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 Swim
Comments: Water temperature was 72. The swim takes place in the Russian River. There is a dam in Guerneville which makes it somewhat like a long lake for swimming. The water is 3-7 feet deep during the swim. It was a bit shallow under the bridges and quite shallow at the upstream turnaround. The swim for the Full Vineman is two laps with a start at the dam, an upstream turnaround, a turnaround at the start and the upstream turnaround again with an exit on the beach portion of Johnson's Beach. The entrance to the water at the start is quite rocky (lots of gravel size stones) and the bottom of the river at the exit is also stones as opposed to sand or mud. Goggle issues. I was swimming well, got to the first turnaround upstream and was really happy with how things were going. Shortly after that, though, my goggles started to leak. Of course this was where I could not touch down to fix them so I swam without really being able to see until I got to the shallower section by the bridges. I sort of fixed them there, went to the turnaround by the dam and went back to the bridges, really fixed them at this point and then was good to go the rest of the event. T1 was faster than in 2012 so the swim+transition time was similar. 1:41:01 (was aiming for 1:35) - 15th in my age group What would you do differently?: Continue swim training  Transition 1
Comments: Wetsuit strippers, run to rack, add bike jersey, socks, shoes, helmet w/headsweats, sunglasses, gloves, put EFS-LS in pockets, shove gear into bag, grab bike, run up hill, GO! It was a good plan to leave on the shorts rather than change into dry shorts. It was also a good plan to use a short sleeve bike jersey. It was 52 degrees and the marine layer stuck around for a while before the sun came out.  Bike
Comments: I don’t know what happened here. During the first lap of the bike, I was passing a lot of people (well, at least until the younger guys entered in the aquabike caught me) but my speed was just not what I was expecting. I spent a lot of this lap beating myself up about the speed. Go faster, legs! More power! By the second lap, I had entered the acceptance phase and had more fun with it. As it turned out, my bike was just fine when compared to others. Still, after getting off the bike, I felt "behind." I did not stop at all on the bike. It kinda looks like I was not the only one in my age group that had this experience but honestly, I’m pretty disappointed with the bike. Regarding nutrition: I stuck to the EFS liquid shot + Clif Shot Blok plan -- two EFS liquid shot bottles in jersey pockets, three Clif Shot Bloks (cut in half) in Bento, one serving EFS in each of two bottles. One Shot Blok every 20 minutes. Fill BTA before aid station add 1/2 EFS, drop bottle, get new bottle at aid station. (1470 calories on the bike) Weather: It was 52 degrees when I got on the bike and in the low 80s when I got off. Winds were reported 7 mph in Healdsburg and 14 mph in Santa Rosa during the second loop of the bike. What would you do differently?: Ride faster Transition 2
Comments: Long run around the high school with the bike to get into transition. Change from bike jersey to tri top. Remove bike shoes and socks, add run socks and shoes. Put on hat and sunglasses. Put two Clif gels into pockets. GO! Eat first gel just before the first aid station. I thought about skipping the port-a-pot here but as I was running past them, I noticed that they were empty so I made a quick pit stop before heading out on the run. Legs felt surprisingly good!  Run
Comments: While I did not make my stretch goal for the run portion of this event, I did manage my fastest Ironman run by nearly 10 minutes so that's good! This is not an easy run with over 1200 climbing feet. I used the bathroom in T2 because I could see that it was free and it was on my way. I stopped again after the first lap (mile 9 or so) and I waited to stop a final time on the last lap but that time it was a false alarm. Regarding nutrition: I had a Clif branded “gu” at mile 1, mile 5 and mile 10. I knew then that I could not stomach another one so I switched to Coke ant water. That was too much liquid -- too sloshy -- so I went with Coke at every aid station for the remainder of the run. I was second in my age group on the run. Weather: The high for the day was in the low 80s (81 in Santa Rosa, 83 in Healdsburg) with max winds of 17 mph. Post race
What limited your ability to perform faster: The good news is that I had a great time in California! We brought back way too much wine. Such problems! Event comments: This is a good destination race. The river swim was a nice change and the bike course was hilly and challenging but doable. The road conditions, while not stellar, were not awful. The run was hilly so if you do this course, be prepared for that. As an athlete, I think that this was a great event. I was treated well and there were a lot of volunteers on both the bike and run course. I hope to do this event again in the future. Profile Album Last updated: 2014-12-02 12:00 AM
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United States
Vineman, Inc.
Sunny
Overall Rank = 134/385
Age Group = F45-49
Age Group Rank = 4/20
Traveled on Thursday. Arrived in Sacramento at 1:30 and we picked up a rental car and headed for Winsdor to pick up my bike from Tribike Transport. TBT said that they were opened until 5pm. We arrived in Windsor at 4:15 and they were closed. I called their event phone number and they had their representative come back to their tent and I was able to get my bike. He arrived just before 5:00. I asked to borrow his bike pump (they said don't pack a pump, we'll have one in the truck) and he said that he didn't have a pump but there was supposed to be one. I ended up borrowing the the use of a pump from someone at my hotel.
By then we were starving since it was well past dinner time in the time zone that we started the day. We ended up going to Whole Foods and getting something from the hot bar and picking up some supplies for our hotel room.
Then we drove to Guerneville where were were staying for the race portion of our stay. The place that were stayed was roughly two blocks from T1 and therefore deemed "sherpa friendly."
Friday morning ride to Korbel and Russian River swim
Packet pickup, expo, set up T2, drive the course, pizza dinner in Guerneville
Goals
1. Finish with a smile on my face
2. Daylight finish
3. Improved IM run
4. Improved course time (notsomuch)
Race morning 4:15 wake up call
Breakfast (bagel, pb, banana, ensure, water with CamelBak Elixir). So nervous or so much adrenaline or whatever, that I was shaking.
Walk to T1, pump tires
Oops, forgot the towel, back to the hotel
Bathroom, wetsuit
Walking back and forth from the hotel.