Training
I have been training for Oceanside 70.3 throughout the winter with my dear friend, Audrey. Last fall we were looking around for half Ironman races and thought “what could be better than the promise of California to get us through a cold New Hampshire winter?” Training was equal parts wonderful and challenging. Having Audrey as a training buddy was a blast. So many Saturdays we ventured out together into -36 degree weather or snow storms in search of an open pool, face-timed during our many hours on the trainer, and lay on the cold floor of the locker room after a long day of training laughing and debriefing.
On the other hand, winter training during a Dartmouth term was a bit tough. I was taking four classes, and although I could balance training early on, my body got increasingly worn down throughout the term. I got a series of viruses that lasted three weeks. I also struggled to get adequate nutrition. Keeping up with training-level nutrition is logistically challenging in college, especially as a vegetarian in foco. I also struggled with body image and some restrictive eating habits from my past. I hurt my knee biking in December, meaning I could not run for the first month and a half of training. Although I was putting in my hours, I felt like my fitness just continued to move backwards, which was frustrating. While training in the summer, there was a clear correlation between effort invested and progress. As a type-A person, I found that to be incredibly satisfying. It provided me with a sense of control and forward movement during a time when I felt out of control in other areas of my life. I discovered that the qualities that make many endurance athletes can be a double edged sword: focusing on control of fitness metrics can easily lead to frustration when fitness naturally ebbs or training does not have the desired results. Pain tolerance, even a seeking out of pain, during strategic workouts can lead to overtraining and overly restrictive diets that hurt the body rather than help it. Competitiveness can lead to being overly self-critical. I felt like I was fighting my body, not working with it or nurturing it.
As I headed into race week, I sat down and reflected on lessons to be learned from my winter training. All my frustrations had obscured the primary reasons I do this sport. 1) To have fun. 2) Friends and community. 3) Pushing my body (in a healthy way) to discover what it is capable of. 4) Learning how to apply myself towards challenging goals, whether in sports or in life. 5) Embracing gratitude for my health and able body.
As I proceed with this sport, I want to be driven by these motivations. I want to be wary of the ways my competitiveness, type-A personality, and pain tolerance can become unproductive. Nutrition is of the utmost importance. There are no shortcuts. Sometimes this means fighting deeply ingrained intuitions about how to eat and what my body should look like as an athlete, which will be an ongoing process. If I want to become stronger in the long term and continue doing triathlons, I must eat a lot and well. I want to reflect on the psychological reasons that I fall back into restrictive eating habits when I am struggling. It is also important to keep in mind the larger picture: fitness ebbs and flows, injuries and illnesses happen, and personal challenges arise, but I am only at the beginning of my triathlon journey. My A-race this year is in August, so I still have many months to continue building fitness and focusing on nutrition. Beyond that I have years, even decades, to continue enjoying this sport and seeing what I am capable of.
I cannot control my knee injury, viruses, or choices already made about nutrition. What I can do is focus on taking care of my body right now, soak in every moment of this adventure, and head out to that start line ready to have a great time.
Now onto the race itself! Audrey and I headed down to Boston Wednesday night and stayed with the wonderful Katie and Connor. Katie helped us with all the logistics, packing, food, and pre-race advice. We embarked for Logan airport the next day with bags strapped on front and back, rolling our unwieldy bike cases through the airport. Friends and coaches from Dartmouth tri team wrote the kindest pre-race notes for us that had me tearing up on the plane as I read them. We stayed in an airbnb with a huge crew of lovely people: my boyfriend, his whole family, three sets of family friends, his childhood best friend, my mom, and Audrey’s mom, eight of whom raced or relayed! The parents treated us to a delicious home cooked meal the night before the race. It was wonderful to feel embraced by such a good group of triathlon-loving people.
Morning of
I woke up at 4:15 am, chamois buttered, sun-screened, bundled up, and headed to transition. It was chilly out and the water was a brisk 56 degrees. The whole group was stationed at the same spot in transition area. We passed around Vaseline and hyped each other up. It was nice to know what to expect my second time around at an IronMan event. I had familiar butterflies being channeled into the swim chute. I reminded myself that I was here to have fun. No worrying about metrics or competition, just focusing on doing a sport I love in a beautiful place.
Swim
I was worried about the water temperature, but it was surprisingly comfortable with a thermal cap, wetsuit, and ear plugs. They changed the swim course the morning of and there was no map to review. Navigation was easy enough for the first half of the swim. I felt smooth and strong. The sun was rising over the harbor. There are few things more invigorating than starting a triathlon in the early morning and watching the sun rise as you swim. When I turned around, the sun blinded me, and I could not see anything, much less buoys yards away. I tried to follow the pack, but many people split off and I soon noticed I had gone pretty far off course. I returned to the course and followed the side of the harbor from buoy to buoy back to transition. Not my finest swim. But a good reminder to practice in open water with similar conditions before the race to check for goggle compatibility.
Bike
I headed out to the bike course. A bit frazzled from the swim, I managed to forget my glasses, a rookie mistake! It turned out to be just fine, with the exception of a large bug that flew at my face. I spent the first few miles trying to lower my heart rate and get some nutrition down. The beginning of the bike course had a number of potholes, a flooded region of road, some tight turns, and narrow bike paths that made it challenging to pass. My goal was to keep my heart rate under 160 bpm, but it kept rising up while I was passing people early on in the bike. The bike course went through Camp Pendleton, which is usually closed to the public. It was absolutely stunning. The mountains were an unusually luscious green from recent rain. There were views of the Pacific. And the sky was cloudless. I focused on the joy of flying through such a beautiful landscape on a bike. I tried to moderate my effort more towards the later half of the bike. I struggled to maintain a consistent power without a power meter (I will have one soon!). Most of the elevation gain was within 20 miles and it was steep. I could feel that my fitness was not what it was for my first 70.3, but I tried not to focus on that. I expected my fitness to be a bit lower going in, and that is okay. On the way back to transition, I tried to pedal at a low power and high cadence to flush out the legs, which helped. Nutrition went well: I ate or drank my planned 60 grams of carbs per hour, which mostly consisted of 5 whole packs of salted watermelon chews (somehow the only thing I can get down when my HR is elevated). This was also my first race riding with aero bars, which were surprisingly comfortable and easy to handle with. Looking forward to the possibility of racing a TT bike in the future!
Run
As I started the run, I instantly knew I had pushed slightly too hard on the bike. My legs were quite sore, unusually so, and my heart rate was creeping up. Still, I managed a decent pace for the beginning of the run. I downed either some water, coke, or Maurtens gel at every aid station. The race energy was wonderful: so many spectators cheering on the sidelines. I tapped a sign that said “for an extra energy boost touch this!” And smiled. Smiling goes a long way. One guy was spraying athletes with a hose. Others were playing pump up music or speaking into a megaphone. As the run wore on, it got more and more painful. I calculated every imaginable fraction of the way I was through the run course to distract myself. “1/8th, 1/4th, coke is yummy, 5/12ths, the ocean is beautiful, 5/8ths, oh hey there’s a guy in a banana suit, 3/4ths, its Audrey!!, 11/13ths, I am having fun, right?, 12/13ths, thank god there is the finish line!”
Post Race
Overall, a great, great experience! I am mostly grateful to have had the opportunity to race this course with people I love on such a beautiful day. I got to watch Audrey absolutely crush her first Half Ironman after months of hard training, and it made me so happy! I am reminded how much I love the energy of a race environment. I love chatting with and cheering on the other athletes. I love the enthusiasm, solidarity, and grit seen everywhere on the race course. I love the challenge. I love the satisfaction of pushing my body. Most importantly, I had fun, which was my main goal! And as a bonus I laid eyes on Chelsea Sodaro, and I placed 4th in my age group and got a cute wooden plaque. After the race, we relaxed in a hot tub at the Airbnb while the sun set over the Pacific and ate a huge, delicious dinner together — the dream! Grateful for this beautiful whirlwind of a weekend and for everyone who made it possible: Audrey, the best adventure and training buddy a girl could ask for, Coach Katie for her constant support, coaching, thoughtfulness, and generosity, my amazing friends who listened to my frustrations and offered support at every step, Dartmouth tri team, my mom and dad, Andrew, Kris, Rena, Bill and crew who beyond being wonderful humans also organized, transported, cooked, and cleaned, all of the IronMan volunteers, the list goes on… I have many lessons to take away from this race and training process as I move forward with triathlon. On to the next!
About the author:
Robin Sandell is a Dartmouth ‘23 from Palo Alto, CA majoring in philosophy. She's a Dartmouth tri team enthusiast and also loves to rock climb, backpack, paint, and travel.