CHRISTIAN, HUSBAND, FATHER, ACCOUNTANT, AND TRIATHELTE'S JOURNEY TO FINISH THE RACE: OCEANSIDE CA TRIATHLON

Race recap here. Season Recap on the next one.

First, again, thank you FiltersFast and TriBike Transport for helping me make this season possible.

Jen and I headed out to Cali on Thursday. We had a fun flight. A great Friday and Saturday.

There. That was the pre fun stuff in a nut shell (pics are better so you will find them at the bottom)

Race Day:

I Had a couple of goals going in. I wanted to break 2.05 hours and maybe flirt with 2 hrs depending on how my bike went. I also wanted top 20 overall, possibly top 10 and maybe, just maybe top 5.

Swim - I felt really good. The problem was, normally I know how many people are in front of me (3-5 normally), but this time- I felt there was a lot. On the way out, I got in a pack of 3. On the way back, just me. I finished the 1500m swim in 19.29min (12th). I knew that was possible with my swim workouts but Im pumped that it came together in a race.

Bike- unfortunately , my Achilles heel all year, hurt me again. I do know my race wheels are compared to my competition. I have heard if you have a disc wheel it helps you tremendously. But, that would be an excuse and I hate excuses. :)

I dropped to 17th on the bike. I did ride with one guy the first 20 miles and then he eventually dropped off the bike. The first 16 miles of the course were great. An out and back 2x on a highway. Very fast. Then there were a ton of turns that led you to a road parallel with the beach. I felt good on the bike, but had a feeling It was not good enough since I could not gain any ground on anyone ahead of me. I ended up averaging 23mph for the 25mph bike course. The leaders avg. 25mph or 5min faster than me. That just won't cut it.

Run - I felt Great! The problem was, I felt so good- I was scared to "attack" early on in fear of feeling fatigue later, so I started at 6.20 per mile pace. Finally after the 4th mile I realized It was a good running day, so I ran the last 2 miles at 5.55 and 5.50 pace. I ran 38.39 (6.14 avg. for the 10k) and that was good enough for the 10th fastest run of the day and kept me in 17th overall position.

So in the end: A good swim, ok Bike, good run. I will take it. 2:04.55 was my time.