Vineman Ironman 70.3 - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I felt very good on this swim. I have come to accept that right now, I am like the turtle...slow and steady...but even turtles swim faster than me!!!! I do love this swim, and feel like my sighting is getting better, it is annoying to peek up and see people walking right in front of you, walking faster than I can swim, but oh well, it's easier to swim than walk through waist high water, methinks. But, hey, you are blocking my view of the big orange buoys, watch where you are walking.

No calf cramping on the swim and not too much getting off course today. This time was only one minute longer than my Oly swim 4 weeks ago, so I was very pleased.

Grow fins. Oh wait, I used that line last year!

Got into T1 and promptly went down the wrong row. I couldn't find my bike so started stripping my wetsuit next to an empty rack while scanning the other two rows and finally spotted my bike in a pretty full rack. I honestly couldn't understand whose bikes were around mine since I was quite sure I was one of the last in my wave, but today, I realize that all of us over 45 were on those racks...duh. Anyhow, once I got the suit over the crazy timing chip it went pretty smoothly.

Remember which row I am in, and memorize it!

Started out at a really comfortable pace, wanted to just get into a groove and the first 5 miles really lets you do that as it is flat and on a straight away, so started my sport drink at 15 minutes and water and kept this pattern all the way to 2:15 into the ride.

After the first 30 minutes or so, bumped up the effort to comfortably hard pace and kept it right there as much as possible, sometimes letting my effort come down a little on the slight down grades, it felt like when my cadence was a little higher, my HR dropped considerably.

I wasn't sure what to expect on time, but didn't look at my mph much at all or my power as the readings have been a little off lately. Mostly just used that as a guide to make sure I wasn't slacking off or pushing too hard, but rarely even had to do that, I can tell when my breathing gets crazy that I am going too hard.

Was shocked to come into T2 faster than last year by 2 minutes, I was absolutely not expecting that based on how slow my long rides have been this season.

I had had to pee so bad since mile 35 or so, but didn't want to stop and lose my momentum. Kept hydrating anyways, figured I could wait until T2. Yes, I waited!

Absolutely nothing.

Got into T2, turned left at Rock Star Party and smiled! My favorite thing is to run and I felt great! The weather was still overcast and felt really cool. Turned garmin 305 on. I was super fast in getting my shoes on (yankx helps!), running cap on, sprayed with my sunscreen everywhere, remembered to shove my roctane gus into my tri top and then shot out of there!

TMI alert! Took a chance to pee...wow, that was wonderful! The best ever!

Not drop the pump (that i didn't need to use, tg!)out of my tri top running in with the bike...luckily a nice guy behind me picked it up and i thanked him profusely.

I started this run trying to ease into it and looked down at mile 1 and saw a 6:45, wth, no, I am not doing that again this year!

Slowed it way down and just jogged to get my HR under control, didn't look at my HR once however, it was on a different screen and I didn't want to get too locked into numbers. I saw a nice hill (and MG Linda-velcromom) at about mile 2.5 or so, and decided to take my gu and water and walk the top of the hill and say hi, we exchanged a quick greeting and then I picked it back up.

And was feeling really great, that gu was doing it's job, and my stomach was not rebelling. Kept sipping at my water (I carry a 12 oz hand held fuel belt thingy), and honestly just kept running at what felt like "marathon pace"...I had thought about this run and how to do it right for the past year it seems, and wanted to really nail it. Luckily we had the best weather ever, and I was in a zone.

I got out to the vineyard and they made us run around the perimeter, where there was a sort of rock/trail path but it was nice and flat..and of course I twisted my ankle right before the halfway point! AAAckkkk! No way was I going to walk it off, I have run through twisted ankles before, so I just kept going, hit the halfway mat at 51:xx and thought, omg, I can actually run a 1:42, holy s**#! Kept running hard and my ankle stopped hurting, things were getting numb, but no hip discomfort which is usually my downfall.

The long exposed stretches that I remember being so painful from the past two years were going by quickly and I could hardly believe it. In fact, I felt like I was a different athlete out there with so much confidence and belief that I could keep this pace til the end!

I took my second gu at the one hour point, and all was going well, refilled my water and started back up again, the only times I stopped to walk were to take my gus...and no one was passing me except for the super speedy 30-35 y.o. men from the wave behind us.

At mile 10-11 around there, I started to have some gastric issues, but I refused to use a port o potty, I could manage this is what I thought to myself, back off the effort just a little and no gu allowed! Sipped a little water and that helped...I was not looking at pace at all, but felt like I didn't slow much, and the feeling sort of went away...at mile 11.5, took a little itty bitty smidge of my last gu and some water, my legs were getting so heavy! and it helped, but I was always on the edge with the gastric thing. I came into the last mile that I found so long the last 2 years and I was determined to finish strong. And I just put my head down and pushed it to the finish line. I could not believe that I had broken 5:30 and it was an amazing feeling!

Nothing, I left it all out there. After the run, I still felt the gastric thing, and couldn't eat as much as I normally do after a race but forced myself to refuel.

Saw Linda and Jeff afterwards and gave big hugs, and kudos to both of them for their PR's! Took the long shuttle bus to my car that was parked near T1, and got a major hamstring cramp! Yikes that was scary, good thing that didn't happen during the run or worse on my drive home!!!

Drove back to pick up bike and stuff then made the 2.5 hour drive home.
Ice bath and then sushi. Stomach was still not 100% but better.


Swimming is my weakness, but I can't let it get in my head...everything else was terrific.

This was a huge PR for me, with last year being 5:45, so there will be no complaining!


I love this race and hope I can keep coming back every year. But wish they could fix the roads, it was so bumpy on the back and sometimes with the cars zooming by, we are stuck going over some serious bumps. Saw plenty of people with flats and once again a large number of drink bottles, hydrations systems, etc littered all over the roads!

This was a great race with excellent volunteers and plenty of water/aid stations.