I am a new club member. Earlier this year I ran my first Half Marathon. I thought that going from a Half Marathon to a Half Ironman, is a reasonable idea… well here goes…

I have done it.

Almost 6 months of preparation came together on Saturday May 22nd, 2004. At 7:00am I stood on the shore of lake Folsom (water temp 64F), with 1,000 other triathlets for the beginning of CaliMan - Half Ironman Distance Triathlon. This was going to be a long day, 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile biking and Half Marathon (13.1 mile) running.

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I completed my second full distance Ironman Triathlon on Saturday, May 22, 2004. It took me a total of 12 hours, 11 minutes, 41 seconds. I was second in my age group (50-54). The winner was ahead of me by approximately 6 minutes. He caught and passed me on the run.

Pre-Race
The drive from San Jose to Boulder City, NV took about 9 hours without bending the speed limits noticeably. We drove down Friday to allow a day to recover, pick up the race packet, and check out the course. Weather in Northern California was great, but the Las Vegas area was raining and had thunderstorms on Saturday morning. The forecast for late Saturday and Sunday was for clearing skies and dry so things were looking good.

Location
The village of Gerardmer is a ski resort area in the winter, a lake resort in the summer (July - Sept), and a staging area for hiking and camping the rest of the year. The area is very pretty, full of scenic vistas with wooded hills and pretty valleys. Shops open at 10 am, close from noon to 2pm, and then reopen until 7pm. Knowledge of French is highly recommended, but most people are friendly and someone around will speak a little English. The internet caf

I finally completed my first half Ironman event and lived to tell the tale. The race was the CaliMan Half, held in conjunction with the CaliforniaMan iron-distance triathlon in Folsom. It was the first time ever these races had been held, but I have done a few other events with J&A Productions (they are the San Jose International triathlon, Catfish Swim guys, among others) so I had an idea what to expect from the organization.

Swim: [00:21:14]
I thought the swim venue was excellent. Plenty of space to warm-up and good separation between age groups. The weather was excellent too, slight overcast and not too hot. Water was clear with virtually no chop/waves.

I came out of the water in 2nd place in my age group, well behind the first finisher though. Right at the start of the swim I banged my right ankle on something hard. I'm assuming it was another athlete's head. It was as hard as a rock and it hurt! I noticed it was swelling up as I was removing the wetsuit.

It was unseasonably cool in the few days Marian and I were there before the race. It rained a bit whereas last year there were raging forest fires. We did the usual stuff: buy things we didn't need at the merchandise tent, swim in the lake ( about 70 and reasonably clear), hang out, go to the carbo party. We registered and took our stuff to the transition area. In Ironman races, the participants usually drop off their bikes and gear the day before the race. All the usual stuff but this was not a usual race, at least not for us.

The real story is Marian.

The Tuesday before was my last track workout before the race. When I awoke that morning everything about me was tired. I began thinking I would not be ready come Saturday morning. Followed my normal routine and went to work. Left the office later than I wanted to but I knew it was not imperative that I got to the track by 6:30pm. I eventually show up and after a long conversation with the Swami and another with Alice I began my pre-race workout. Wow!! "pre-race", something that I've been preparing for since October 2003 has finally arrived.

Background:
The Monterey Bay Challenge consisted of two distances, a half-Olympic sprint and an Olypic distance race. Since this was going to be my first ocean swim race, and I had another triathlon the next weekend (and the Wharf to Wharf Run the week after that), I opted to try the sprint distance. I should also mention that I had won a free entry for this race through an SVTC raffle, but at the cost of being guilted into writing up this race report. The race took place in Aptos with the registration, transition, and finishing areas on the grounds of the Seascape Resort.