Race Report: SuperSeal Olympic Triathlon

Hooray! Both Nigel and I finished successfully yesterday in the San Diego SuperSeal Triathlon.
I'd like to say without any upsets....but when does that ever happen?

So here's the blow race report....skip along to the parts that interest you (or just look at the photos).


4:30am
oh man, that alarm sure is early. Good thing we went to bed at 8pm the night before. Because we both are suffering from colds, we took Nyquil the night before and had the Nyquil nightmares so can't say it was a restful sleep. But we get drugged up with Sudafed so we can breathe and get the kit in the car.

We had laid out all the kit the day before and double checked it against a list....very good idea s who is clear headed at 4:30am???!??

5:40am
After breakfast of Muscle milk and some toast, we get in the car to get to Coronado by 6:30am and get parking before it closes at 7am. Drive is quiet and listen to some music.

6:20am
We arrive and find the beach parking is full. What!? So we follow cars and find parking much further down in a park. Phew! It's only just getting light and it is cold!! Beanie hats are needed at this time of morning.

7:00am
The Sprint race starts and we are getting yelled at for being in the transition area....but we still have 1 hour left! I'm NOT budging, as I want all my stuff nicely organized and laid out. Mentally go through the transitions with "grab this, put on this, eat this...."

As Nigel and I have not put on a wetsuit for 1 year, we do a little practice of pull on / pull off movement.

7:45am
We walk over to the start of the swim in the Bay and have a practice swim. Man it's different with the wetsuit...maybe I should have practiced? Nah! This IS the practice.

I ask Nigel the obligatory question....do I look fat in this? LOL, not really, but got you lot going.

8:00am
We meet up with Barrie and find he is a swim buddy for the race. He will swim along someone that does not feel strong to give them confidence (and save them if needed....how that soooo becomes true in 30 minutes).
Nigel asks for Barrie to be his swim buddy.

Lucy starts at 8:10 in her wave.....keeps an even pace and focuses on the swim stroke. Pull, lift, easy entry, pull, etc.... soon I'm 1/2 way and on the way back. I catch a nice gulp of sea water that makes me stop and retch for a while, but I get back to it. Take a nice stop for a pee....yes it's gross but I'd rather pee in the water than have to stop on the bike!
And something like 40 minutes later, off to the bike transition.

Nigel starts his wave at 8:20am....he goes off really fast. Barrie is thinking "how am I ging to keep up with him" and Nigel gets maybe 400 meters in an then WHACK!?! a big kick to the nose from the person in front. His eyes tear up, he gasps for breath, ends up swallowing tons of water, and hyper-ventilates with flashbacks of his last near-death experience in New Zealand drowning in the rapids....he's thrashing around. Barrie says to lie on his back but by then the lifeguard has blown the whistle and is dragging him to shore. Nigel walks onto the shore and faints, medical rush to him with oxygen and there he sits being quizzed for a good few minutes "what day is it" "what's you name" "where are you"....etc....
They ask "what do you want to do" and Nigel says "I want to finish" and they drop him in the water to finish the last 200 meters and off he goes....

9ish
We both make it to the bike section and do our 2 loop course on the flat section of the Silver sStrand Beach road. I take the time to eat and drink a lot, especially at the start after all the salt water I took on in the water. Takes a while to get into the groove and I have to mentally adjust to all the bikers around me....the ones that yell "left...left..." and the ones that are zipping past way faster than me. I stick to my 85-90 cadence and 17 mph target and focus on the leg movement. Don't mash....make the movement smooth like a rolex watch....eat and drink regularly, even when you don't feel like it.

I also learnt that biking in a race can be lonely and boring for the mind. I train with music and other riders near me to talk. The race had neither. So I had to sing songs to myself. Somehow when you want to think of a song to sing, the mind goes blank....so I'm thinking to add a little piece of paper on the bike with a list of song titles to sing to myself to keep occupied. The bike is the longest section with the next race at 4 hours and the IronMan at 7 hours....so entertainment needed!

Aim was to take 1:30 hours for the bike and I think was pretty much the time that Nigel and I each took. Likely 1:20 hours, but we'll see when the splits get posted on the website. Watch wouldn't start and forgot to check my bike system.

I did ask Nigel what he did and he said he didn't eat anything and drank the water from the side. So my assessment is that he didn't take enough energy into his system, but that's his decision to make!

10ish
Now onto the run. Ate the banana in the transition and was in and out. I had planned to take some food chews with me for energy but forgot as I was running out the transition. I thought "the race guide said they had gels and water and gatorade on the course, so I'll be ok". Lesson learned after 2 races state what they have....it NEVER matches. Only water available....so not enough energy going in during this last leg. Good thing it was only 6 miles!

Leg hurt straight away (darn!! this is going to be an everlasting problem this year) so immediately adjusted to a run-walk approach. Run for 6 minutes at a 12 minute pace then walk at a 16 minute pace. I know it's a snail pace to you fast runners, but hey, it's what I've got!

11:30ish
At the halfway turnaround point, I was elated and knew I'd make it to the finish. I felt my energy level rise at mile 5 when I always get the "finisher energy burst" and tried to pick up the pace, but the leg said no, and as tie was not the factor, I kept to my run-walk pace and trotted into the finish chute.

Nigel was 10 minutes behind me so I cheered him on the final section an gave him a high five as he crossed the finish line. Then I heard the swimming story and was thankful he got through at all!

The Final Times
Nigel   3:22:10 (including the medical adventure)
Lucy    3:24:50 (but I actually swam the whole thing)

Very happy with these times. I didn't really have a goal but did want to be under 4 hours. Had estimated it would be around 3:30 hours so happy it was just below. That means for Wildflower Half-ironman distance it will be in the 7-8 hour range. I think the cutoff is 8 hours, so will be mindful of that on race day.

Adding in the time splits now they are available:

Next Race: Wildflower Long Triathlon (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) at end of April.