I had set my alarm for 2:30 AM on race day (August 15, 2010) to give me time to prepare my breakfast and be on the road by 3:30 AM. I left the house on time to arrive at the home of my buddy, Eric, by 4:10 AM. He was driving us to the race parking lot. Eric and I had targeted this race to shoot for a 1:35 half marathon time. We were ready. We had a pacing plan. We each had a role: Eric was in charge of driving, overall time tracking, and mental fortitude. My main role was ensuring that we kept to our set pace plan for each mile.

Pre-race: Immediately after parking the car, I had to take my first bathroom pit stop, what would be a total of five before the race. For some reason, racing takes away my normal constipation tendencies. While I appreciate the extra “movements,” I’ve been finding that the timing of these bathroom trips right before races to be inconvenient. Fortunately, I brought my own toilet paper. I timed breakfast perfectly, 3 hours before the race start of 7:00 AM. I just had an energy bar and pre-race Infinit drink mix to consume. Eric and I made our way to the front of the crowds near the start line for the national anthem and official start.

Crossing the 10K Platform

First 10K: We ran the first mile at a comfortable 7:44 pace as a warm-up. It seemed easy especially since the first four miles of the race were downhill from Cabrillo Monument in Pt. Loma to downtown San Diego. I felt good and we both kept pace. At mile4+ we were about 10 seconds ahead of schedule overall. When we completed mile 5, Eric announced that he had a blister on his foot, was not feeling well, and could not sustain the pace. Immediately, I felt deflated. I guess I was depending on Eric to help me get through the race mentally. I didn’t expect that he would be “in trouble” so early in the race. I still felt good. My legs felt good. But I felt bad for Eric, and I toyed with the idea of just hanging back with him for the rest of the race. When he told me to “go ahead if you can,” I took off.

I decided to adjust my race goals and shoot for a “just under” 1:40 race time. Though my 10K split was not my fastest 10K ever, the split of 45:12 was still close to a minute within my 10K PR.

Second 10K: After crossing the 10K platform, we headed right towards Harbor Island, for me, the most boring and mind-numbing part of the race. I took my first drink at the next aid station right before mile 7. I need to improve my aid station skills because I dropped the first cup. I also need to practice drinking while running because it always makes me choke even though I don’t drink a whole lot of water when I pass through.

As I choking on my sip of water, I slowed down a little to recover. Eric was able to catch up with me. Finally as we made it around to mile 8, I felt better about the race course as I knew we would be leaving that lame Harbor Island loop and making our way to the heart of downtown. Feeling good I pressed forward harder and dropped Eric. I would not see him again until the end of the race. I was totally on my own.

Sprinting and Suffering into Balboa Park

By mile 11 I was feeling okay, much better than I felt in the previous year’s race at the same milestone. At mile 11 the race course starts its toughest portion, a slight uphill for about 1.5 miles, followed by a steep hill during the last part of mile 12 through 13. At this point, I was torn between pressing hard uphill and running conservatively, saving some energy for a last ditch sprint inside Balboa Park where the race would finish.

The Finish: My time goal of 1:39:59 was within reach, but I knew it would be close. Unfortunately, I chose the conservative route. And it cost me a sub-1:40 time by 17 seconds. I’m pretty sure I went up that last hill faster than I had in the previous year, but my last ditch sprint when inside Balboa Park was too little too late, and so the Berlin Wall still stands. I continued sprinting into the finish chute, and completed the race with a time of 1:140:16.

Honestly, I was pleased with my results, but mildly annoyed that my time was still over the goal. What pleased me about the results was that I got close to my half marathon PR on a difficult course. I obtained my PR at this distance this past February on a super flat course at the Surf City Half Marathon.

Eric came in almost a full-minute after me with a time of 1:41:15, a new PR for him.

With the 2010 calendar year more than half over, I’m recommitting myself to training harder and racing all out at the end of races. I’ll start with declaring my top race goals for 2010:

1. Run a sub-20 minute 5K at Shelter Island 5K (November 7).
2. Run a sub-1:40 half marathon at the Silver Strand Half Marathon (November 14).
3. Qualify for the Boston Marathon at the Tuscon Marathon (December 12).

Eric and I celebrating after a good race. Please ignore my belly button.

I had very high expectations of myself for this race, especially since my first 70.3 race last March at Oceanside did not go as planned. I wanted to finish this race well under 6 hours and close to the 5:15 mark. Overall, I am very pleased with my results and the execution of my race plan. My official race time was 5:21:53.

Getting my T1 space ready

Pre-race: I arrived in Windsor on Friday, two days before the race and just after finishing a crazy week of work filled with sleepless nights and super important meetings. I think I had about 8 hours of sleep in about 72 hours. I worried that my lack of sleep would negatively affect my performance. Other than a lack of sleep, my pre-race was worry-free thanks to Jay for driving up my bike and race bag

After a short one-hour flight into San Jose, Maria and I drove up through Friday traffic and barely made it to the Athlete Dinner. It was a really good pasta dinner sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce for the city of Windsor. After dinner, we checked into the “not so comfortable” Comfort Inn in Santa Rosa, met up with Jay to take care of bike stuff, and then hit the sack for some much needed sleep.

Saturday was devoted to a morning one-hour workout bike ride and run with Jay and Mikey. It felt good to move around as I was still feeling lethargic from sitting behind a computer all week long with no sleep. After the morning pre-race workout, Jay and I checked in, looked around the race expo, bought some souvenirs, and dropped off our running gear at T2 located at Windsor High School. By the way, don’t bother with the pre-race course talk. It just made me nervous listening to all the warnings about the dangerous turns on the bike course. That’s not the kind of stuff you want to get lodged in your head before a race. We all ate lunch at Quizno’s, and then took a nap in the hotel. Later that evening Jay and I got our bikes and swim gear ready for the race. I had forgotten to bring an air pump, so I was a little worried about finding a pump before the race.

Swim: The next morning Jay and I left for the swim start/T1 at 4:30 am. The start was located at Johnson’s Beach at the Russian River Resort area. As soon as we arrived, I had to dart behind a building to go to the bathroom. I could wait no longer. Sorry, Guerneville peeps. There were no race refs around, so no penalties for me. I borrowed an air pump from some professional women triathletes, which alleviated my final worry of the morning.

I found my row and selected a spot to set up my transition area. Mentally, I made note of its location, which was five rows up from the porta-potty on the side of the Bike Out path. Wave 12 started at 7:58 am, so I had about three hours to kill. I did that by going to the bathroom about 6 more times. Good thing I brought some toilet paper.

Pre-race chat with Maria

At about 7:00 am I saw Maria. You can’t start a race without a good luck kiss! Warming up was pretty much non-existent. I had no running shoes, so I did a couple of jog laps back and forth in my sandals, and then I put on my wetsuit.

I was feeling a little nervous, as usual, about swimming. But as soon as I got into the water, it was amazingly warm 72.5 degrees. And because it was a freshwater river, it felt like swimming in a pool. I started to feel more confident. Finally at 7:50 am Wave 12 got into our starting area. I positioned myself to the right and a little rear. I think I get the best results starting there since I’m not going out to lead the swim. My goal for the swim was to do it in 35 minutes.

When the horn went off, I felt good and started out strong. With no clock to look at, I typically gauge my swim based on my perceived effort. For some weird reason, I felt tired for most of the swim. The water was shallow in many parts of the swim course, so I actually stood up and walked at some points. This helped me catch my breath. When I reached the turnaround point, it was about 19 or 20 minutes into the race, and I thought my swim was pretty much toast. So I buckled down and swam a little harder to get back to T1. Later I was surprised to learn that my swim was 37:24, which was almost a full three minutes faster than Oceanside. I chalk up the tired feeling in the water to perhaps a greater perceived effort. One thing I did differently in this race was to kick minimally. I think this saved me from getting any swim cramps before the bike ride. With a wetsuit on, you don’t really need to kick. I feel that the additional effort spent towards kicking doesn’t really increase my forward movement all that much in a wetsuit.

At this particular race for T1, we have to pack up all our gear into a bag. Then the race volunteers bring our stuff to the finish line for us. In addition to my usual difficulties removing the bib john portion of the wet suit, I spent more time than I wanted trying to get everything into my bag before leaving on the bike ride. There is still much to improve in my T1 transition. It was a slow 4:06.

Bike Out

Bike: Immediately at the Bike Mount area, there is a small hill. Some people chose to walk their bikes up the hill, but it seemed to small to me to waste time doing that. Before the race I put my bike into a lower gear so I basically just sprinted up the hill while trying to dodge the noobs who were walking and struggling to clip into their pedals.

Basically for the first 8 miles or so, I was pretty annoyed with just passing people and trying to clear a path for myself where I felt I wasn’t surrounded by other athletes. I worried a little about getting a drafting penalty, but fortunately the refs weren’t monitoring the start of the bike course too closely.

I encountered a sharp right turn at mile 7, and then I forgot about the immediate left turn. I almost ate it when my bike ran into some dirt. I thought about my time trial face plant at Fiesta Island last March for a few seconds, and was relieved that I didn’t lose control as I got out of the dirt and onto the road.

The bike course was much easier than that of the Oceanside race. There were some points where I was going 30+ mph. But given the rolling hills on the course, I was very pleased to sustain an average speed of 21 mph for the entire bike route. The weather was still overcast, which enabled me to maintain a fast speed with little effect from climate and heat. The advice given to me before the race was to go “slower” on the bike course and save some energy for the run.

I finished half the course (28 miles) at about 1:15. The weather was still relatively overcast, but the sun and heat were finally making their appearance. I decided to race the rest of the bike route in such a way that I could go as fast as I can without exerting a lot of effort. To maximize this, I pedaled hard on downhills and used the momentum to get up the rolling hills with ease. Despite the overcast weather, I stuck to my race nutrition plan and took a sip of my Infinit bike mix every 10 minutes even though I didn’t feel thirsty.

At mile 45 I went up the lone steep hill of the course at a relatively slow pace. I could feel the beginnings of cramps in my quads, the same situation that caused my Oceanside race to be so poor on the run. I continued to ride as planned, going as fast as a I could without exerting my quads too hard. The last part of the race heading back into Windsor was relatively flat. I know I could have gone faster with a little more effort, but I was afraid of cramping on the run.

Overall, I was very pleased with my bike leg. I didn’t ride as conservatively as I had planned. My time was 2:37, and I was shooting for 2:45.

Run Out

Run: When I arrived to my spot at T2, I secured my bike to the rack and tore open my bag of running gear. My T2 time was much shorter than T1, 2:49.

About three-tenths of a mile onto the course, I felt the familiar pang of pain in my quads, especially my right quad. The cramps were here! Instead of panicking, I moved off the run course to stop and stretch for a few seconds. When the pain subsided I began running again.

After the first mile of running relatively slow, I had a talk with my negative self and asked if there was any reason why I should settle for less on the run? I had a goal of finishing this half marathon in under two hours, but my current pace was definitely putting me at the 2:15 mark again. I convinced my negative self to go away and just focused on maintaining a steady cadence.

At times I had to walk to prevent the cramps from taking over. As I reached mile 6 I felt my confidence return. I knew I had it in me to finish this run in under two hours so I continued at a comfortable pace that would allow me to do just that. It was not my fastest pace, but it was definitely a doable pace at which I could manage the pain of impending cramps while still achieving my time goals.

As I entered the finish chute, I passed about three people. Why weren’t they sprinting? Who knows? I took a last look at my watch and I knew my results would be good. I was very happy with my final time of 5:21:53. The run? Yea. I finished it in under two hours with a time of 1:59:47.

In addition to improving my swim time, I would also like to improve my T1 and running time. I feel like I’m on the cusp of going under 5 hours for this distance. If I can get my time under 5 hours, then I think I’ll have a good shot at qualifying for Clearwater in my age group. I know I can knock 20 minutes off my run time as I build up my strength and endurance for running after swimming/biking.

So yea. For me, I kicked ass in this race. And I’m pretty happy about it.

Crossing the finish line

For once I am attempting to complete a race report upon completion of the race and not several weeks later. I still plan to report out on my races at the La Jolla Half Marathon and the Spring Sprint Triathlon, but those will have to wait.

I achieved a major milestone this morning by completing my first marathon, the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Marathon, in under four hours with a time of 3:51:28. Although I did not achieve my goal of 3:30, a Boston Marathon qualifying time for my age group next year, I am very pleased overall with my performance today.

The day started quite early, waking up at 3:00 AM to eat breakfast and change. Fortunately, I packed my race gear stuff the night before and put all of it in the car. I was out the door and headed to Qualcomm Stadium by 4:00 AM as planned. Surprisingly, it was barely enough time to make it to the start line. With over 30,000 runners competing in this event, I will be sure to leave even earlier next time so I don’t feel rushed and stressed out before the race.

After arriving at Balboa Park from the shuttle ride, I headed straight for the porta-potties for a last-minute pit stop. Unfortunately, the lines were so long that I finally reached the front of my line and finished my restroom obligatories with about five minutes to spare before my wave started at 6:16 AM. After the restroom ordeal, I dropped my gear back at the Gear Check (thank you, UPS). But then I realized that I had lost one of my nutrition flasks. I ran back to the bathroom area to look for it, but gave up when I couldn’t find it right away. My backup nutrition for the lost calories was to drink the Cytomax at the aid stations as needed for the first hour, and then use my two other flasks for the last two hours. As I ran towards the starting lines to find Corral #2, someone was singing the national anthem. I found my starting area with about 30 seconds to spare. As I maneuvered through a barricade, I accidentally stepped on someone’s toe. She told me: “You just stepped on my toe.” Thanks for that info. I said nothing and then we were off.

The weather was awesome, overcast. I began to believe that this was going to be the perfect day for the perfect race. My plan was to run the first 10K at 8:15, the second and third 10Ks at 8:00, and the last 10K+ at 7:45. I actually felt great for several miles. My biggest struggle was holding back and conserving energy. The cool weather made it easy to run, so I decided to just follow how my body felt.

I’m glad I was able to get all my mile splits in faster than 8:15 and sometimes faster than 8:00 because when the race headed on to the 163 Freeway after mile 8 for a three-mile uphill stretch, my faster splits earlier would allow me to stay on track as I ran up the hills slower than I wanted.

I ran into a co-worker who was volunteering at an aid station at Mile 11 and grabbed some water from her. Thanks for your support, Debbie!

Amazingly, even after 13.1 miles, I still felt great. I shoved the idea that I had another half of the race to run to the back part of my mind. I didn’t want to focus on that. Instead, I continued to focus on my arm swing keeping my arms pumping forward rather than swinging across my chest, keeping my strides light on my feet and letting gravity take the momentum trying to prevent my body from absorbing the impact, and finally relaxing my feet as they struck the ground so I wouldn’t cramp.

I was on pace to finish at 3:30, maybe even one minute earlier. The weather cooperated by staying cloudy. But things changed quickly at mile 16. My calves started to scream their displeasure with their current tasking. So I began to modify my stride to manage and prevent cramping. Unfortunately, I had 10 more miles to go. The weather began to change too with the sun burning away the cloud cover. By the time I reached miles 18 through 20, there were no more clouds.

As I entered the last 6 miles of the race around Mission Bay and Fiesta Island, my calves were screaming louder for me to STOP. I never really cramped during the race, but I definitely did not sustain my pace goals those last six miles. By that time I knew I had to change my Boston Marathon dreams and plans. My main objective was simply to not cramp for the remainder of the race and be sure I finished this marathon in under four hours. When the pain got unmanageable, I walked for a bit and then started running again. This seemed to be a better strategy rather than just running hard anyways until a major cramp took over and forced me to walk the rest of the race.

Fiesta Island was brutal. The sun beat down on me throughout the entire Fiesta Island loop. But sometimes a nice bay breeze would help me out. It seemed like the loop around the island would never end. By miles 22 and 23 I really wanted to get out of Fiesta Island, but realized that I still had 3 miles of this monotonous, circular loop to complete. At mile 24, my attitude improved with the knowledge that I would be finished with my first marathon in just over two miles.

At mile 25, I could hear the commotion at the finish line across the bay at the Sea World parking lot. I could also see the exit to Fiesta Island and was very happy to be finally done with 6 miles of a “running hell”. And so I picked it up a bit for the last mile. I took my last drink at the final aid station with 0.8 miles left.

With Fiesta Island behind me, there was about four tenths of a mile left (even though my Garmin 310XT told me I had already completed 26.2 miles). I noticed that most of the mile markers on the race were 0.2 miles further away than indicated by my Garmin watch.

With 0.2 miles left, I began a quick pace and a final sprint to the finish line. As I approached the finish line, I was thinking about what a huge accomplishment this was for me. Less than three years ago, I had just reached my health and weight goals. I never would have imagined running a marathon. In fact, I told my personal trainer that I would never run a marathon (spoken after he suggested that I try running one). Running marathons were for crazy people. So I guess I’m crazy now.

I passed a couple of people as I headed into the finish line chute. I saw my wife and two friends near the finish. They cheered and held up signs. The weight of completing this race under four hours as well as the soreness and fatigue in my legs got to me after I crossed the line. I bent over hunched on my knees from being tired and also overcome with emotion. It was difficult to believe that I just ran 26.2 miles. One of the volunteers noticed that I was bent over crying, and asked me if I was okay. I got a hold of myself, collected my medal, and waited in line to get my picture taken.

Ryan Hall & Me

The other cool thing at this race was meeting Ryan Hall, United States number one ranked marathon runner . He signed a couple of autographs for me and included his favorite bible verse, John 10:10. And after a day like today, life sure does feel abundant.

It all starts with belief in yourself even when nobody else believes in you.

And so without further delay, below is a re-write of my biggest loser story. I was not able to include this “biography” in my EDTEC portfolio, so I’m posting it on my blog. Enjoy.

What have you done today to make yourself proud?

A Grim Future

I have been overweight most of my life, except for maybe 16 years (ages 0-6, 14-24). Those years were when I was a young child and when I was a competitive tennis player. But even during those lean years, food and overeating, as well as a yo-yo pattern of gaining and losing weight, were the physical issues that plagued me for as far back as I can remember.

At the age of 34 I was denied a lower premium on my life insurance policy so I decided to get a physical to find out why. The routine physical showed no sign of disease; however, my doctor predicted a grim future for me after studying the results from my blood work:

Gerry, if you don’t make a change in your life, you will contract Type II diabetes, and will most likely have to be on high blood pressure medication for the rest of your life. This will lead to cardiovascular disease and wide array of medications. You will die of either a heart attack, stroke, or complications from diabetes.

The fear of that conversation produced a change in my diet and exercise for about a month. My subsequent blood work improved over the next five months. But eventually the fear wore off, and I went back to my old habits of overeating and not being active. My doctor suggested follow up blood work and regular physicals, and had scheduled another round of blood tests for me, but after seven years, I still had not gone back for those tests or physicals.

The Nightmare, The Dream

In July of 2007 my father-in-law underwent heart surgery. While we were visiting him in the hospital I noticed that the other cardiac patients were of varying ages. One in particular was in his 30s and extremely obese. Upon my return from that visit, I vowed never to end up in the cardiac ward. I was tired of that nagging pain in my knees as I walked up the stairs. I was weary of the pain in my ankles as I walked the short distance from my bed to the bathroom every morning.

I decided to stop wasting my life away and act.

The brand new LA|FITNESS gym in my neighborhood was having its Grand Opening event. I wanted to get a free t-shirt, which was the only reason I planned on going on August 30, 2007. But during the evening of August 29th, I had a very vivid dream that I was working with a personal trainer, and I was really fit and buff. I took the dream to be an omen, and the next day I listened to a sales pitch about the benefits of personal training. I bought a membership because I knew I needed to lose over 80 pounds… and yes, I did get my free XL t-shirt, which barely fit.

From Fat to Freedom

I met with my trainer, Evan, for the first time on September 10, 2007. I was kind of nervous and scared, but also very determined and excited to change my life. I could barely lift any weight, was only able to do five “girl” push-ups, and was out of breath all the time at the gym.

I started out lifting weights just once or twice a week, but I also attended an intense spin class about 4-6 times per week where I usually burned about 800 kcal per hour. I cut my caloric intake down to about 1600-1800 calories per day. Over time, I dropped weight, decreased body fat, and built muscle.

After six months in April of 2008, I decided to take up cycling on the road, and purchased my first road bike. After a couple of months of riding, I began training for the Tour de Poway, a 100-mile ride, with a goal of finishing the race in under six hours. In October that year, just after three months of reaching my fitness goals, I completed the ride in just under six hours.

Oh yeah, I finally did get a physical and see the doctor in 2008. He was ecstatic about my stats:

My transformation story is not finished just yet. I’m constantly asking myself a lyric from a familiar tune: “What have you done today to make yourself proud?” Today, I’m in better shape than most 20-year olds with the fitness level of an athlete. I’m an accomplished runner and triathlete. I enjoy working out in the outdoors on my bike or simply taking my running shoes for a spin. Although I get tired of being remembered as once being fat, I regularly take time to reflect and be grateful for the journey I took to get to where I am today. I am proud of being a biggest loser, but there are many more challenges I’d like to conquer. I hope to add other monikers to my name list like “Ironman” and “Ironman World Championships Qualifier”.

On April 11, 2010 I got to the race site early since parking is a big problem due to the race’s popularity. While waiting to start my pre-race warm-up routine, I got carried away reading a book and sipping on my Pre-Race Infinit drink. Unfortunately, I did more reading than sipping. Instead of thinking about my liquid intake right before the race, I drank the remainder of the Infinit drink, and immediately, I regretted it.

Carlsbad 5000

With about 40 minutes until race start, I did a short warm-up run and walked around for a little bit, waiting for my body to process all the excess liquid. Fortunately, I felt less water-logged by the time the race started. With about 15 minutes to the start, I powered on my Garmin 310 XT. I noticed the battery power was kinda low, but I didn’t think anything of it since the total race time would be brief. With 5 minutes to go, my Garmin powered down… dead battery. Apparently, I had left it on all night the other day, and there was no power left.

I know I’ve become dependent on the Garmin’s features. For runs, I use it to view my pace, speed, and elapsed time. For this race, I ran blindly, relying simply on my perceived effort and my experience from other races. I put negative thoughts out of my head and resigned myself to the fact that I’d be listening to my body rather than looking at my watch during the race.

Despite my lack of technology during the race, I ran a very good race and came within half a minute of my personal best. This year I was one of the top 250 finishers in the race so I got one of the cool First 250 Finishers medal.

Of the four elements in triathlon, yes I meant to say four, I identified two liabilities to work on in my race preparation. One, swimming. Two, nutrition.

Since January, I’ve been swimming at least three times per week for about 5 miles/week. Each Tuesday, I swam on my own at LA Fitness, following the swim workout created for me by my coach. For my other two weekly swims each Wednesday and Friday, I joined a Master’s Swim program with the Escondido Swim Club. In the last four months, I have swum about 95,000 yards. My swim pace decreased from about 1:50/100 yards when I first began to my current fastest pace of 1:37/100 yards. I swam my fastest 1.2 miles in the pool in 41:37.

For as much as I could control about my apprehension of water, I did as much as I could in the pool to overcome any doubts and fears. Swimming, swimming, and more swimming. I definitely improved both my speed and my endurance.

The big question still lingering: How would I do in the ocean? Where the water is dark and cold. Where there are tons of other people around me splashing and kicking in my face. The day before the race, I downloaded a race preview talk given by professional triathlete and coach, Jim Vance. I planned to follow his advice to acclimate to the cold waters of the Oceanside Harbor:

1. Warm up prior to the swim so that I’m sweaty with the wetsuit on.
2. Dunk my face and head into the water and breathe to prevent hyperventilating.
3. Let my wetsuit fill up with water.
4. Choose an appropriate place to start in relation to the other swimmers based on my ability.

With respect to nutrition, I enlisted the aid of expert nutritionist, Kim Mueller, of Fuel Factor. She performed a diet and exercise analysis on me. From the diet analysis, she created a baseline meal plan for me of 2200 calories per day, along with a plan for extra calories to account for pre-workout, work, and post-workout recovery. In the last four months, I learned a lot from Kim about how and when to eat to fuel my workouts and races as well as recover from them. Armed with a new nutrition regimen for the last four months, I must say I have never felt better. In the past four months, not only have I maintained a sub-10% body fat percentage, but I have also felt great for all but two of my workouts and events. My nutrition and diet, the fourth discipline of triathlon, have given me confidence in my body’s ability to perform based on providing it with the most ideal fuel.

A week before the race, Kim gave me the best advice. I think it was the key for my mental outlook on race day. She said:

Just go out there and have fun. Enjoy each sport as you do them. You’ve already done the hard part and all the work. The race is the easy part.

This totally put me at ease. Along with the tips from Jim Vance, I felt very relaxed for my swim! I don’t think I have ever been more prepared for a race before. Swimming, cycling, and running had all peaked at the right time.

When the gun went off for the swim, I did not hyperventilate, but just swam as if I were in the pool, very relaxed. I thought about my race pace and what that feels like. The only hiccups for me in the swim was dealing with all the people around and getting bumped. A bit into the race I started to feel a little tired, and I told myself that the feeling was ridiculous given the fitness level I had attained through all my pool workouts. After assuring myself that the feeling was not true, it went away. And I knew I would have no difficulty finishing the swim. My goal was to finish the swim in under 45 minutes, but because of my hiccups in the water where I stopped swimming briefly after getting bumped a couple of times, I kind of put the sub-45 minute out of my mind, thinking it was not possible. I even felt some cramps beginning in my quads during the swim, which was kind of strange since I don’t really kick that much in my wetsuit. Finally, as I got out of the water and headed into T1 I looked down at my watch and saw that my swim time had been much faster than I expected. Later I would learn that my official swim time was 40:24. Because this time included the run to the transition area, it meant my actual swim time was under 40 minutes!

As I ran to my rack, the cramps in my quads were very painful. I hoped that they would go away on my bike ride. As it turned out, my quads never cramped during the ride. I headed out of T1 with not so great a transition time of 5:20. I had some difficulty getting my bib john off, so it slowed me down. In future 70.3 races I’d like to see my T1 time down between 2 and 3 minutes. Most of the bike ride is actually flat. So I zoomed at about 20-25 mph for much of the flat portions. I knew there were three hills on the bike course, the first one and steepest one occurring at mile 30.

Honestly, I didn’t respect these hills as much as I should have. The first one kicked my butt. Though it was the steepest, it was the shortest hill. One down, two to go. By the time I finished the third hill at mile 45, 2 hours 15 minutes on the bike ride had elapsed. It meant that I had to go around 11 miles in about a half hour. Translation: I had to sustain at least 22 mph to meet my goal of going under 2 hours 45 for the bike ride. I had to make a race decision about this: do I go for it or do I save some gas for the run? My quads were speaking to me also. They told me that as soon as I stepped off my bike they were going to cramp. I could feel it. Don’t ask me how I knew. I just knew. So I decided to go for it. I met my bike goal and finished the ride in 2:43:41.

T2 was much easier for me. I racked my bike, put on my socks, shoes, and visor. I grabbed a quick drink, my soft flasks of Infinit run mix, and a bar, and off I went. As I headed out on the run, I spotted Maria and Tony. The soft flasks did not cooperate and stay in my jersey pockets, so I decided to toss the bar to Tony so that I could hold on to both flasks during the entire run. As I rounded the second turn onto the streets of Oceanside, the cramps came back very hard. They were so painful that I had to stop and stretch.

This pretty much was my entire half marathon. I had vowed that I would never walk nor stop during a run, but now I have learned to respect those who walk or stop during a run. My cramp pain was so unbearable that running with any sort of normal speed for me was impossible. And so I hobbled, stopped, stretched, walked, and sometimes ran for the entire 13.1 miles. As planned, I stopped at every aid station for a small sip of water to chase my Infinit mix down. By mile 6 the cramps were extremely frustrating, and I started to eat potato chips and pretzels at the aid stations for the extra salt. I don’t think it helped any. For me, this half marathon was about mental toughness. No longer was it about trying to get a good time (my goal was going under 1:45), but it was about finishing this run respectably, which meant an all-out sprint at the finish line despite the pain. I dealt with the cramp pain, sprinted at the finish line and passed about four runners, and finished with my slowest half marathon time ever of 2:15:45. My total race time was 5:47:17.

Although I was disappointed with not having gotten my overall time closer to 5:15, I was very pleased with my race execution. There’s a lot of room for improvement, and I plan to do better at my next 70.3 in July at Vineman, preferably with no cramps at all.

Despite my silence  on my blog, I have been very busy in 2010. My new role at work as a project lead is challenging; I’m managing two projects. I’m finishing up my Master’s degree in Educational Technology from SDSU. And I’m fueling my passion for endurance sports by training about 12-15 hours per week. My primary goal this year is to have my peak performances at the long course triathlon distance, or Ironman 70.3. In the midst of all this business, I’ve competed in three races since January, a 5K and two half marathons. In two of these races, I barely missed my personal goals by a margin of about 16 seconds. So I’d say that my running is doing very well. At our recent track time trial, I ran a 6:20 pace over a 2-mile distance.

Even swimming, my nemesis, has improved. I’ve been swimming about 4.5 to 5 miles weekly in the pool for the last three months on my own and as part of a Master’s Swim group with the Escondido Swim Club. My swim pace has steadily dropped. It was about 1:55/100 yards when I first started. And now, I can swim a little faster than 1:38/100 yards. I’ve had my fastest 1.2-mile swim to date at 41:38. The only unknown left to conquer is to find out if I can relax while racing in the ocean and just let the miles of swimming that I’ve been doing take over.

Even though I’m relatively new to serious athletic training, I’ve found my cycling to be my strongest discipline of the three sports. I don’t really have anything to make that determination other than a couple of informal time trial results at Fiesta Island. My fastest prior to this writing was 31 minutes over 20K, which is three large loops around the island, or 12 miles.

Two days ago, one week before my big race (Ironman 70.3 California), I participated in the first time trial of the season with Breakaway Training. Despite being only one week away from the race, Coach Luke said to go for it. My goal: finish the 12 miles in under 30 minutes, which meant that I needed to average greater than 24 mph.

My buddy, Eric and I, started off together. Just as an aside, before the start of the trial, Eric was moaning on and on about how tired he’s been and not feeling well. Just so you know, Eric, I’m on to you buddy! Anyways, I “warmed up” my legs for a hundred yards or so, then Matt took off. And so the chase began. I followed him with the lead group of about five or six others) close behind. For a second or two, I reached speeds of about 29-30 mph to give chase, overtaking the lead for a short time around the first turn where it’s easy to go fast on a slight downhill. The lead group (Matt, Eric, Dave P, Kent, Gary, and one other dude) set the pace, and I followed behind.

I’m not sure if the lead group was forming a paceline. As you know, there’s no drafting in triathlon, but our coaches said drafting was okay for this informal “race”. In any case, I didn’t participate in any rotating off the front, but hung in the back, conserving energy. We rode anywhere from 25-27 mph at any given time. Whenever I thought the group was going too slowly (under 24 mph), I sped up and took the lead. I’m not sure if they liked that or not; the lead group never let me stay too far ahead and always brought me back into the fold.

I like to think that most of the guys (other than the other middle-aged 40-yr old+ athletes) didn’t like some new guy on the block up in the front, especially some 44-year old with gray hair and all, like me. Ha! Most likely, nobody in the group thought about that. I like saying it, though. By the middle of the second lap, I noticed that my buddy Eric had taken a strong position in the lead group.

Although I wasn’t really sure if Eric was truly on his second lap, I decided to surge forward and pass the whole group when we reached the back side of the island. There was a slight headwind, and our group speed had dropped to about 22-23 mph. I was a little agitated by the slow down, so I yelled out: Let’s go. We’re under 24!” Again the lead group brought me to the back of the fold as we came around for our last lap.

Given the few glances at my speedometer over the course of the trial, I knew that I would easily finish in under half an hour. I was sustaining speeds of over 25 mph for the race. My strategy for the last lap was to hang in the back of the group to conserve energy, and then sprint to the finish when it was in sight. I estimate that the sprint would be about 1.25 km long, maybe 45 seconds to 1 minute. At the back of the group, it was effortless. I love that feeling where your legs are pedaling in almost a free spin. Whenever I look at my speedometer at that point, I’m always amazed by how fast I’m going with such little effort.

At the back of the island there were a couple of cars that were riding to far to the right, which slowed us down to about 22 mph. We had to pass them on the left, which was kind of weird. After navigating around another couple of cars, our speed had dropped to about 21 mph. All of a sudden, I saw Eric take off. Matt and a couple of others gave chase. Dave P and I were in the back of the group. I knew in a few moments, the finish would be visible in the distance.

With the finish line in sight, the group spread out. The sprint was on. Dave P and I maneuvered to the left of the road. I glanced down at my watch. 27.3 mph. I looked at the space. I looked at Dave. For a second I hesitated because I was on the edge of the road, very close to the sand. Neither Dave nor I wanted to yield. In that moment of hesitation, Dave took the space and my bike had no choice, but to go in the sand.

In slow motion, I could feel the bike wobble. And then wham! My front wheel turned left at 90 degrees. I yelled, “Oh sh…!”

BAM! My eyes were closed at impact. My face hit the sand. Really, really hard. When I opened my eyes, I knew that my head and face had hit the ground. I sat up for a little bit, and saw my right cleat was still clipped in. I clipped out of the pedal and looked ahead. I saw Dave P looking back at me. Then I laid down on the ground and closed my eyes for a second. I didn’t know what to do. At first I wanted to get back up on my bike and finish, but when I tried to sit up, the pain in my head and chin were overwhelming. For a second I worried that nobody would stop to help me. I had a load of sand in my mouth. I could taste the blood. I wondered if any of my teeth had been knocked out.

Then I heard Dave P’s voice. He had come back to help. I know I had my eyes open, but I didn’t really focus on anything. I heard Dave talking to me. I can’t really remember what he said other than telling me to lie down whenever I would try to sit up. Other voices gathered around. I saw a car stop to help. Dave told some guy to call 911. All I could think about was not letting Maria know that I was hurt because I didn’t want her to miss her cooking class in the afternoon. I had bought her this class as a birthday gift. If I ended up in the emergency room, I knew she would miss the class. I didn’t want her to worry, so as we waited for the paramedics to arrive, I began scheming how I wasn’t going to tell Maria I was hurt until after the class was finished.

I guess a large group had gathered around. I heard some of my fellow Breakaway athletes talking to me. I don’t really remember what I saw and I have no idea why my eyes didn’t focus on anything. I did tell Dave that I was too aggressive. I even managed to say “Stupid Dave. I didn’t want to give in.”

I must have looked like a mess. I think Dave was trying to get me to lie still and stop talking. I don’t know how he remained calm, but it helped me stay as relaxed as I could be possibly be at that moment. My head and chin hurt like hell. Then I heard Adam’s voice. I looked up and saw him. He offered me his water bottle so I could rinse my mouth. I took a swig from the bottle. I think Dave told me to rinse and spit, not sure. But when I did, I spit out a huge amount of bloody water. The crowd around me gasped.

The paramedics arrived in 5 minutes in a fire truck (?). I noticed the paramedics took over, and I no longer heard Dave’s voice. They started asking me a bunch of questions. What happened? How old was I? What medications am I taking? Am I allergic to any medications? Was someone taking my pulse? I couldn’t tell. They told me to respond by saying yes or no, and not to move my head.

I heard Eric’s voice. I think he asked me if I needed my phone. I told him my keys were in my Bento box, and to bring my phone. I had to remember where they were in the car. “They’re in the front in the seat compartment. You have to lift it up.” I forgot to tell him to bring my wallet. Then I remembered my bike. “What about my bike?” The paramedics told me they were going to take care of my bike. Or at least that’s what I thought they said. In my mind I was thinking: “How stupid is that? How are you going to take care of my bike?” And then, I heard Eric or maybe it was Coach Luke tell me they were going to put my bike on the back of my car? Or was it that they were going to put my bike in the back of their car. I was confused and dazed for sure.

The lead paramedic told me they were going to put me on a backboard and put a neck brace on me. “Are you serious?” I think I also told them that I didn’t want that. But they said they had to do it for precautionary reasons until the doctors could determine if I had injured my back or neck. They began taping my legs, arms, and head down to the backboard. God, I hated that brace around my neck. It made me feel worse!

I could hear another big vehicle pull up. I’m assuming it was an ambulance. All I could think about was the $100 copay I would owe for emergency room treatments. As the paramedics were lifting me and sliding me into the ambulance, I was thinking about how I never wanted to ride in an ambulance. On the way to the hospital, John, the lead paramedic, was asking me the same questions again. Then he called in to the hospital to give them my stats, my condition, my medications, allergies, etc. 20 minutes is a helluva long time when you’re wearing a stupid neck brace. I was pulling on it for almost the entire time. That stupid thing was pressing on my chin!

On the way to the hospital, I checked my Garmin. Can you believe it? I wanted to know my race stats:

11.76 miles, 25.3 mph, 27:50.65

I smiled, then turned off my watch.

Later I would learn that I was awarded “Hero of the Day” and given a finishing time of 28:44, the same time as the lead group. How did “not feeling so good today” Eric do? He finished first. I told Eric later: “You’re lucky I crashed. I was coming for you.”

I won’t bore you with the details of the ER. Just check out the pictures.

Phase 1  (Jan- Apr) — The Triple Crown: I started out the year with a focus on running, something I had begin in October 2008. My primary goal for the year was to complete the Triple Crown of San Diego half marathons. I clearly remember running my first half marathon (Carlsbad 2009) wondering if I could complete it in under two hours. The finish line never looked so beautiful for that first half marathon. Apparently, my base level of fitness was not as high as I thought it was. After that race, I had cramps in my calves and feet. When I completed it well under two hours with a time of 1:52:10, I knew I was on my way.

Up next in Phase 1 was the La Jolla Half Marathon. I had heard so much hype about this race, about how difficult it would be with “all the hills”. For the most part, I trained near my home by doing hill repeats up a local street near the local community college. Funny, my personal trainer said that I was a “badass” when I showed him the hill. In retrospect, it was more like a bunny slope compared to what was to come later on in the year. I really believe I could have set another PR at the La Jolla Half, but instead I settled for finishing under two hours again and a major lesson learned. Note to self: Do not eat lots of fiber the night before a race.

I would be remiss if I failed to mention that my personal trainer had been whispering “triathlon” in my ear during this time. In February I purchased a book to help me train for my first triathlon in 12 weeks.

Phase 2 (May-Oct) — Triathlon: With a couple of half marathons, 10Ks, and 5Ks under my belt, I focused on my first triathlon, a sport that I vowed that I would never do. And now look at me; I have an entire blog devoted to triathlon. So it’s no secret that I like race bling. For my first triathlon, the Spring Sprint, I raced the Super Sprint race, for which only the winner in each division would receive a medal. My personal trainer told me to put any thought of winning out of my mind. He said people spend years chasing the podium and never get on. Needless to say, I didn’t listen to him. I entered the race with all intentions of winning, and that’s exactly what happened. A key decision I made a few days before the race was to take my training to the next level, and so I decided to sign up with Breakaway Training.

During this phase I focused on my training with Breakaway. My coach, Luke Walton (no, not the lame one from the Lakers), wrote challenging custom workouts for me. The group workouts were humbling at first. I learned that I was not that great compared to some experienced triathletes on the team. Despite my initial discouragement with how much I would have to improve, I forged ahead, working very hard in my training while balancing full-time work and going to school part-time. It’s a wonder I didn’t drive my coach crazy with how impatient I was with myself.

I competed in four other triathlons with varying results. I didn’t get the race results I wanted (i.e. top three spots), but in each one I made improvements in the various aspects involved in doing triathlon. The interesting thing about this time period is that I must have made many small improvements over time because in October I noticed a significant improvement in my cycling and running.

When I traveled to Austin, Texas for the LIVESTRONG Challenge, my cycling and running speeds were significantly faster.

Phase 3 (Nov-Dec) — The Chase: Whatever madness to his methods, my coach was definitely putting together a very successful training program for me. During this phase I finished in the top three spots in all my 10K and 5K races, as well as set a new sub-1:45 half marathon PR. It was during this time that I began to chase the sub-20-minute 5K. With respect to cycling, on our last 20K time trial on Fiesta Island I averaged 25 mph WITHOUT drafting off our top athlete.

In retrospect, 2009 was a banner year. I think I’ve done really well given the eight months of training with Breakaway.

For 2010, I intend to complete a 5K in under 20 minutes, improve my swimming, and focus on the half Ironman triathlon distance as well as complete my first marathon.

I fully expected to run in pouring rain, but the skies withheld their moisture for the duration of the race. The rain didn’t start until about an hour before the awards ceremony. I’m glad I didn’t have to contend with wet roads while running although Coach Luke told me that running in the rain would be no problem.

I had some minor agitations before the race. My pre-registration was messed up because I was Paola De Ocampo, a 30-year old female. This mishap was pretty surprising especially since I had signed up for the race online. To correct the problem, I had to fill out a scantron registration form, and the race officials gave me a new bib number.

For whatever reason I didn’t have the same speed or energy as I did in my previous race. With the small rolling hills in the course, I knew by the second mile of the race that I would not be reaching my race goal. Despite the disappointment, I was happy to place 3rd and receive my last medal of 2009.

Nothing gong on but training during the holidays. Next race for me is a 5k on January 9th at Mission Bay. I’ve run the course before, and it is flat. I think it will be my best opportunity to beat this 20-minute barrier both in terms of flatness and availability. For other flat courses in the early months of 2010, I already have other race commitments. Wish me luck!

I put last year out of my mind, determined to run my own race at my own pace. My goal was 0:44:59. In order to finish the 10k race in under 45 minutes, I knew I would have to run close to a 7:00 minute/mile pace. I planned to do the first 5k of the race at about 7:10, and then to speed up for the second half to about 7:05 or 7:00.

Before the race I did a little 10-minute warm-up jog. At Fiesta Island you don’t have much of a choice of where you run considering it’s just a small island with one main circular road. After my warm-up the Open Division started, and I knew my event (Master’s) would be starting in about half an hour. As I lined up at the start line I saw the familiar faces from last year, the older, veteran runners from the San Diego Track Club. I blocked them out of my mind and thought only about the pace I needed to run. Despite the cold weather, I felt good, energetic yet relaxed.

The race started and I let all the old folks pass me, sticking to my plan and maintaining a pace of 7:10. Really the first four miles were kinda boring. I did bring my iPod and just listened to music and thought about stuff, what specifically, I cannot remember for the life of me. There was a woman who was running at about the same pace as me, so I decided to pace against her. It was kind of annoying at first since we ran side by side for four miles. But I got used to it. At first, she would try to speed up and go faster than me, but I stayed with her. After awhile, I guess she gave up because we pretty much ran together for most of the race.

After the first 5k, I tried to speed up a tad, but decided against it. I felt it would take too much energy out of me. So fortunately, I felt fine in maintaining the 7:10 pace. At mile four, I noticed that a couple of runners who had remained in front of me for the whole race had slowed down slightly. I even lost the pace woman somewhere in the middle of the fourth mile.

By the time I reached the last mile of the race, I was waiting for that “wall” to hit. The “wall” is what I call that physical feeling that I typically get when my lungs and legs scream “NO!”, and then I have to slow down. The weird thing is, the “wall” never came.

There was a husky, heavier guy who was ahead of me for the whole race, but by mile 5 I knew I’d be passing him soon since I never did hit the “wall”. As I turned around the final bend towards the finish with about 0.6 miles remaining, I decided to begin a gradual sprint. I passed the big dude. With about 0.3 miles remaining, I passed someone else. As I passed him, I could hear his feet picking up speed, and I knew he didn’t like that I had passed him especially with the finish line in sight. So I stepped it up to a full-on sprint.

After the race, I enjoyed some post-race treats and drinks. The one dude that I passed before the finish line told me afterwards that he tried to catch me but couldn’t. I thought that was cool. After changing, I went back to the finish line to check on my results: 0:44:09. I finished 25th overall. If I had raced in the Open division, I would have finished 18th. Go figure. Anyways, I thought that 25th was definitely not good enough to win anything, so after calling Maria and letting her know the results, I decided to leave.

As I approached the exit to the island, I decided to turn around and go back to the finish line to check the results one more time. I had realized that even though I finished 25th, those were the overall results. I had not really paid attention to how I did in comparison to my age group. It’s a good thing I went back because when I checked the results board, I discovered that I placed 1st in my AG. So I headed over to the awards ceremony gathering and collected a cool (but cheap-looking) plaque. Seriously, I would just rather have … yeah, that’s right … a cheap, plastic medal.

Overall, I’m very pleased. I set another PR for the 10k distance and won my age group yet again. Weird. But I definitely can get used to winning.