Vineman Ironman 70.3 - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Felt relaxed the entire swim; was passing a lot of swimmers - a first for me - and realized I should have seeded myself closer to the front of the pack. Knew I was doing well when I started passing slower swimmers from the previous wave. The fast swimmers from the wave behind me slithered by like seals as I went under the second bridge on the return. My swim time on this course last year was 51:04 so I was psyched to come out of the water this year at 36:17. The swim lessons last fall and the 1,000s of meters swam since then paid off.

Seed myself closer to the front.

Little struggle getting the suit off over the timing chip. Was careful to clean my feet of sand and gravel before putting on the socks and shoes. I like getting to transition at opening and getting a spot on the end of the rack. Other than the hiccup over the chip, pretty smooth transition.

nothing

Met my overall goal of under 3 hours but I really wanted an average speed of over 19mph. Fell short on that. Was about 40 seconds slower than last year, most of which probably came when my chain slipped off at the bottom of Chalk Hill. Took in one bottle of water and one bottle of gatorade and nutrtion every 40 minutes. Felt good entering T2 and with the clouds and cooler temps still lingering I figured the pros were putting in some blistering times.

My race decisions were mostly good. A couple times east of Geyserville I was riding alone for sections and I found my pace would slacken. Need to stay focused to keep my tempo up. In training I believe I focused too much on speed on long, flat sections of road and cut some of the long hill climbs I use to do. Feels like some of the power I had on the bike has diminished. Going to reincorporate the long hill climbs into my riding. Finally, while I've put new components on my old, comfortable Cannondale, I am seriously considering investing in a tri bike this year.

Long run with bike from dismount to rack. Put one sock on upside down for the first time since I was what? 4 years old? This was a doubly stupid mistake because I had left the sock in the wrong position the day before when I set up T2. I can't even blame it on rushing through transition. Still a shorter T2 time than last year by over 20 seconds but that's because this year people in front of me ran with their bikes instead of walking.

Make sure my brain is engaged when setting up my transition area.

The good: Improved time over last year by 25 minutes, walked only the aid stations so met my goal of running all the hills. The hills seemed very manageable this year; mentally did not get psyched out by them. Left hamstring didn't bother me so the 2 week rest leading up to this aided in recovery from that injury. Also, the mild temps clearly helped with my improved time.
The bad: I don't completely have the run figured out. Wanted to finish under 2 hours and didn't. Around mile 3-4 dry mouth, felt thirsty but liquid was sloshing a little in my stomach. This never happened to me before and I wasn't sure what to do. Skipped liquid intake for a couple miles and under the circumstances that was good. First 3 miles I was on pace and then slowed but still at a steady pace until mile 10. Life really sucked after that. For the first time I wished the event concluded back in Guerneville so I could jump into the river at the finish, just cool off and float! Slow as it was, I kept a steady pace back to the finish knowing I was cutting it close on my overall time goal.

Not sure yet how to fix the running problems other than to keep training. For race weight, I should lose about 10 pounds, maybe even 15, just to be a lighter runner. And a lighter cyclist. Not sure what the nutrition/hydration problem is, and whether it's starting with something I'm doing or not doing on the bike.

Looked for the water and gatorade at the finish and couldn't find any. Finally got in line for the food and got a drink there. Took some food and left the athlete only area to find my partner. Located him and ate some chicken and lots of fruit while in the shade. It was very crowded and getting hotter so I was pretty quick to grab my stuff out of transition and head back to the hotel for stretching and back to the Russian River for a cool, relaxing swim/float!


I feel like I performed to the limit of my current physical ability. The training this year paid off and I expect continued training will continue to pay off though with less dramatic gains. Not completely knowing what I need for liquid on these long distances in variable temperatures hurt some. Being over the ideal weight for a distance athlete hurt some.


First off, I really appreciate all the volunteers - that is a lot of hard work and long hours that are being put in for free. However, if the race director puts the call out for volunteers - make sure you have something for them to do! There appeared to be a lot of clusters of orange volunteer shirts just standing around and doing nothing. There was limited space this year, especially at Windsor High, and the vols seemed to be unnecessarily taking up room. Most of them looked to be high school age and I suspect the more senior people were reluctant to actually give them anything responsible to do. That's too bad because they showed up and looked bored standing around.
Also, one volunteer at mile 10 aid station threw water on me as I went by. This was a direct shot that went forcefully into my right ear. I am sure this volunteer was well meaning but really, no mater how hot an athlete looks do not throw water on them without their asking and don't aim for the face/ears/head...aim for the torso.