Vineman Ironman 70.3 - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The race morning temp on the beach was COLD!.. High fog and overcast the whole swim. Archived weather for race day at 7AM was 51 deg. I struggled at the start a bit from a self-induced panic attack and was looking for the bottom and didn't find it as much as I would have liked.. Stupid, really stupid. I had to work not to lose it all together as my 45-49 AG wave took off and the next wave was in the proces of passing me.. By the time I hit the turnaround, I figured I was way off my planned time as the 2nd wave started to catch and pass me. I was shocked to see that I finished the swim 4 seconds faster than last year.. If I just hadn't had that panic attack.......

Next time I have to work more OW swims into my training. This year was all pool swim training until a week before the race when I did a short OW swim at a local harbor..

T1 this year was almost 2 minutes faster than last year.. The transition area was great as it was bigger this year with lots more room..

next race will be an IM, so spray-on sun block will help and I won't have to gather stuff up and into a bag for transport to the finish. I will always try to find a better way to get thru T1 faster..

Started out pretty good as I was passed by a number of riders in the first 5 miles, but I wanted to get comfortable and didn't push too hard out of the gate.. It was cold and overcast for most of the ride. Certain points had a bit of a headwind but not too strong. I averaged about 15 MPH for the first 5 miles, then the rolly stuff began.. Got up and over the first few hills and figured I was doing a much better time this year until I hit Chalk Hill. I had to walk it.. There were two scary points where I almost went down. One was crossing over the 101 and hitting a gap in the road that almost took the handlebars out of my hands. If I had been in the aero position, I think I would have lost control of the front wheel. The second was entering one of the small towms on the course and after making a left turn, we had to cross over some R/R tracks. As I and the others approached, I heard one rider utter, "Oh Shit".. As he proceeded over the tracks, his Gatorade bottle came out of his rack and hit the ground, spinning, about 10 feet in front of me. I had to apply the brakes and hope the bottle would continue to spin right past me, and no one would ride up my butt from behind me. Still, I figured I was going at a good pace but ended up with the same finishing time as last year..

work on time splits to ride a more consistent pace..

This is the only part I didn't like as T2 is so long. From the time I clipped out and even took off my shoes and got to my rack spot, I had burned 4 minutes.. It must be 150 yards or more from the time I dismounted to when I got to my assigned rack spot.. From there about a minute and a half to get on shoes, pee and go..

nothing.. I got out quickly.. I could only run so fast with others on the same path..

Out of T2 I felt good. No back soreness or leg stiffness like last year, after getting off the Centurion LeMans.. The Jamis Satellite worked great.. The weather was perfect.. It was cool and breezy.. I just can't underatand why the bottoms of my feet started to hurt.. Really cut into my OA time.. I managed my fluids and snacks fine as I had energy, but my frikin feet hurt and I walked more than I wanted to. The last mile and a half I just put it out of my mind as I wanted to finish strong.. Even walking the hills I had a better time than last year by 12 minutes..

not much... T2 was good and run was steady..

The foot pain that I haven't had since 2005, came back at hthe worst time... If the bottoms of my feet didn't hurt, I would have maintained a faster pace..


This is a great race for anyone who wants to increase to a 70.3 distance.. It's challenging and well worth it. I will not be doing this race next year as I begin training for IM AZ 2009.. I hope all of you have the same great weather we had this year, next year..

GOOD LUCK!