Morro Bay Inaugural Half Iron

Morro Bay is one of the newest Ironman 70.3 (half-distance) locations. And 2023 was the inaugural race at this location.
While I hoped to have a better performance, personally, overall I still ended up having a great weekend.

I originally started talking about this race last summer with family and friends. But no one was too quick to commit to anything.
And I ended up signing up in January thinking that I would be able to fairly easily prepare for a half distance. I had just come off an entire summer of training for Ironman California, so I figured I’d have a lot of endurance/strength already built up.

Annoyingly my weekends during winter months were complicated with things like car repairs (I rebuilt my 4Runner engine over several weeks), a couple planned trips like snowboarding for my birthday, and then being a little banged up from both those things physically that slowed down the kickoff of my training period by about three weeks. And when race weekend came around I was just tired of training. Jumping right back into a training period, even an easier one for a Half, made me realize i wasn’t enjoying the training like I normally would. I found it monotonous after last summer and not-enjoying Iron California like I hoped last fall.
So I knew I was going into Morro Bay undertrained for where I hoped to be.

My family was not able to signup and race due to their schedules – but my mom was still going to come and support since it was on the California coast and not terribly far to get to.

Overall Target – 6hr to 6:30

My original goal was to try and PR this Half. And for me that meant faster than 5:49 – so somewhere around 5:45 or faster I felt was reasonable. I would simply have to do my Swim/Bike the same as the Memphis Half, and then run my last leg about 5 minutes faster than in Tennessee to break a 2hr Half Marathon portion.
But I talked myself out of a lot of workouts between being tired from life/work, or simply not being motivated.

Come race week I revised my goals to be somewhere around 6:30 to 7:00. I was mentally preparing myself to be ok with a 50min swim, and 3:30 bike, and a 2:30 run.

What I didn’t do was look close enough at the bike and run course climbing. Both had more than I thought.

Swim

Projected Time: Under 50min
“Good day” time: 42 minutes – since I put very little swim training in
Actual official clock time: 42:39

Swim training was discipline I was always quick to talk myself out of. When I was working from home full time it was easy to get to the gym regularly for the pool compared to now.

When I got to Morro Bay on Thursday people were getting in the water in their wetsuits and testing out the water temps and getting swims in. I decided to just freakin’ wing it on race day and go in just being surprised by the chilly 58 degree water.
I didn’t go for a pre-race swim at all Thursday or Friday. I had not-packed my cold water booties. I don’t own a thicker neoprene cap for cold weather. And I own a mid-weather wetsuit. Oh, and I hadn’t swam in like two weeks at this point. hahaha! Throwing caution to the wind, my dude!

Me, my mom, and my niece got down to the water sorta-early-ish race morning. I had left all my Transition gear at my bike, bagged up, the day before. And I didn’t have much interest in walking all the way to my bike just lay-out my gear and save maybe one minute in T1.

I lined up in the 40-43min pace group and was chatting a bit with the racer next to me, Sebastian. It was his first half-distance and ended up high-fiving my mom when we walked down the chute and she was cheering for everyone!

The water was cold but mostly still with a slight current on the way out (I didn’t notice much personally)

Once my face went numb it was a bit more manageable of a swim, ha! The buoys were easy to sight on the way out, but turning the corners and coming back in they were much harder. I’m not positive why, either. They were yellow on the way out, red at the turns, and orange on the way back. I think the orange just blended in too much with the shore for me on the return swim.

There was also a long stretch on the return where the water got down to about 2 to 2 1/2 feet or so. Some people got out and walked a bit. I stayed swimming but it’s annoying when your hands hit the bottom in shallows.

Exiting the water Ironman had set up their portable docks like we had at Iron California. So getting out and up onto land was easy and straight forward.

T1

T1 looked like a longer jog than it actually turned out to be.
They had us run along the side of the paddock and enter the back.

I was definitely chilly from the swim and my hands were cold. So drying off and putting on sleeves and my vest was harder than I would have liked. I also realized that I didn’t leave an extra bottle of water to rinse my hands and face like I originally planned. I made sure to try and dry off my core and shorts as much as possible so I wouldn’t get too cold on the bike. It was very grey and foggy looking and I fully expected the bike to be cold.

Ironman had laid down a LOT of turf for us to run on, which certainly helped when coming out of the swim barefoot.

Temperature outside at this point was still only 52 degrees. Honestly a great temp for cycling… if you’re not dripping wet

Bike

Projected Time: 3hr 30min
“Good day” time: sub-3 hrs
Actual official clock time: 2:55:08

The start of the bike course takes you out a running path, then a side street over to the entrance to Highway 1.
The entire bike ride was a pretty direct up and back along the highway, which I was looking forward to.

Everyone was trying to get their pacing set and we were all working around each other between the slower and faster riders. That said it would have probably been a bit nicer for everyone if the start of the bike was a bit wider for us. Due to construction there were a few narrow parts that first three miles or so.

The marine layer and fog was heavy though! Not thick though, and seeing was fine. But the amount of moisture in the air meant it was basically rainy at the speeds we were moving. The water condensed on your clothes and helmet dripping as we moved. Garmin put the humidity at 93% which sounds about right.

The first half or so included some stretches that took us off Highway 1 and through some neighborhoods. Even in this area there were people outside cheering the riders along.

As for traffic on the highway it wasn’t too bad and pretty much everyone was giving plenty of room to the cyclists. I have a feeling that a lot of people in the area are used to cyclists on Highway 1 and this wasn’t a particularly huge change for them. I do feel like some of the racers themselves could have been better about staying more to the right and giving themselves more space between them and traffic. Or just more space so other racers could pass.
There was also one intersection I came upon where a cyclist was laying in the road with medical support attending to him. An ambulance came down the highway about 1 minute after I passed, so I just missed whatever happened. Later I heard from another racer that witnessed it who said a car was flagged to turn and the cyclist wasn’t seen in time and basically t-boned the car and went over the handlebars and hood.

There’s one big section of two climbs on this route. You do it twice – once north, and once again heading south.

The climbs weren’t bad overall, and of course the descent was welcome to go ripping down the hill. I hit nearly 43 mph at the fastest point. That’s as fast as descents in the Tahoe mountains.
But here in Orange County, where I live and train, there aren’t a lot of hills that are in my regular training. So this likely affected my legs just a tiny bit more than I hoped.

But overall the bike course was great. Long rolling stretches that were mostly uninterrupted along the coast and through the hills. It made me miss cycling back home in the Bay Area along Santa Cruz and the coast up there.
The various athletes I came upon and shared a hello with were all in great moods. And I was little envious of the ones I saw wearing gloves because my hands were freezing.

It wasn’t until about mile 50 that I really started to feel the bike ride in my legs. I had been being pretty careful to not push too hard or burn out my legs. I was keeping my watts in the 150-170 range if I could help it. I knew I wasn’t at the fitness level to push 190-200 the entire time like I did in Memphis.

Ha, here’s a great shot of me getting hit in the face with wind while trying to eat a gel pack

Looking back at my Stamina potential on Garmin I started the bike at 90% and ended the bike at 27%. Not horrible. Compare that to Iron CA where my stamina levels started to drop around mile 80 with a lot of racing still ahead.

Overall I was pleased with my bike performance.

I finished in 2:55, which was under my goal of 3 hours or faster. I came into the T2 feeling pretty good. But I didn’t have my drink mixes with and had actually forgot to pack my nutrition for this event. So only water and gatorade (from the aid stations) is not my ideal fluid choices in a race. And I only had gels with me that I bought from Ironman Village store and nothing solid like I typically would have.
I knew this would likely affect my run but didn’t know how much. But hey, I was winging a lot of this event, right?

Coming in from the bike was a little busy as the course end point narrows a bit. But there is a ton of support cheering everyone in

T2

T2 was pretty straight forward.

The stretch between the dismount point and the bikes racks was “crowded” in the sense that a few people were trying to stay just on the turf covering the dirt.

I ran along in the dirt to cut around everyone to return to my rack quicker. Also in the aisles everyone getting ready was sitting on the turf to stay off the dirt as well. I actually lifted my bike up and over someone because they were blocking the way through. Not a big deal, but yeah.

I hung my bike, put on my run shoes and bib… and made the decision to take off my bandana I was wearing. I ended up paying for with a sunburn when the sun broke through later.
Also in the list of stuff I forgot to pack… was sunblock. Normally I’d have spray sunblock with my things to hit my face and neck with before the run.

Leaving the Run Out arch there were plenty of people offering water to everyone. I was looking for the chip mat but didn’t see a sign, nor hear anything around the arch. Turns out the arch is actually the run start. So my Garmin was a bit late to end T2 and begin the run.

Run

Projected Time: 2hr 30min
“Good day” time: 2-2:15
Actual official clock time: 2:17:58

The run course was admittedly pretty great in terms of scenery and support. It runs through all of the waterfront/wharf area and shops and there is TONS of support along the entire run course – even in the neighborhoods.

It’s a much hillier course than you might think, too, with the southern portion in the neighborhoods having a few steep climbs in them.

When I started out of the run I was still wearing my vest at this point trying to determine how hot or cold I may or may not be. The wind off the water was chilly, and being sweaty and damp from the bike ride it would cool you down really fast. But as soon as you were out of the wind, the sun breaking through the clouds would heat you up fast. It was only mid-50s at this point, so still a great temperature to race in.

The first lap of the two and a half lap course I made sure to keep a jog pace going, even up the climbs. My goal was still to run this entire half. I had a gel with me, which I ate on the first loop along with grabbing water passing through one of the aid stations.

During the second lap I grabbed some redbull for a bit of sugar, and chose to walk up the incline out of the wharf area – my first major slowdown on the run. I also passed my mom and Arianna at this point if I recall. They had missed me at T2 because of a mixup on the busses.
Coming around the next big climb in the south-most neighborhood loop of the run I chose to walk up this incline as well. I was finally started to feel tired.

As I continued on to finish my second lap I was realizing how out of energy I actually was. I was hungry.
My goal was to make it to the turn around and before a break, but at about 8.5 miles I just felt spent and started walking.

Garmin shows my Stamina running out around 4mi into the run. I finally felt burnt out around 8, though.

After the turn around, which is about mile 9.2, I started doing a mix of walking and jogging. The stretch there is a pretty narrow path so I jogged that to not be in other racers way. I also hit the redbull aid station again for orange slices, redbull, and water. I knew I just needed calories at this point so anything might help. And it did.

Over the next three miles I mixed up my jogging and walking, hit most of the aid stations for redbull, a couple chips, and coke. Sugar seemed like the easiest calorie hit to offer me a bit of a boost.

Just before mile 12 I started jogging again to finish the last stretch of the run a little stronger. An easy 10 minute pace, nothing fast at all.

For the last 150 yards or so down the chute you wrap around a block and there’s a longgg lead up to the finisher chute. It’s actually pretty great because you can make sure to give yourself plenty of space around anyone that might be near you and enjoy your run into the finish.

All in a all, a good day compared to what I thought I might do!

Finished with a time of 6:11:17

Officially I was 100 of 188 in my age group for Men.
And 761 out of 1,382 Men.

So, again, not the strong performance I was originally thinking I’d be able to do when I signed up. But I’m still quite happy overall.

My heart was not in it for training for this event. And I knew that going in and mentally prepared for an even slower day overall.
I think I’ll take a bit of time off training so I don’t feel the same way at whatever event I sign up for next.

Post Race & Gear Pickup

This is a great location and great race. The water and ride are chilly, sure, but everything about the event as a whole is awesome.

There is SO MUCH race support out there by everyone. The ride is long rolling stretches that are beautiful. And the run through the wharf area and neighborhoods is never dull in the least.

After crossing the finish line, and getting my photos done, I got food from the food tent and sat down with my mom and niece to eat. I could feel my neck was totally sunburned – which I did not expect – and my face was as well.
We walked back to the hotel, which was a very short one-block walk from the finish line, and dropped off my niece.

Then my mom and I started the walk back to Transition so I could get my bike and gear.

I thought I’d map the walk back to retrieve my bike just for the sake of having it here to share.

You can take a bus back to Transition after 12:30pm, if you want, or you can just walk.
I finished a bit before 1pm or so, and by the time I started back to get my bike I could have bussed it, but my mom and I took the opportunity to walk. It was nice out and gave us more time to talk.

Along the trip I stopped at one of the aid stations and asked for more of the Maurten gels, cuz they’re pretty good and also a bit pricey. They let me grab several to take home with me. Score!

Packing up my gear was straight forward since I had left everything in a bag originally, so I was able to just pack it back in head out.

After getting back to the hotel I cleaned up some of my gear and then was able to finally shower off.

I put on some fresh clothes, and headed back down to the wharf area to grab an iced mocha from the coffee shop, which sounded really good for some reason.

I realized that there were still just a handful of athletes on the course. The last 5 or so, as it turned out, that were coming in just before the cutoff!
So I walked over to the chute to cheer on the last handful of competitors finishing their day!

Later that evening me, my mom, and my niece headed back down toward the water one more time for dinner at one of the cafes.
And that evening we walked around the wharf to find ice cream. I stayed a bit longer to take a couple photos of the sunset before going back to the hotel to finish packing up.

The next morning I grabbed breakfast with my family, then drove back to Orange County… Which took about 4 1/2 hours with hitting LA traffic. Always fun..

Overall a great weekend and a great event. I would definitely recommend Morro Bay to anyone looking for a first Half Iron race. Cool location and good course. I hope it does well and remains there. But, as expected with small towns, the local news is full of complaints from locals about road closures and how “not enough businesses benefitted that weekend”. And unfortunately loud minorities in small areas manage to get events like this cancelled.