Ford 70.3 Oceanside Half Ironman report

[Archaea]

Well we arrived in Oceanside Friday afternoon, to discover to our wimpy horror that the water temperature was 51 degress. Don't know what it was on race day, but that's colder than the Alcatraz triathlon.

So they offered a shorter swim for those who wanted such. Or Neoprene hats and boots. Never happens.

Needless to say, I am a warm water swimmer; thus I was reminded why I don't do cold water.

It was so cold I couldn't feel my arms or hands, I couldn't feel my face or catch my breath. We also caught the women in front of us and had massive traffic jams. Horrible. Swam my worst time ever in seven halfs.

For those who aren't insane, a half includes a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile TT and a 13.1 mile shuffle, I mean run.

So we are commanded to arrive at 5:30 even though our wave didn't start until 7:41. I sat and shivered away my energy.

After gettting out of the water slowly, I mounted my trusty steed. And moved along okay for a windy windswept ride through Camp Pendleton, passing loads of even slower triathletes until flatting. The course, with one exception was a bunch of rollers, wind and rain. Nevertheless, for early season, not too bad.

Off the bike, I felt I could run, but that was a misnomer. I felt reasonably fine, but my legs wouldn't move more than a snails pace. I couldn't understand it. It was slow, slow, slow. And we had to run on sand. Yikes, I about face planted every time.

So I need to revamp run training. After finishing, I realized this is hard work. Still it was a good hard, rainy, cold beyond imagination workout. A way to redefine one's definition of pain.

Anybody ever want to suffer? Sign up for this race.