My alarm woke me at 6:00 yesterday morning, and I reluctantly rolled out of bed to ingest two Cliff Bars and a cup of coffee. Mark was already awake and blasting CNN's coverage of the Saddam verdict, so I sat in front of the TV stretching my quads, hamstrings, and calves. After a final check of our gear, we walked out of the La Jolla Cove Suites Hotel to the transition area, which was right accross the street. Staying at a hotel walking distance from the race has innumberable advantages, including not having to get in line for the port-a-potty before the race.
Mark and I set up our transition areas next to each other--that's mine on the right
Mark and I casually set up our transition areas and walked back to the hotel for one last visit to the head, scoffing at the people lined up at the plastic outhouses. We sauntered back about 30 minutes before our wave start, expecting to have an opportunity for a warm-up swim. Unfortunately, they didn't allow anyone down to the beach head early, so we stood around and took in the sights.
It was humbling to be around so many challenged athletes, many missing more than one limb. As always, Robin Williams was there to offer his support, as was Amanda Beard. As soon as the announcer mentioned the latter's name, I ran to the stage to catch a glimpse, but was too late. Too bad, because I have a huge crush on her.
Without the benefit of a warm up, Mark and I were worried about the swim. Swim starts are brutal enough even when you have a chance to acclimatize to the water (for those of you who have no idea, check out this video), so we were both pleasantly surprised to have uneventful swims. La Jolla cove is beautiful, and there were lots of colorful fish. The only annoying aspect of the cove is it's abundance of kelp, which tends to get stuck to goggles.
I usually have a hard time sighting during open water swims, causing me to zig-zag uncontrollably and lose lots of time. The SDTC swim course is well marked by buoys on the way out, so I efficiently arrived at the turnaround point. The return swim, however, was marked with no buoys, and I'm sure I swam quite a bit more than the required 1.2 miles.
I wasn't happy to see that Mark was right behind me at the first transition. The prospect of Mark actually staying with me throughout the bike gave me extra motivation, and i had a pretty good ride.
A map of the 56-mile bike course generated from my GPS watch
The bike course was very, very challenging, with about 2200 feet of elevation gain spaced out over two major climbs. The first climb occured within the first few miles with a grueling gradient. Since I did the race last year, I knew to take it easy and not blow up so early in the race. The last climb, up Torrey Pines Road was not as steep, but was much longer, and very punishing after such a long day in the saddle. My bike leg was considerably slower than the last half-ironman I did in July, but it wasn't such a bad performance, given that it was not a closed course, and we were forced to stop at all red lights and stop signs.
A graph charting my heart rate and elevation during the bike ride
I was very tired as I cruised into the second transition, especially since the sun began to warm up the course considerably. Luckily, my friend Ali surprised me and was there cheering me on and as ran my bike back to the rack. The extra motivation got me started strong on the run, but that didn't last too long, because the hills started almost immediately.
A map of the hilly out-and-back 13.1-mile run course
The run was an out-and-back course with about 1000 feet of climbing. It was essentially all up hill until the turnaround, and all downhill on the way home. I could not help but stare in awe as I came accross amputee after amputee on the race course. While I was inspired when I saw double amputee Rudy Tolson on the La Jolla boardwalk, I was absolutely heartbroken at mile 7 when I came accross a kid who couldn't have been older than 8-years old resting at a bus-stop bench, weary from limping through the course on his prosthetics (he, like Rudy, had no natural legs).
I happily reached the turnaround at mile 6.6, meaning it was all downhill from there. I came accross a friendly face at mile 8. Mark came walking toward me (he was on mile 5), hydrating with soda. We greeted each other, commented how good the other looked (each of us was lying), and wished each other luck. Seeing Mark struggle was yet another motivator, as I wanted to beat him by more than 30 minutes. Knowing he was 3 miles behind me, I was able to cruise into the finish line, take a shower, change into some fresh clothes, and return to the finish chute to cheer my lungs out for Mark, who arrived about 40 minutes after I did.
Mark was slighly annoyed that I was no longer in my sweaty race suit when he finished. "Did you go home and take a shower already?" he asked. I responded with a wry smile: "Nah, man, I wouldn't do that to you."
A graph of my heart rate, run pace, and elevation throughout the run
The clock at the finish line read 6 hours, 56 minutes when I concluded my run. Since my wave started 15 minutes after the first gun, I estimate that my official time for the 70.3-mile course will be 6 hours, 41 minutes. That's one hour, five minutes faster than last year! Be sure to stay tuned to this blog for official race results, official pictures, and for Mark's race report.
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