Should I Race California 70.3 Oceanside? - The Decision

Thank you to all who gave words of wisdom, encouragement, and suggestions! It was quite unexpected but welcome. My favorite advice was along the lines of "What would Coach Skip say if he was coaching you?" And the use of my own words in similar situations: "Live to race another day!"

I have decided to "race" for a number of reasons. First, I don't believe I will be doing any harm or causing myself a setback by doing so. The main risk of a reinjury setback will come if someone on the bike ride causes me to have to take extreme evasive action. Otherwise, while there may be a little pain in the shoulder it will not be disabling. I also don't believe I will cause more harm to it. Conveniently(?) my next doctor's appointment with a new ortho/sports med doc will be Monday March 30th so he won't be able to tell me not to do the race. Also conveniently my Physio didn't ask me if I had a race coming up (he did know I was swimming with one arm, biking, and running and that I did crazy Ironman type racing).

My expectations for this race have completely changed from when I first signed up. A personal best will not be possible. I've lost too much training time in the critical weeks when my bike fitness was finally coming into existence. I will also be swimming with one arm, not 2. I found out on Saturday that this is even more difficult and challenging in a wetsuit in open water. I also discovered that using my full sleeved, somewhat tight wetsuit (intended for me at 10 lbs less than current weight!), is painful to get off after the swim. Instead I'll use a slightly too big sleeveless wetsuit and home I don't lose more than about 30% of my normal speed. Not to leave out the run: while I've been able to do that more than the 2 other disciplines it still suffered from missed training time and pain management priorities. My mental game has taken a hit as well.

My goals? I only have vague time goals now. I'll throw some times out there but they seem unimportant now.

• Swim - 45min
• T1 - whatever! just get the wetsuit off and get me on the bike
• Bike - 3h20m
• T2 - 4m
• Run - 2h20m
• Process goals - start swim easy, fuel and hydrate according to plan on the bike, ease into the run with a negative split and strong final 3 miles.
• Experiential goal - race with joy and gratitude; represent Team Challenge in a positive way. Experience what it's like to not be at the front of the pack for a swim and probably get run over from behind.
• Outcome goal - place in the top 132 in my age group (out of 132). However, choose to DNF if it means living to race another day.