Vineman 70.3 Race Report Part I

Executive Summary: I finished! 5:03:52. Swim was good (28:52). T1 was pretty good (2:09). Bike was very/too good (2:38:34). T2 was fine (2:13). Run wasn't so good (1:52:04). I blew up around mile 7 and ran/walked it home. That last 58 minutes were really a struggle, but I picked it up and ran the last 1.2 miles, even if I got a little wobbly after the finish and needed to sit down for 45 minutes. Overall, I am pleased, but there is room to improve, especially in the 2nd half of the run. Given the length of the detailed report, I am breaking this up. It's wordy mostly for me -- I want to remember what went right, what went wrong, and what I did/didn't do for next time. Please feel free to skip!

Pre-Race: I flew up on Friday afternoon and drove to Sonoma. While on the plane, I panicked on the plane because I thought that I had forgotten my run nutrition at home. It turned out that I hadn't, so the worry was for nothing. Instead, the problem was with my housing. I booked a vacation rental online back in March or April, but when I got to Guerneville, the office was closed and they had no record of my reservation. When I called the online company, they tried to get through to the office, but had no luck. They told me to "fine somewhere else to stay and they would cancel my reservation." Good luck with that. Guerneville sells out pretty early and trying to find something on the Friday was not an easy task. But I eventually found a place that was actually closer to the race site and cheaper. It all worked out, but I really didn't need that stress!

Race Expo: I had heard that the race expo for a ironman branded event has the air of a fight. Everyone is walking around wearing the t-shirt from the biggest, baddest race they ever did and sizing everyone else up. That's exactly what I found. Registration opened at 10:30, and I was in line by 10:20. That made packet pickup really easy -- under five minutes and I had my chip, race numbers, goody bag and t-shirt. Those who waited until later encountered much bigger lines. If you can, I recommend getting there when they open. You also avoid long lines at the sales booths if you want to buy something. Because there were two transition areas, I needed to drop off my run gear on Saturday. I got my place at 11:00 a.m., right when transition opened, and I was the second person in my rack. Shoes, visor and empty fuelbelt went down on the ground. At the end of the day, I dropped the semi-frozen containers of run nutrition. Yes, they were hot on 11:33 the next day when I left T2, but they neither turned nor dissuaded me from drinking them.

Sidenote on crazy athletes: Throughout the day on Saturday, I saw athletes out on the bike and run courses. These were not people out for their ordinary rides or runs, but triathletes on tri-bikes or wearing tri-gear doing the course. Furthermore, these were not people previewing a specific section of the course but, given the number of water bottles and fuel belts I saw, people doing the entire bike or run course. To me, that's crazy. Why would you ride 56 miles in the heat of the day, or rune 13.1 miles, the day before a big race? The only way that makes sense is if this is a big training weekend in preparation for an ironman. But if you are paying for the hotel room, flight and car or gas, and entry fee, that's a mighty expensive training weekend. It just makes no sense to me.

Race Morning: Apparently due to the rotation of age group starting times, my wave (men 33-34) was set to go off at 8:22, guaranteeing I would still be on the course after 1 p.m. With a projected high of 90 and my issues with heat, that was not ideal. I liked the purple swim cap, but the still . . . There were three benefits however. First, I got to eat breakfast the prescribed 3 hours before race start -- no way I am getting up before 4 to eat. I am not sure this really helped anything, but I finally did what I was "supposed" to do. Second, I got to watch the first 14 waves start and caught many of them finishing. Third, I had a little time to walk around the transition area. Saw David and Charrissa, which was nice. I also wound up walking right behind Leanda Cave, Mirinda Carfrae and John Dahlz, somewhat starstruck. That makes me a tri-dork, doesn't it?