Vineman Ironman 70.3 - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Pretty average and unremarkable swim for me - my typical 70.3 swim is 30-32min and my best is 29:40. I did a good job of controlling the energy at the start and not digging myself into a hole and then just maintaining a nice steady comfortable effort. I caught a little draft here and there but it's usually better for me to just do my own thing and not waste energy trying to hold a tight draft position. After the turn there was a very shallow section where most people were walking along on knee deep water - it was basically impossible to swim. Only the pros and W40-44 started ahead of my wave and I was passing some of the women along the way but it got thick within about 400m of the swim exit.

The transition area leaves much to be desired. It's a gravel parking lot with little paths up both sides made from old carpet scraps. Because of so many races spread across so many waves they leave the transition open through the race so there are people showing up with their gear as others are exiting the swim and trying to make their transition - FAIL #4. I was surprised at how smoothly I was able to get in/out but I assume it was mostly due to my very early start - basically I got out of there before things got too ugly. I found my gear and calmly removed my wetsuit, put on my shoes and helmet, and ran my bike down the long carpet path with my glasses hanging from my teeth - it was still very foggy. The mount line is at the bottom of a steep little hill and if you didn't already have your bike in the right gear you were in for some trouble. Plenty of people simply fell over trying to get going and many ran their bikes to the top of the hill before mounting.

I rated my ride as "good" overall because I stayed within my abilities given my current fitness. It wasn't my fastest or most aggressive race ride but it is what I had to do if I didn't want to fall apart on the run. I knew my run training wasn't as complete as I would have liked and the prospect of a fast 13.1 off a tough bike wasn't realistic. Even with a conservative ride I didn't have a stellar run. I would typically want to ride about .85 IF if I had enough training and confidence in my running. I ended up at .81 which is probably where I needed to be to not crash and burn on the run.

Smooth transition overall. There is a long run from the dismount line and I was at the far end of transition so it was even longer. After about 50m my shoes/pedals began to bang the ground and kick my bike around so I just hoisted the bike on my shoulder and ran 200m with it. At the race I was calm and got my socks and shoes on, grabbed my hat, watch, and a gel and made my way to the exit.

I gave the run an overall "good" rating because I worked well within my abilities given the fitness I had. I've had faster run splits but I knew I didn't have enough long/hard training runs to really push it so I intentionally focused on holding back in the early miles even though I felt pretty good. I ended up running a bit of a negative split but I think that's mostly because of the net downhill on the return. The last 2 miles or so I didn't really have anything left. I wasn't struggling but the best I could do was simply hold steady and bring it home with a respectable run split.

I needed to log more 15 mile training runs and a few more fast finish and progression runs.

Took my usual couple minutes to get my bearings and stabilize the legs then got the shoes off and walked around on the grass for about 10min. I paid the food tent a visit for some fluids and grabbed a couple slices of watermelon.


Life has been turned upside down the past 4 months since finding out my dad has terminal pancreatic cancer. He's been through a series of hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and finally hospice and I've made about 6 trips to Colorado Springs to spend time with him and help him through the final stages of the fight. It's been really tough but luckily exercise is a way for me to clear my head and try to relax a little so I was able to continue training more or less, just not as consistently as I would have liked and I didn't get as many good quality long runs and bikes as I needed. All in all I'm satisfied with the day I had considering what I've been dealing with.


I don't have any major complaints about Vineman but I expected better coming fro a race that's been around for 20 years. I realize they can't really do anything about the size of the parking lot but by now they could have at least invested in some indoor/outdoor carpet to cover the swim/bike transition area. The bike course markings worked fine (I didn't get lost) but they could be improved for minimal investment. The road surface on the bike course sucks. I guess the race organizers can't change that but it's still a FAIL as far as my evaluation of the event goes. I had an early start wave but I can only imagine what the swim/bike transition area was like once things really got congested.

So I'm glad I took the opportunity to race Vineman 70.3 but I definitely wasn't impressed enough with the course or planning/organization to put it on my list to do again. Been there, done that.