As I mentioned in my previous post the Vineman 70.3 was to be a "tune up" or test for the upcoming Ironman Louisville at the end of August. A tune up race gives you a chance to check fitness, sharpen focus and tweak limiters or reveal blind spots. I did want to go with a hope of doing well and certainly breaking the 5 hour mark but the purpose was to gage training to racing conditions.
Since Vineman 70.3 is held in Santa Rosa, California it is now an easy, less than 2 hour drive to the race start. As instructed by coach Brian, I arrived the day before the race at race time start to swim and check water, sighting and depth. After chatting with Lee and Cherie Gruenfeld, I jumped in the water and swam out past the two bridges and back. It definitely was warm in the wetsuit as water temps were reported to be 76 degrees. After getting out it was time to go check in at the race, chat with some vendors and connect with a few friends from the desert. Then it was off to lunch, check in at the hotel and then back to join in at the IronPrayer service near the race venue.
When I arrived back at Windsor High School I walked over to where Troy had set up the FCA-E tent. Robin was there and soon came Susy and together it was an intimate time of encouragement. When it was over the temperature was still close to 100. I had been on my feet a lot throughout the day and needed to get off my feet and continue to put more water in my body. So opting to have a quiet evening of race prep and fueling I headed back to the hotel, stopped by Trader Joe's, picked up dinner (an antipasto salad and chicken salad to stuff into pita bread) and breakfast (a soy protein smoothie, blueberry bars, bananas and Clif bars to munch on pre-race) and plenty of water!
After getting the bike prepped with Hammer Gels, Endurolyte packets and a spare tube and CO2 cartridge, everything was packed and ready for a 5:30 departure in the morning. Since the wifi that I paid extra for wasn't working, I watched a little women's softball on ESPN (no Versus and TdF at this lovely Establishment) and went to bed at 9:30.
RACE DAY:
Alarms off at scheduled 5am. I easily woke up put on all my gear: timing chip, heart rate monitor, shorts, jersey... warm clothes. walked my bike back out to the car, ate and drank my breakfast, packed up the room and pulled out of the parking lot at precisely 5:30 am. Hit the Starbucks for a grande Americano and found myself rolling into Guerneville at 6am. I found (legal) parking easily in town and decided since there was still over an hour and a half before I would start my day, I put my seat back and napped for about 15 min.
This race brings out a lot of people and it was definitely crowded at Johnson's Beach. After laying out my transition gear and getting body marked the last formality is porta-potty duty and then wait it out.
Swim:
Since I've been in the 50-54 age group this year, several races have had a swim wave titled 50+ making them very big, if not the largest wave start of the day. Vineman lived up to that. Lining up nearer the right hand side of the group I was able to get a pretty smooth lead out and a bit more shade from the sun. sighting was eventually pretty difficult going out because the sun reflection on the water made it nearly impossible to see distant buoys but the river is narrow and it's pretty hard to get too far off track. Going out, you're swimming against the current and the further up river you go, the shallower the water becomes. Although swimming relaxed, I could still tell something isn't jiving with my open water swim. Why I can swim so well in the pool and flail in the open water is a mystery to me and something I'll be working on in the next several weeks.
At the turn around, as I breathed to my right, I notice a body upright (walking) and then felt the gravel of the river bottom on the next stroke. I was swimming in about three feet of water but stayed horizontal and swam past the walker. Now heading back with the sun behind me everything became clear and quickly found myself coming out of the water feeling pretty refreshed. I was amazed however at the amount of people from the previous wave with an eight minute advantage that I had swam past. Kind of makes you think you're a pretty fast swimmer yourself... not so; watch said something like 32:??.
T-1:
Here it's gravel and old carpet squares; not the best for your feet but you get the job done. finding my bike (one rack over) I slid under a open space, yank off my wetsuit, put on my glasses, helmet, shoes... SHOES! where are my socks? I forgot to put them in my Transition bag. Crud... this means I'll be fine on the bike but having to run over 13 miles without socks is a sure-fire recipe for blisters and pain but nothing I can do about it now. So, I pack everything in my swim bag (you have to pack up all your stuff because it is later transported to the race finish since this is a two transition race or a point to point race, meaning it doesn't start and finish in the same location) and off I go.
Bike: The start is at the bottom of a little hill and many people were just running or walking their bikes to the top to mount, I on the other hand, know this about the race so my gears were in the lowest gearing allowing me to just pop on and dance up the hill. At the top I check all my gear; HR monitor, computer, all looks good and hit the main road out of town. For about 7 miles it's an easy flat pretty run out among the river, redwoods and vines. Then you cross underneath the road you were just on and hit a steep little climb to get you on the other side. Approaching the hill I change out of my big ring into the easier small but all my chain does is rattle around doing nothing... this is called "throwing a chain." For newbies this is always a problem but never for a pro like me... right? I just allow the momentum of my travel to take me half way up the hill while I gently try to peddle the chain back on using my front derailleur... BUT... Not this time! No sirree, with my new oval shaped Rotorings, the chain gets lodged inside the chain rings and wrapped around the bottom bracket. Now stuck in the middle of the road, I'm forced to hope off the bike and pull to the side to discover that I'm literally in a jam! Chain jam that is. I try to pull the chain out with no luck and not the big ring is fused against the chain. I try working it out from several angles and multiple tries. Trying not to get flustered I just keep trying but what seemed like an eternity I thought to myself... Oh well, I guess my race is over! People that I had just past were whizzing by me now and I just stood there. Then I thought to look for the specific area that was jammed and realized if I tug on the ring and chain at the same time it might break loose and that is exactly what happened. It was a gamble because I wasn't sure I would bend the chain ring but it was fine. But my troubles weren't over yet. Now on this steep incline I've got to get clipped in. This is much different than mountain biking, my peddles are one sided... after several at temps trying to move sideways on the hill I finally coasted downhill to a driveway and finally got going again.
Once on Westside road, I'm in familiar territory. The road is beautiful passing vineyard after vineyard and underneath tall redwood and stately oak trees... with the exception of one, oak tree, I mean. Just minutes prior a long heavy branch broke away from the tree taking down a power line with it and a couple of riders. I showed up on scene just as the emergency vehicles were getting the power line up off the ground and securing the tree limb to the side of the road. The ambulance had already left but you could see this really hurt someone.
For the rest of the bike I just plugged along at an average 128 heart rate. My speed was good enough to keep me from getting passed by anyone from behind while I was passing dozens per mile. However again on a short steady climb, at the bottom of Canyon Road, I threw that chain again, this time I just hopped off the bike and manually put it back on. Taking three Endurolytes per 40 minutes on the bike, nutrition was good and water intake was steady at a bottle and a half per hour (30 ounces). At the 45 mile mark comes a short little climb called Chalk Hill. It can seem steep to most but felt pretty routine to me now that I train up here in the Santa Cruz mountains.
On the run it to T-2 with about 3-4 miles to go, I passed a guy in my AG. For some reason he decided it was time for him to race and pushed ahead of me but didn't hold the pace so, I passed him again... 15 seconds later he passed me and said something I couldn't hear. I just let him stay 15 meters up as we now were on the final approach in. I slipped out of my shoes, hit the ground running right by my new friend into transition... I never saw him again!
T-2:
It's a long run from the dismount to where you rack your bike... knowing all I had to do was collect and stuff my run nutrition in my pockets, place visor and put on my sock-less running shoes, I was out in a flash!
Run:
Coming off the bike I felt great. No back problems, no quad fatigue... I just felt fresh. The temperature was warm but not like Hawaii... Not even CLOSE! So when I ran out onto the road many of the female pros were coming in at a nice clip. At the one mile mark I starting checking pace... and boy was I surprised! Mile 1-2 was a fast 7:17, mile 2-3 where there are some good hills, 7:38, then back to 7:20 then 7:32 and it went like that while I was holding a 146-148 HR -- perfect! just like in training.
While taking a GU Roctane every third aid station and 3 Endurolytes every other, I was surprised how poorly staffed the aid stations were. They had little water and often you either slowed down to get something or even had to pick something off the table yourself. This didn't deter me from what was shaping up to be a great run and I wasn't going to let anything to get me thinking otherwise!
At the run turnaround, La Crema Winery, I saw Susy going in and out with great words of encouragement and it was here I could see and feel the heat beginning to take it's toll on the field. Many were walking and I could see now my HR was in the low to mid 150's. But I knew I was on my way back with only 5 miles to go I would do everything to keep the pace high. Doing the math in my head I knew, not only was I on pace to break 5 hours (even with the two thrown chains and no socks) I was looking at breaking 4:50.
With less than three miles to go to the finish I could hear the first pitter-patter of feet coming from behind. It was a tall, blond, leggy type who was tapping out a steady rhythm. We encouraged each other and that was the extent of any come from behind pass! I could still see her as we went into the High School and I could tell I was going to be close to the 4:50 mark... really close, so I picked up the pace a bit and sooner than I was ready, came across the line in 4:49:54.
Afterward, it was good to connect with friends, teammates, Troy and Robin, Alan and Debbie Woodruff from la Quinta joined us for some post race food and we got a chance to catch up. Thanks to Troy for driving me back to Guerneville to pick up my car and Susy for letting me take a shower at her place prior to the awards ceremony. Up until then I was just happy to have done a good race but the third place finish was even sweeter, knowing the trophy is a bottle of La Crema Wine in a wooden box. But when they called up the order of Men 50-54 for their awards, there was a bit of confusion. Then the announcement. "We have a change in the standings... 5th place is now... so and so, forth place is ... third goes to... Second is Dan Perkins and first is ... WHAT? Apparently the first place guy cut the run course and logged a 50 minute 1/2 marathon. He was DQ'd on the spot (he wasn't there). So not only a bottle of wine but a nice brand new TYR transition bag as well... Just like the one I bought a year ago.
Over all I couldn't have been more pleased. I headed home after chatting with Lee and Cherie again, saying the next time we see each other will be back in Kona. First I need to go through Louisville, which I'm feeling a lot better about now!
Stats:
Swim with transition - 35:26
Bike - 2:35:20 (21.6 mph avg.)
T-2 - 2:11
Run - 1:36:56 (7:24 per mile pace)
Time 4:49:54
2nd out of 109 in AG
115 overall out of 2286
Oh, and by the way... only one blister, on the side of my right foot. It really was a good day!
