Race Report : 2006 Ironman California

I went to the Ironman California 70.3 race in 2006, not as a participant, but as a volunteer. I remember feeling like I wasn't ready to race in a field like that. My brain just said no. Top that off with not wanting to pay the entry fee but wanting to learn something from racing and voila, what do you have a ready-made volunteer. Volunteering is a wonderful experience and at the very least yields some excellent race day karma. It also let me follow my ironteammates through their race day, from the swim start, through transition, and in to the finish. Oh, and a free t-shirt too.

All right, now let's get down to it.
The weekend. An educational experience. What did I learn on race day?

1. Be careful of where you’re standing before the start of the race. I actually saw a pro warming up by jumping up and down on top of one of the timing mats before they got in the water for the swim. (That’s just silly.)
2. That water, between 52-57 degrees (depending on who you talked to), really was cold enough for people passing through T1 to stop for warm blankets and to pull out of the day.
3. The biggest thing I saw over the course of the day was planning. Plan your day. It’s the one thing (other than training) that we can do for race day, before race day. Get in with time to set up and get in to your wetsuit. I saw a number of people that missed their wave in the chute because they got in late or weren’t paying attention. Plan your transition, I saw people digging through bags trying to find something, which isn’t a big deal but they were getting frustrated and stressed out because it was costing them time.
4. Keeping your bit of the transition area neat with a clear lane in the middle will prevent (for the most part) others from trampling your stuff as they come in and out, or having said stuff “moved”, without grace, to clear the lane.
5. Sometimes all it takes is your haircut to give off the impression that you're a marine. (go figure. oh well, semper fi.)
6. Lots of very expensive, pretty bikes everywhere!
7. From an efficiency standpoint, I saw a lot of people coming in to T2 with full water bottles on the frame. I hear that there was plenty of Gatorade endurance on the course which is great, but by taking that you’re probably not getting the mix of carbs that you’ve added to your drink (assuming carbopro/equivalent). It also means that you’re hauling something like 4-6 extra pounds (depending on the size of the bottles) of your planned nutrition around with you for nothing. Just my opinion. . .
8. Oceanside is a nice place for a race. Lots of really positive people everywhere, very inspiring.
9. There’s an entire volunteer group near the finish line who catch. Their job is to meet finishers after they’ve come in and keep ‘em moving through the finish area, pulling timing chips, gathering race bags, t-shirts, and medals. The most important part is assessing whether or not race finishers can still walk, and if not, catch them as they crumble to the ground and get them over to medical.
10. (Having said, and written, all these things I will invariably forget most of them. Can someone please slap me upside the head in June as a reminder, preferably before race day?)