Oh. My. God. Ouch!

To borrow the words of one of my favorite athletes: Oh. My. God. Ouch. (Lance Armstrong in an interview after he did his first marathon... with inappropriate training.)

I actually did better than I expected yesterday at the California 70.3... but I learned a very important lesson: I am way to fucking old to do 70.3 without training.

The day started early as our alarm went off at 4:45 am. We got ready and hopped on our bikes with T-bags on our backs to bike the 1.5 miles to transition at 5:30 am. We set up and then began getting into our wetsuits. The morning was chilly at 47 degrees which actually made the water feel warm. There were 20 waves, and I was in #16 which meant that I was standing around in my wetsuit, freezing my ass off for an hour while the race was going on in front of me. Dan emerged from the water in about 31 minutes, about 5 minutes before my wave started. I yelled for him but I'm sure he didn't hear me. He was already in the zone. The swim was great. In my wave was all women 30-34 and there may have been about a hundred or so of us. It was a little congested in the first 200 meters, and after that it thinned out and was a very comfortable swim. The sighting was difficult after the turn around as we were heading straight into the rising sun. But it seemed fast and was over before I knew it.

I took my time in transition. Since I didn't have a goal in mind for this race and I knew it would be a really tough day I decided in advance that I wanted to be able to enjoy it. I knew if I was pushing myself, I would wear out and bad attitude would set in. So I kept a smile on my face and enjoyed the ride as a catered training ride, with 2000 of my closest friends. The hills were nice. It reminded me a lot of RAGBRAI as they were very rolling hills through nice green surroundings. A majority of the race was in and around the Camp Pendelton military base so it was very rural. The first 25 miles flew by before I knew it. I knew the big hills would be coming between 25-40, and then supposedly the last 15 miles was fairly flat sailing back to transition. Somewhere around mile 25 or 30 I had been thinking to myself "these hills aren't so bad", and just as that thought was circulating in my head we come around a corner and I actually had to laugh out loud. The hill in front of me was long and very very steep. People actually got off their bikes to walk up it, that's how steep it was! I got in my lowest gear and cranked up the hill at 5 mph. But actually, my heartrate didn't go overboard, and I didn't trash myself getting to the top. I was pretty happy. Now, on the other hand, I am a total weanie on the descent. There was one downhill with a speed limit of 25 mph set by the race director. I rode my breaks doing 20, and people flew past me (in a supposed no passing zone). One guy apologized for passing me and I shouted out a few words of good will as it didn't bother me in the least. I know I'm a weanie, other athletes shouldn't suffer for that! When I caught up to him at the base of the next hill I told him I'd happily take the uphills all day but I HATE the downhills! He laughed and said he knew I'd catch him on the up. I really enjoyed the hills. It gives your legs a chance to use different muscle groups so you don't fatigue as quickly. Once we hit those last 10 miles though... I was suffering into a straight head wind. I was pushing as hard as I could going 14 mph. Very reminiscent of IM AZ 2007. Ugh. I cannot escape the wind. I was so happy to see transition.

I tossed my running shoes on and took off like a bat out of .... I passed Dan as I was leaving T and he was heading for the finish chute. I felt great for the first 5 miles. Then my lack of training caught up with me. At that point I had been competing for about 5 hours which was 1.5 hours longer than my longest workout in 10 months. The time on my feet really took it's toll. But as I slowed down to walk occasionally, I thought to myself, 'there are worse places to take a nice long walk' as I looked out over the ocean. I cheered for my teammates and talked to some fellow competitors on the course. The volunteers were awesome! They all had such positive attitudes and seemed like they were having fun. I ran/ walked the second loop of the run and was never so happy to see the finish line approach. I was pretty much a zombie for about an hour after the race. I felt horrible. Everything ached. I felt worse than I usually do after Ironman.

We rested, showered and went back for rolldown so Dan could grab his slot to Clearwater. Then on to dinner and margaritas. Mmmmm. Today, we checked the results online. I was pleasantly suprised to see that I had finished in 6:17. I honestly thought I was closer to 7 hours, but as it turned out, my run was only 2:13!! I could have swore I was slower than that with as much as I walked! I felt like I had just won an award when I saw my results. Overall, a good training day on a beautiful course with fantastic volunteers and crowd support. I would highly recommend the California 70.3 in Oceanside to any triathlete. I won't be back next year because I'll be heading to Boston... but maybe 2011...