Vineman Ironman 70.3 - Triathlon1/2 Ironman


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Guerneville, California
United States
Vineman, Inc.
72F / 22C
Sunny
Total Time = 5h 09m 44s
Overall Rank = 202/1259
Age Group = M40-44
Age Group Rank = 47/256
Pre-race routine:

Since I had a late start, this time I could afford to wake up early enough (5am) to eat something before the race. I had a ProMax bar, 310 cals with a whopping 30g proteins. Went to transition around 7:30, setup my staff, put my wetsuit on and headed to the beach for a warmup.
Event warmup:

Swam for about 8 minutes before my wave start, did two or three sprints to loosen up.
Swim
  • 32m 28s
  • 1931 meters
  • 01m 41s / 100 meters
Comments:

As last year, I started to the right side of the field, very close to the river bank and I didn't sprint. After a few long and strong strokes I settled into cruise mode and I stayed there for the rest of the swim. I surprisingly passed a lot of people, both from my wave and from prior waves, and many "walkers". Not surprisingly, the fastest way to move in the water is swimming :)
What would you do differently?:

Nothing, I had a very good swim for my standards, and I bested my last year's time by 1 min :)
Transition 1
  • 03m 1s
Comments:

T1 was decent but not perfect. I wasted a bit of time because I had some issues with my wetsuit, but all considering it was not too bad. The ugly happened a few seconds later: right at the very moment I was jumping on my bike a guy to my right veered into me and made me crash into the spectator fences. Fortunately, thanks to some of the kind spectators, I didn't fall to the ground but I had to stop, take the shoes off the bike put them on and remount the bike. I had a few scratches an my left arm, and left knee, where I crashed into the fence. But when I was putting my left shoe on, I noticed that one of my toes was dripping blood. I said "What the heck, it's just another scratch!", and I mounted on the bike and started pedaling.
What would you do differently?:

Be more aware of the surrounding competitors while running and jumping on the bike.
Bike
  • 2h 45m 50s
  • 56 miles
  • 20.26 mile/hr
Comments:

After 10 minutes on the bike I started feeling some pain coming from my left foot. When I started the ride my feet were still pretty numb, but now there was this kind of pulsating pain radiating from the injured toe. I just hung in there and kept pedaling, hoping for the best...


What would you do differently?:

This time around I thought I was better prepared for this kind of course, but I still kind of sucked. 2:45? Come on, even if I shaved 5 min from last year's time I still can do better than that :)
Transition 2
  • 02m 16s
Comments:

As soon as I jumped off the bike at the dismount point I felt a wave of pain radiating from my left foot. It was like someone had hit my toe with a sledgehammer. At that point I knew I was in real trouble... When I was putting the socks on, I had a chance to take a look at my busted left toe. It was covered in coagulated blood and it was bluish/purplish in color. It definitely looked like it was broken, but still the pain was bearable. So I abandoned the thought to give up that caressed my mind after jumping off the bike and decided to give it a try. I could still walk in the worst case scenario...
Run
  • 1h 46m 9s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 08m 06s  min/mile
Comments:

I started running very slowly and the pain was surprisingly dull. So I gradually increased my pace till I hit my cruise speed. At that point the pain was much sharper, but still bearable. However, as the miles were accumulating, things started to deteriorate and I had to gradually slow down.
What would you do differently?:

Despite the pain, I ran just 3 min slower than last year, so I think I could have been much faster hadn't I bust my toe... So what I would do differently next year is to avoid busting my toes :P
Post race
Warm down:

I really wanted to warm down a little, but when I crossed the finish line the pain was so intense that I just preferred laying on the grass. I'll definitely warm down next year :)

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Busted toe?

Event comments:

This race is simply awesome. What I liked the most are the volunteers. This time I also had the "pleasure" of meeting the volunteers at the medical tent who took care of my toe. Even though the tent was full of people in much worse shape than I was, they still managed to assist me promptly and effectively. I'm so grateful to every single one of them!




Last updated: 2009-12-01 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:32:28 | 1931 meters | 01m 41s / 100meters
Age Group: 0/256
Overall: 202/1259
Performance: Good
Suit: Ironman Instinct
Course: In this report I'm not describing any of the courses as I went over them extensively in my last year's report.
Start type: Wade Plus:
Water temp: 72F / 22C Current: Low
200M Perf. Good Remainder: Good
Breathing: Good Drafting:
Waves: Navigation: Good
Rounding: Good
T1
Time: 03:01
Performance: Bad
Cap removal: Good Helmet on/
Suit off:
No
Wetsuit stuck? Yes Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: Yes
Getting up to speed: Bad
Biking
02:45:50 | 56 miles | 20.26 mile/hr
Age Group: 0/256
Overall: 402/1259
Performance: Average
Wind: Little
Course:
Road: Rough Dry Cadence: 85
Turns: Good Cornering: Good
Gear changes: Good Hills: Good
Race pace: Comfortable Drinks: Just right
T2
Time: 02:16
Overall: Average
Riding w/ feet on shoes Good
Jumping off bike Good
Running with bike Below average
Racking bike Good
Shoe and helmet removal Below average
Running
01:46:09 | 13.1 miles | 08m 06s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/256
Overall: 0/1259
Performance: Average
Course:
Keeping cool Good Drinking Not enough
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5