Vineman Ironman 70.3 - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Unfortunately the race results that they posted didn't break out the swim time and t1. They just reported my swim time as "--" and my t1 time as "00:47:52". From that time, I felt I took about 3 minutes during t1 to take my wetsuit off, packup my swim gear and get my bike gear on. Thus I estimate my swim time at 45 minutes, which was great compared to my first official time at this distance which was 53 minutes! Woohoo, I'm transforming into a fish!

One thing to note about the swim, right after the first left at the turn-around buoys you litterally scrape the bottom of the river with your arm stroke. It continued like this through the turn-around buoys and for another 100 meters or so. I ended up doing a funky kind of side arm stroke so I wouldn't touch the bottom of the river. It was very akward and slowed me down a bit but not as much as near then end where I had to actually stop a couple times in the water. My new goggles (brand Aqua Sphere) actually started collecting water inside the goggles, thus I had to stop and pop them off for a second. Other than those two minor issues, my swim portion was great and I came in around my goal time. Yay!

Two things I would do differently would be sighting the buoys better and thus staying on course and tightening my goggles more so no water leaks inside.

I wear a wetsuit with sleeves, thus one tip that worked well for me during transition is to take off my goggles and swim cap and hold it in my hand while I pull my arm out of the wetsuit. Thus as I pull my hand out of the sleeve of the wetsuit, my goggles and swim cap get stuck in the sleeve and I don't need to worry about dropping them. Given there were two transition areas for this race I had to spend a few extra seconds to put all of my swim gear into a plastic bag which then the race volunteers transported to the final transition area.

Nothing, I just need to practice taking off my wetsuit faster and smoother.

Once you exit the transition area there is a short climb up to the main street. So make sure you setup your bike in an easy gear during transition prep. After I made it onto River Rd, I started at a low pace but kept my cadence high (~100 rpm) to get the blood flowing in my legs. Also, I took the time to get down some shot bloks.

After I got on Westside Rd, I was shocked at what I saw as I turned around one of the corners...I saw the flashing lights of an ambulance and about 50 triathletes totally stopped on road. We were stopped there for a few minutes while they cleared the road. We didn't know what happened but the scary thing I did see as we rode through the accident scene was a bib number on the ground. Later on I read that a tree fell down and injured a few of the triathletes. I wish them all a speedy recovery.

My goal for the rest of the course was to keep a steady speed of 20 mph on the flats, which I was able to do with no problems. There were some rolling hills that slowed my pace but I made it up on the decents. I took this approach so I can conserve some energy for the climb up Chalk Hill at mile 45. The climb was not monsterous, like the ones on the California Ironman bike course, but it was a challenge given it came at 45 miles into the 56 mile bike ride. Once I reached the top of the climb, I turned up the intensity to fly to the end of the ride. I missed my goal time of under 3 hours, but that's okay, I felt I did well during this portion of the race.

I need to work on my nutrition strategy. I didn't drink enough fluids during the ride. That was apparent when I reached T2 and I still had 2 of my 3 water bottles full. Doh! Also, I need to teach myself to take in more calories per hour during the ride. I always get so caught up in the race that I forget to slow down and eat. I believe this was part of the reason for my horrible performance in the run portion.

T2 went just as I practiced in my mind before the race.

I would probably look into getting those quick laces to speed up my transition and take in more hydration, like 2-3 cups of water on the way out of T2.

It started out well but quickly turned for the worse after the 2 mile mark. I started to feel a cramp in my leg so I stopped to the side of the road to stretch a bit. I continued lightly jogging to the next aid station. Once there, I made sure to drink 2 cups of gatorade and use 1 cup of water to pour over my head. This helped.

At this time the run course tempature was around the 90+ degree and there was little to no shade to help. Also, the hills on the run course was greater than I expected. So unfortunately the combination of heat, no shade, hills and under hydration equalled my downfall. My leg muscles cramped up and I was forced to walk. I tried to re-hydrate myself at each aid-station but it was too late. It was so brutal that I ended up walking most of the second half of the run portion. Ugh, it was the worst feeling. Mentally I wanted to run but when I did, my leg muscles started to cramp up. I was so disappointed in myself. Especially at the end of the run where the crowds were cheering, saying "almost there, finish it strong". Unfortunately I couldn't because of my darn leg cramps. I ended up walking all the way into the parking lot. Finally I used the little energy I had left and jogged down to the finish.

I totally underestimated how much the weather would affect me. If I do decide to do this race again, the I would do more of my running training in 90+ degree weather.

My warm-down included drinking water and crashing on the grass under the shade. I really didn't want to get up from the ground but sitting in the air conditioned car sounded a lot better.


As I stated earlier, the under-nutrition and lack of training in this level of heat is what I believe limited my ability to perform faster.


I was excited to finish the race but couldn't stop thinking about the disappointment in my performance during the run. I had a personal best time on my swim and a great time on my bike ride but unfortunately lost all those gains during the run.

At the end of the race I was totally set on never doing this race again but now that a week has passed and I had time to reflect back on the race I actually might do it again next year...we'll see...