Ironman 70.3 Oceanside

Two Saturdays ago I went to the Ironman 70.3 Oceanside competition to check out how competitors prepared and set up their kits at the competition.  Actually being there and seeing the setup made it much easier to understand the three color bag system, the transition areas, random tips like wearing socks before the swim when walking around and ideas on what to wear and how to wear it for each part of the competition.

The swim part of the competition sure looked cold!  Competition started in waves with the Pro Men and Pro Women groups first, then what appears to be age groups ordered by how fast they're expected to go.  I'm kind of concerned about this since I would be in a very fast women's group, but I'm probably going to be quite quite slow.  On the up side, they tell you what time to come back to line up for your start group, so once you set up your bike, you can wander around until it is your scheduled time to start!

Another plus on the swim portion is that the swim course is entirely in a harbor, so none of the brutal Oceanside waves are smacking the competitors around.  I walked the half mile up the swim course and saw that there were plenty of lifeguards and race officials standing by to make sure all rules are being followed and no one drowns.  Awesome.

After watching the swim part, I walked along the beach and admired how rocky the beach was and how lucky I was to live next to a beach with much less intimidating waves.  I would not want to swim in that ocean with the 6 ft waves D:!  I picked up a cute small rock as a memento and decided I would bring it back next year when I came to compete.

Before I left the T1 area I checked out what people's bikes looked like and how they loaded the equipment.  Now I know what the bikes have to be so light, they have a picnic basket full of hydration and nutrition!!  I tried imaging myself pedaling with all those goodies up hills and on a windy course.  I'd better work out those calves.

I made my way back to the finish line and I was delighted to find that I could just muk around the actual finish line since no one was actually there yet XD  I walked on the carpet and took some pictures before heading out to the T2 area.

I stationed myself at the run out of the T2 area in hopes of seeing how people did their transitions, but I was there when the Pro Men and Pro Women were making their way through, and their stations were near the Bike In area so I could not see how they did their transitions at all, so I just saw them start the runs instead.

I took a short break to find a bathroom (yay! Indoor facilities!) and strolled to the finish line, now peppered with some people, and hung out with a retired gentleman vacationing from New York who came to also watch no one in particular.  We chatting about endurance events and I told him how I wanted to do this next year.  He said he and his wife vacation in Oceanside every year and he hopes to see me next year!

I watched the pros finish (with some deserved showboating!) and then went back to T2 to check out the delivery of the T1 wetsuit bags and the morning warmup bags being delivered from the T1 area to T2 for easy pickup after the race.  Now all that colored bag business made sense!  This will make it so much easier to figure out next year!

I was also able to see some of the last folks biking in do their transitions, so that was kind of informative.  I saw how they layered their outfits so I've gotten some new ideas of what to wear during competition.

All in all I had a lot of fun and good ideas watching the event this year.  I also purchased some cute Ironman goods for me to wear while training!  Ironman Oceanside 2013, here I come!  (But first, mastering that swim!)