The Friday before the race I had the opportunity to go to the Operation Rebound pre-race luncheon and not only meet many of the wounded soldiers who would compete with me on race day, but hear their emotional stories of injury, fear, and ultimately recovery through the help of CA. It was very a very inspiring experience that would continue on race day as several of the injured troops blew by me on the bike and run! Here's a story from the OC Register about Evan Morgan, one of the guy's I met that has benefited from Operation Rebound.
As for my race, despite the forecast it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day in Oceanside. I started in the third wave and had a good swim in the rolling waves of Oceanside Harbor.
After a quick transition I headed out on the bike. The first 30 miles were mostly rolling hills, but the last 26 had a couple of major climbs. In addition to the climbs, the wind picked up during the second half of the bike and we faced a headwind back into transition.
Onto the run...the two loop course is very flat and right along the beach. It was a beautiful scene and I had one of my better runs averaging just under 8 minute miles for the half marathon.
When it was all said and done, I cut 18 minutes off last year's time to finish in 5hrs 15mins. I had hoped to go closer to 5hrs, but need to work on my bike if that's going to happen anytime soon!
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