This last weekend I raced the first important race of the 2008 season at the California 70.3 Half Ironman. I came into the race with 5 days rest as I started my taper for Ironman Arizona on April 13th.

Training has been going well and I hadn’t been below 20hrs of training per week since the middle of December. Needless to say I was anxious to see what I could do.

Race morning brought cool temperatures in the low 50’s, but not as cold as they could have been. The water was also a chilly 60*, which hurt the face a little bit upon getting in. I had my new Blue Seventy TST Wetsuit which is much improved over last year and I felt ready to go.

We only had about 5-8min of warm-up before the gun went off, which I don’t think was enough for me. I moved to the second row of athletes and keyed off of a few others who I thought were slightly faster swimmers. Today, they were more than that. The horn sounded and the effort was not hard, but I couldn’t get the arms to turn over like I needed. Within 300 meters I was off the back and I thought I was in "no-man’s land"...until the turn buoy when I flipped on my back to check out the situation and saw I was pulling a group of over 20 athletes. As I rounded the second turn buoy, I had NO idea where I was going and proceeded to turn 90* the wrong direction (sorry guys). This actually ended up benefiting me. Lewis Elliot took the lead and proceeded to sit in on his feet, as I had no idea where we were going. We exited in a little bit over 27 minutes. But about 2:30 back from the first pack.

Out of the water and onto the bike. My Trek TTX 9.9 SSL and Wireless Powertap SL was showing me the wattage that I was hoping for. I rode steady out to hills, passing 10-15 athletes on the way. Once through the tough climbs, I was greeted with a stiff headwind back to transition. Normal Power for the ride was 308 watts. This is 28 watts higher than I have seen in the past and a huge jump for me.

I took off onto the run with a few other athletes and found the first few miles a bit tough, but at mile 3 things got better. I was still off of my goal pace, but not by much. I ran the next 5 miles at about 5:55 per mile, but soon I had a few twinges and had to back off a bit. I managed to pass a few more athletes to finish with a run of 1:20 and a finish time of 4:15. It was good enough for 17th place overall.

This was not a bad way to start the season at all and I have been able to gather a lot of confidence from this race in knowing that I can compete with almost any athlete on that start line.

After the race I attended my Timex Team Camp is Carlsbad, CA and had a great time catching up with old teammates and meeting a few new ones. We have a great support team this year which includes great managers and new sponsors including Trek, Powerbar, Bontrager, Powertap(Saris), Rudy Project, Timex and TP Massage Rollers. Last, but NOT least is the support of friends and family. You have all been great and I could not do it without you!

I also want to thank my homestay in Cali, Sergio Gurrieri. Your hospitality was much appreciated. Now I had about 10 days to Ironman Arizona. Be sure to check out live coverage at www.ironman.com on April 13th, starting at 6:45am Pacific.

BB