New Records Set at Oceanside 70.3
Men's Race Owned by Leo Bergere
The swim course record was broken by Bergere with a time of 22:10. He was followed by the chase group of about 6 which included:
Nicholas Quest 22:39
Ben Kanute 22:39
Matthew Schafer 22:42
Brennen Smith 22:42
Jason West 22:42
Eric Lagerstrom 22:44
The bike course doesn’t really allow for a lot of passing the first 5-10 miles. It’s pretty narrow and so I wasn’t surprised to not see much happen until about 38 mins into the bike when Kanute took the lead. He wouldn't give up the lead again until mile 39 when Sam Long and Jackson Laundry in tow came passed him. The only thing that really surprised me during the bike was that Long didn't lead coming into T2. Instead, the men’s field had come together with Bergere taking the lead back with Long and Laundry within seconds.
Exiting T2 Sam took the lead, Kanute took forever to put his HOKA shoes on while West started to chase. By mile 1 Bergere had taken the lead from Long trying to hold on for maybe 30 secs or so…
Pause break with live coverage breaking down
…and we're back. The run was pretty boring as the men seemed to settle into their own paces for the first lap. Bergere slowly took time on everyone except West, who had run his way into 4th, 2:09 down from the leader. West then passed Jackson and Long at about mile 9 and whittled the lead down to 1:22. By mile 12.4 West had moved within 9 secs of 1st place when Bergere noticed how close he was and pressed on the gas to keep his win locked in and a new course record owned. While all of the excitement was on the hopes of sprint finish Laundry stayed steady for 3rd and Kanute, after finally getting his shoes on, found his running legs and moved his way up to 4th place.
Top 5 Men's Final Results
Leo Bergere 3:45:25
Jason West 3:45:37
Jackson Laundry 3:47:38
Ben Kanute 3:49:38
Geroge Goodwin 3:50:35
THE WOMENS RACE WAS FIRE FOR MANY REASONS
Holly Lawerence crushed the women’s swim with a time of 24:15 as she put 1:28 on the chase group of 4 which included:
Kat Matthews 25:44
Pauly Findley 25:45
Tamera Jewett 25:45
Chelsea Sodaro 25:45
Putting ten more seconds on the group in T1 I noticed that Lawrence had perhaps learned from the cold race in St George last year and started using a full suit. Was it to keep her warmer? Maybe more aero? Holly: let's connect on that one later.
Things stayed pretty consistent until Findlay and Jewett started to make a move on the bike at about mile 12.5 and then Findlay making a pass on the climb at 1:44 on the race clock.
Then Lawrence said, "NO WAY!!!!"
Then Findley said “Way!” ( little Bill and Ted action).
In actuality, the two seemed to talk a little about them working together in fear Jewett was too close.
Coming into T2 the lead women seemed to have settled their differences and come together 🙂 However, Jewett had gotten a blocking penalty on the bike, and despite a group of 3 entering T2 together, only two would leave around the same time.
Leaving T2 it was Matthews having a bit of fun with Lawrence running next to her. (I love to see this.) Matthews, Lawerence, Findlay all were running together until pre-race favorite Sodaro said: “hello, remember me?” and took the lead at the first aid station.
While all of this was happening we had Jewett serving her 30 second penalty on the bike and planning her “FU” run. Sodaro was reliving her Kona experience, pulling away from most of the field with her run, until about mile 7 when the Jewett train came through and proved to Findlay and Lawerence's discussion from the bike course correct.
From that point the lead bikers had proved to have probably biked too hard as they all went south with their run splits, with the exception of Matthews who stayed strong in 3rd place the rest of the day with such an amazing performance post Texas incident about 6 months ago. Way to go and welcome back, Kat.
Top 5 Women's Final Results
Tamara Jewett 4:08:09
Chelsea Sodaro 4:09:31
Kat Matthews 4:12:27
Holly Lawrence 4:16:32
Paula Findlay 4:21:52
It’s always great to watch this race. It’s been a while since we have seen a bigger field and everyone is excited for the season to begin. I would like to remind some of these pro’s that this is the startof the long season. Enjoy the wins if you got them but don’t beat yourself up if you’re not fit right now.
Truth be told this is the first time I have sat down and actually watched a live race on Outside Watch. I'm usually at the race and just checking the app for time updates and trying to figure out where I want my Moto driver to take me to capture photos and or video. Since I just spent 5 hours connected to my devices, couple of my own opinions on the live broadcast.
1. Tom Z can actually sing pretty well.
2. The sponsor call outs sound like a really bad written social post from a new pro trying to included everyone all the time. You know, the ones that insert like 10 sponsors into one post.
3. Taylor Knibb is just as entertaining as a commentator as she is in person.
4. Don't let new people do the start cannon.
5. Could we please have some cameras on the commentators?
6. Overall pretty decent online coverage minus some major glitches with voice over and replay repeats. Anyone else get these issues?
