Vineman race report

Vineman post-race report

This definitely was my toughest 70.3 mile race…my heel injury has prevented me from running for the past couple months. I’ve been trying to run in the pool a couple hours a week but it is a mediocre substitute at best. It’s really a shame, because this race had the potential to be one of my better ones (early wave start, potential lower temperatures).

PRE-RACE

The following is a list of “new’ things I would be doing today (with apologies to Coach Gurujan, who says “Nothing new on race day!!)

* New brand of sunscreen (the brand I was using was giving me rashes)
* New nutrition (carbo-pro, since I ran out of Infinit)
* Painkillers-I usually don’t take anything, but with my injured heel my doctor advised me to take 2 Extra Strength Excedrin with breakfast, 2 in T1, and 2 in T2.
* “Yanks” on my shoes…I haven’t used those in a couple years so I considered them “new”
* New nutrition delivery system on the bike-I squirted 5 Gu packs into a plastic mini bottle so I wouldn’t have to fumble around with opening up the packs while riding



My race wave was to start at 6:46am (wave 3). As our cabin was about 3 miles from the start line, I was able to “sleep in” until 4:45. After a quick breakfast of peanut butter on a bagel and a banana, it was a short bike ride to the start line. I had enough time to get body marked and set up my transition area with about 5 minutes to spare, then I jumped into the water for the start of the swim. I noticed that the sky was clear blue; the usual fog and marine layer that stuck around until 8:30am or so was already burned off by 6:30am. That means it’ll get hotter faster…not a good sign.

One guy jumped in the water and didn’t realize he was still wearing his glasses. Someone told him and he had to rush out and put them back in the transition area, I’m not sure if he made it back before the gun went off.

SWIM-2100 yards/1.2 miles

I think my swim “peaked” about 2 weeks before the race, and my last few swims weren’t that great. This swim was no different; I think I started getting my rhythm after about 1900 yards and by that time the swim was almost over. One positive note was that since this was my 5th 70.3 event I was pretty familiar with how long the swim would take and how fast to pace myself (in prior races I would have that “where the hell is the turnaround point” mentality).

My goal was to break 40 minutes on the swim-which was a stupid goal to have considering I wasn’t wearing a watch and therefore had no idea if I should speed up, slow down or continue on the same pace at the turnaround.

At this writing my swim time + T1 add up to 0:45:48, and since I usually have a 5 minute T1 I think I was pretty close to that goal.

T1:Swim-to bike-transition

I took my salt tabs and Excedrin and headed off on the bike

BIKE-56 miles

My goal was to finish the bike in about 3:40 or less, but I wasn’t sure if I could do it because I was undertrained. So my main goal was to “enjoy the day”.

I headed off on the bike feeling better then last year. I paced myself and didn’t get bored like I usually do; even looking at my watch constantly to make sure I took in some nutrition every 10 minutes didn’t compel me to start mentally ticking off the miles.

At mile 7 a tree had fallen and hit 2 riders; a 3rd rider was close behind and skidded into the tree. One of the riders had his back broken. Several riders were stopped and giving aid so the remaining riders were maneuvering under the tree as best they could as to continue the race. Details of the accident are here http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090719/ARTICLES/907199983/1031/SPORTS07?Title=Freak-crash-during-Vineman-when-tree-falls-on-cyclists

Around mile 30 my inner quads started feeling a little tight. At mile 39 I stood to stretch a bit and both my quads seized up. I tried to ‘baby” my legs and not make the cramps worse because I was approaching Chalk Hill (about 300 foot climb, not too bad but I knew my legs would protest). I pedaled up the hill as slowly as I could without falling over, but I could still feel my quads tightening so instead of risking falling over I pulled off to the side and dismounted. As soon as my feet touched the pavement both quads cramped up. I ended up walking up the rest of the hill 1) to save time, and 2) to stretch out my legs so I could finish this thing. I also tried to determine why I was cramping up…up to that point I had taken 1200mg of sodium, which should have been plenty even on a hot day, and I had been drinking plenty. I concluded that it was probably the lack of training, and going too fast for my current ability.

I reached the top of Chalk Hill and cheered on riders reaching the top for awhile. My legs started to feel better and so I continued on without incident. Bike time-3:53:50 P.S. bike split last year was 3:56:53 so I ended up beating that at least.

T2:Bike-to-run transition

Nothing too interesting to report here, except I couldn’t find my transition area even though I had placed a bright yellow shirt over my things so I could spot it easily. More salt tabs, more Excedrin, and I was off on the “run”. T2 time: 0:05:15.

RUN-13.1 miles

The run was brutal, as usual. Even though the temperature was supposed to be around 90, actual temps ranged from 97 to 102 (yes there is a big difference). Also, the lack of marine/fog layer made the temperature rise quicker than normal. I was hoping that I would be able to run 5-6 miles, but looking back I think I only ran 1-2 miles. My heel injury and my quads were making it too painful to run. So I walked. Brian Gunn walked with me for a bit, and I saw/cheered on lots of people. It was fun but by mile 10 I had enough and just wanted the day to be over. I can only take so much of the sun.

By the end my feet were burning and killing me, and I had blisters. The last 3 miles took 25 minutes per mile to walk. I was trying to dig deep and make the last mile in under 23 minutes so I could break 9 hours for the race but I couldn’t do it. Total run time-4:17:32. Too long!
Overall, I'm glad I finished the race...I've been having motivational issues lately and hopefully this is the kick in the butt I need to start training better and more often.