Vineman 1/2 ironman triathlon-July 2007

Triathlon Update:
Vineman Half-Ironman:finished!
On July 22nd I completed my first ½ Ironman (aka a 70.3, named for the number of miles covered that day). I was told the course wasn’t as tough as the Wildflower Olympic-distance triathlon I completed in May, but the total Vineman distance is more than twice the Wildflower distance so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had no idea about a goal time, although 7.5 hours seemed to be a reasonable guess. Overall, I’d say the race was tougher than I expected.
THE LEAD-UP
When there are a lot of athletes racing, they start the race in waves based on age. As luck would have it, the Men’s 38-39 age group was LAST to go; the 17th wave out of 17 waves. This means I’d be in the Sonoma County heat more than most of the other racers. In the weeks leading up to the event I was praying for a cooling trend (it was expected to be in the 90’s). To prepare for the race, I did a lot of jogging in the San Diego heat (I’d usually do 4 miles in 80-85 degree weather) to acclimate myself to the weather. Also, I employed the services of a nutritionist to develop a nutrition and hydration plan for the race, as well as to develop meal plans to get my weight loss efforts back on track.
THE COURSE
Vineman is a beautiful course. The swim is in the Russian River next to downtown Guerneville. The bike course winds east towards Highway 101, north through Healdsburg and Geyserville, and south again to end at the town of Windsor. The run takes racers from Windsor High School out to the La Crème Winery and back.
Vineman is a bit different than the other triathlons I’ve done; normally, there is one “transition area” where people 1) change out of their wetsuits and into their bike gear, and 2) change out of their bike gear and into their running gear (referred to as “T1” and T2”, respectively). But at Vineman, the T1 area is 15 miles away from the T2 area. So the day before the race, the team headed over to Windsor High School to set up my T2 area. I had shoes, salt tabs, run nutrition, and my secret weapon: a cooler full of ice which I was planning on pouring on myself at the end of the bike to lower my core temperature for the run (hopefully it would be ice-cold water by the time I reached it, and not hot water!).
THE SWIM-1.2 miles
The morning started off cool and foggy. I thought I had lucked out on the heat factor, but about an hour before my swim wave the clouds burned off and the temperature started rising. Oh well...
Swim wave 17 was in white swim caps. So far I’ve participated in 3 triathlons, and all 3 times I’ve been in the wave that has worn white caps. I’m ready for another color.
So at 8:38am I’m in the water, the horn sounds, and off we go. So far today I’ve seen a LOT of people coming out of the water with black and purple eyes from getting hit or kicked in the face, but this age group seems pretty mellow. There’s a few times where I bump into people but overall I avoid the usual “human blender”.
This section of the Russian River was VERY shallow; occasionally I’d stop to look around and see people wading instead of swimming. The 1.2 mile swim seemed to take longer than usual, but it turned out I got out of the water in a decent amount of time (and 2 minutes ahead of my mentor Derrick, who was in the same wave as me).
TRANSITION 1
I was a bit loopy getting out of the water, more so than usual. I stripped off my wetsuit, threw on my bike gear and ran my bike out of T1. Derrick speeds off ahead of me, as he’s faster on the bike than me.
The company in charge of keeping track of our split times wasn’t very good; they combined my times for the swim and T1. I consider myself lucky however, I know a couple people who finished the entire race and didn’t get any times at all. Anyways, swim time + T1 time = 0:49:16.
THE BIKE-56 miles
This was probably the best bike ride I’ve ever done. The scenery was beautiful, and the course consisted of rolling hills through many different vineyards. The course was technically challenging, requiring a lot of shifting and hill-timing. Another cool thing about this ride is the Highway Patrol had traffic stopped for us, so when I clipped into my petals at the beginning of the ride I didn’t have to clip out or stop until I reached the end (stopping for stop signs and red lights is one of my pet peeves). 56 miles without stopping or clipping out, my new record.
The first 10 miles or so I was keeping track of the time so I could follow my nutrition and hydration plan. This gave my brain something to focus on instead of the miles ahead of me, which was a huge help. I had to keep holding my speed down a bit so I’d be able to complete the half marathon later in the day.
Sometime around mile 40 I see my mom and my niece Rachelle standing by the side of the road, cheering me on and holding up a sign (I was too out of it to remember what it said). But I’m glad they were there, because I was starting to lose motivation at that point, and having them there gave me the energy to push on.
I finally reach Windsor High School and run an unusually long distance from the bike dismount line to the T2 area. As I’m running in, I see Derrick running out. I yell to him and he’s genuinely surprised to see me done with the bike. Bike time = 3:26:26 (16.2 mph average).
TRANSITION 2
At this point it is around 1 o’clock and about 90 degrees out. I figure “oh well, at least it can’t get any hotter” (I was so wrong). I grab my cooler and pour the ice-cold water (it worked!) over myself and stuffed a few ice cubes down my shirt. T2 time = 0:05:20.
THE RUN-13.1 miles
This was truly an experience. So far to date my longest training run was 6.75 miles (still battling injuries): here I just biked 56 miles and now need to run a half-marathon. And it was getting hotter…
So I take off at a slow pace to get my legs used to running. I have the usual cramping in my quads that I seem to have every time I get off the bike. There are aid stations at every mile with water, cookies, bananas, etc. but I am under strict orders from my nutritionist to follow her plan, so I am only stopping to drink water and dump water over my head.
Around Mile 4 I catch up with my Team in Training teammate Holly. I slow down to run with her for awhile. Around mile 5 or 6 we see Mentor Derrick, who already reached the halfway point and is headed back. He’s already a couple miles ahead of us, which is a testament to how slow I am on the run.
Finally we reach the La Crème Winery, which is the turnaround point. Later reports say that the temperature at the turnaround ranged from 101 to 107 degrees. At this point the heat is finally starting to affect me, so I slow down (in hindsight I’m glad I slowed down to run with Holly, because if I kept up my faster pace I would have been in trouble). Soon I am walking about 9 out of every 10 minutes. Holly drops me like a bad habit and is soon out of sight. The bottom of my feet feels like hamburger from Mile 10 until the end. After what seems like an eternity, I get back to the school and run through the finish chute. Run time = 3:33:56 (a 16.3 mile/minute pace…I didn’t think it was possible to run that slow!)
Final time: 7:55:00! A little slower than I anticipated, but overall I am happy I finished.
(The clock says 10:08 because my wave started 2 hours 13 minutes after the first wave started)
Fun facts:
Calories burned: 6175
Average Heart Rate: 132 beats per minute
Here are my official times: (out of 1,823 finishers, I’m not sure how many people raced but didn’t finish)
EVENT TIME RANKING
Swim 1.2 miles + T1 0:49:17 1,431 out of 1,823
Bike 3:26:26 1,642 out of 1,823
T2 0:05:21 1,323 out of 1,823
Run 3:33:56 1,812 out of 1,823

OVERALL 7:55:00 1,765 out of 1,823