pros and stud Age-Groupers compete in. Only the bike portion shares the exact same course, and you do ride on the infamous Queen Kaahumanu Freeway, but the other portions are different from the World Championship course. The race itself was pretty great and I'll go into the details below!

Race details:
Big Island, Hawaii
Swim: 1.2 mi - open water, ocean
Bike: 56 mi - road, out and back on Queen K freeway
Run: 13.1 mi - run, 2 loops, parts thru the golf course and one stretch on paved road

Course Recorded Finish: 6:19:22

Garmin Splits:



AG Finish: 39/61
OV Finish: 697/1514
AG Race Factor: 1.47
OV Race Factor: 1.47

Race Analysis:
Transitions:


My transition times were quite slow here, like QUITE slow. My experience doing an Ironman probably affected this mindset. In an Ironman, you wanna just take your time. It's a long day, a long grind and the extra minute or two in each transition will not make a big deal. So naturally, this having been my next long race since then, I took my time. Admittedly, I also took my time because my fitness level wasn't what it was before. But additionally, there was just a huge mess about both of the split transitions. In T1, the tent didn't actually have a seating area and it was a longish climb from the ocean to the bikes. In T2, you had to run with your bike on the grass, park it in the holding spot and then go find you numbered bag before changing. Both a mess, but not really a great excuse for super slow times.

Swim:

The swim was AMAZING! The water temps were perfect, the waves were virtually non-existent and the water was clear as day! You really couldn't ask for better conditions (maybe wearing a wetsuit I guess). But with great conditions, I had a great swim. My pace was solid, I felt and stayed strong despite a lack of a wetsuit and it was just a really good start to the race.

Bike:

The bike here was also pretty darn good for me! First off, I didn't have my normal bike as the race was an island away from home, so I rented a Specialized Shiv and boy was that a nice TT bike. I'm definitely thinking about getting one now! The bike rode and handled well. Sadly, my Garmin did not capture the elevation gains so folks reading can't understand how tough this course was, but it was tough. Plenty of rolling hills along the course and then one long grind of a climb up to Hawi. Crosswinds were crazy epic and headwinds going up were brutal. But once you hit that turnaround, boy is it a fun ride down! Whizzing and whirring at over 25 mph is just amazing! There was one crappy and deadly climb around mile 45ish as you make your last efforts back. And that actually really sucked. But once you got past that, it was basically smooth sailing back!

Having never ridden more than 30 miles or 2 hours on a trainer before this race, it was quite epic to have the (in my mind) strong time that I had. I mean it was a hair under 10 minutes slower than my Superfrog time. But Superfrog was flat as a pancake and I also had my deep dish Zipp wheels on my bike. I think those things can make a significant time difference. But I am really happy with my bike time!

Run:

Like all bad races, falling apart on the run is what usually happens. Again, the messed up watch doesn't capture the elevation of the undulating golf course. It doesn't capture the trek off the golf course on black hot pavement going down and up. And there is no temperature and humidity marked at this time of day. But like every race, that's the unpredictable challenge.

The run itself sucked horribly at only one point. You can see it just after the 50 minute mark where my heart rate dips way down for a moment. That's when I had a small cramp that I was able to just walk out. Otherwise, the run wasn't horrible, it just wasn't my day. The heat and humidity wore on me with no covered areas. I made my plan to walk thru every aid station taking water, gatorade and slurping down a salt pill as well. It worked and kept me going, but as evidenced by my final splits, it didn't give me a time any faster than a 10:12/mi average.

All in all, I have to say it wasn't my best race, but I'm proud of how I raced. In my training, I never ran more than 6 miles. I most frequently ran 3 miles and did that often. Save the OC Marathon a month out, I never really ran long. As mentioned above, my bike was equally short. I did tons of bricks leading up to the event and always swam 2200yds. But given the work travel challenges, injuries from earlier in the season and life just getting in the way, I felt like it was a valiant effort. I landed in between Superfrog (5:50ish) and Wildflower (7:05ish) as my only other 70.3s to gauge from. At 6:19 I was almost exactly half the time of my IM Florida result of 12:37. So to me, it was a good race. And well I obviously raced for a great cause so that's a huge win in my book!!! :D

Prerace Meals

Prerace Racking

 Swim Start

Bike Course

Bike Transition In

Run Turnaround

Run Course

Run Finish and Medaling by VIP Guest

 Post Race and Enjoying the "Liquid Aloha" ;)

Athlete Profile for Ironman Website

In early May, the Children's Tumor Foundation (CTF) contacted me via email. The NF Endurance coordinator (Lauren) had explained that CTF was given the opportunity to have an athlete spotlight for the Ironman 70.3 Honu race. Based on my previous involvement and fundraising and continued involvement, they wanted to give me the honor of having an article written about me and my journey. Honored and humbled, I accepted!

Over the next few weeks, I answered some basic questions, some deeper questions and traded emails with my NF Hero's mother, Dawn, about little Ava to share with the writer. The result is the article snapshotted below and in its fully length at the link below. Hope you enjoy!

You can read the full article here: http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/news/articles/2016/06/childrens-tumor-foundation-athlete-profile.aspx#axzz4BENmHiY5

(Photo credit: Ironman.com)