Subject: RE: Vineman Full I did Vineman in 2011 after doing IMCdA in 2009. It was a great excuse to visit NoCal for 2 weeks. It's a well established and well run event substantially smaller than an Mdot race. Logistics prevent it from being the 2000+ behemoth of an Mdot. The swim was good even if the water at times was quite shallow (like...2') and a lot of people stood up and walked. The swim is in the Russian river and they divide the river into thirds. Upstream in one third, nothing in the middle, and downstream in the other third. It was pretty easy to sight both directions since you aren't far from the river bank and overhanging trees. Bike was good, but Sonoma County roads are some of the worst I've ever ridden. I joked with friends who did it the year after I did that the solutions is to fill your water bottle with wine. There aren't a lot of flat, straight, stretches so it makes the day pass quickly. Run is 3 loops out-and-back and like the bike, not much "flat" but none of the hills are really bad. Do the math, and it's about 4 miles each way, so you'll see a lot of the same people again and again and again. They gave us a wristband each of the first two loops so we didn't have to "think" about which lap we were on. A fairly compact run course, so there weren't any "desolate" sections. Finish area was not the full-on rockstar event of an Mdot, but also meant that it was easy to wait and watch for an athlete to finish. Another BT'er did the race and was starting his final lap as I came in to finish, so we were able to guess pretty well when he'd be finishing also. |