Full Vineman Triathlon - TriathlonFull Ironman

I was shocked at how crowded the start was. The river is pretty narrow, and it's split in half (for the out and back), so with a couple hundred of us in the first wave, it was quite the washing machine for the first five minutes or so. My plan was just to swim nice and easy, try to draft as much as possible, and keep in mind that it was going to be a long day and I wanted to preserve as much energy as possible. I had to force myself to back off a little while we were all bumping elbows and kicking each other, because that sort of thing just makes me want to go hard, but I settled into my rhythm pretty quickly and just focused on taking nice long strokes and keeping my breathing deep and regular. Breathed bilaterally through the whole swim. Was on someone's feet on and off, but never caught and held a real good draft. That's something I could work on. Navigated reasonably well, though at one point I did come within 6" of running into one of the boats that was sitting between the outbound and returning swimmers. At the far end of the swim, the river really is shallow -- you hit your fingers for the top 50 yards or so. A lot of guys were standing up and walking, and I tried that a couple times, but it just felt like it took a lot more energy and wasn't any faster than swimming. Besides, there was plenty for the legs to do later in the day. :^> When I was coming in finishing my first lap, I saw 33:xx on the clock, and on the way back out, say 37:xx, so I think I even split the swim perfectly. As I was headed out on the second lap, I felt like a 1:10 swim for that easy level of effort would be a great outcome. And then before I knew it I was coming up on the swim exit. There was a part of me that wanted it not to be over yet -- that was weird, but whatever, it's time to go ride!

I've done very little open water training, so my navigation and drafting skills are sub-par. Not terrible, but those would be easy ways to pick up a few minutes on the swim. Six months earlier, I made a very intentional decision to make swimming a distant third priority to running and biking. I always did two swims a week, and worked them up to 4,500 yards, and I was always focused on form, but I didn't do as much swim work as I could have, and I'm fine with that. If I had worked really hard in the pool, best case is I could have picked up 5 or 10 minutes, but that would have come at the expense of something else, and I'm guessing would have been net-negative. As I get closer to the pointy end of the field, I know I'll have to improve my swimming, but going into training my first 140.6, it didn't seem to make sense to do any more swim training than necessary, and I think my results validate that approach.

The beach that is T1 is a gravelly mess. Besides the sections of the bike course where the roads were in bad shape, this was my least favorite aspect of the race. Got my wetsuit off as I was running to my rack, grabbed my bike gear, ran over to the changing tent, dried and changed, then ran back to my bike, put my shoes on, put all my gear in the bag that they'd bring to me after the race, grabbed the bike, ran the ~200' to T! exit, hopped on the bike and was off. A lot of people ran the slight hill out of T1, but I had no trouble getting into my pedals and up to speed on the hill.

Train in and wear tri shorts or a tri suit. Running back and forth to the changing tent at each transition was a waste of time, effort, and focus.

Don't eat the paste! I had read several times that EN article that says everyone goes out too hard and that if you're getting passed it's a good thing, but I was totally unprepared for how much of a special ed class race day really is. Guys were blowing by me for the first hour as I just rode along, 20+bpm below zone 2. For the first 20 minutes, just swished out my mouth with water, didn't consume anything. At 30 minutes, took my first shot blocks and started in on Gatorade. Over the course of the bike, I consumed 12 shot blocks (400 cal), 2 gels (180 cal), 4 Clif Kids bars (520 cal) and 144oz of Gatorade Pro (900 cal), plus a bunch of water. Had to make four pee stops, which was a bummer, but the net benefit of the caffeine probably made it worth while. It sure would be great to be able to pee on the bike though. And I probably could've gotten more calories from solids early on while it was cool. My nutrition plan was based on training, which was usually around 80F weather. The mornings at this race are cool, so you don't lose fluid to sweat at nearly the rate I did in training. Hence 4 times off the bike.

After the first hour, the getting passing slowed down, and I gradually moved my effort up into zone 1. By a couple hours in, I was starting to pass people, a trend that would continue for the rest of the day. That wasn't true on Chalk Hill though. You hit Chalk Hill--the only hill of any consequence--at the end of each lap, so around 2:30 and 5:00 into my ride. All of sudden, fools start passing me again! People are up out of the saddle and huffing and puffing up the hill, and I'm just sitting there, plugging away, comfortably in zone 2. You can put whatever compact crank you want on your bike (I'm on a standard), if you're going to get up and hammer, the hills are still going to kill your marathon.

At the end of the first lap, I had tough moment of checking in with myself. My stomach felt uneasy, but it had been a little funny for about 48 hours leading up to the race. I thought about backing off the calories, but I was hungry and had eaten more in training, in hotter weather at higher intensity, without trouble so I didn't think that was necessary. I thought seriously about backing off the intensity, but the more I thought about it, the less it felt like I was overdoing it, and the more it seemed like my stomach was just dealing with what it had been leading up to the race. So I kept on my nutrition plan and hung out around the zone 1-zone 2 border as I entered lap 2.

Toward the middle of the second lap, it became clear that I was on pace for a well sub-6 hour bike split, which was exciting and nerve racking. I knew that overdoing it on the bike would get me on the run, and this being my first race, I really didn't know what I was in for or how to tell if I was at an appropriate intensity. And then it started getting a little warmer and my heart rate started to drift upward (see photos below). I figured I'd probably get some cardiac drift toward the end of the bike, so I tried to stay at the same RPE I'd been riding for hours, but it gets tough to tell toward the end of the bike. After mile 90, I was ready to get onto the run. My saddle had had enough of being on the saddle, and I was starting to get board. At this point, between the excitement of being done with the bike leg, my calculating what my bike split could be, and not being able to rely totally on HR, I probably let the intensity up a little too high. It's hard to know for sure, but the last hour on the bike is probably a place where I need to make an effort to stay within the race plan.

The day before the race, they warned us that there were two sharp curves coming into T2, so if we were going to get out of our shoes before dismounting, we'd need to do it before getting to those turns. Unfortunately, in my endurance-haze, I pulled out of my shoes one turn too early. So I rounded a corner and heard a volunteer say "great job -- one more mile!" But I doubt it cost me more than a couple seconds.

Maybe go just a bit harder in the first hour and a bit easier in the last hour. Take a little more of my calories in the first hours from solid food to avoid having to stop to pee so often.

Felt great to arrive at T2. There were a few bikes on the racks, but not many, and that felt awesome. Glad that someone had chalked the very memorable phrase "shut up legs!" at my rack so I knew where to turn in my semi-delusional state. Again, had to grab my stuff, run to the changing tent to change and then run back. Next time, no clothes changes. Oh, I also forgot to take my wrappers and extra gels out of my tri top pockets and ended up handing them off to some sweet spectator 1/4 mile into the run.

Not change shorts, take gels out of pockets.

As always, really had to reign in the speed for the first few miles. I was hoping to hold an 8:30 pace through the marathon, and my plan was to stay between 8:30 and 9:00 for the first half hour. My legs, however, seemed to want to do around 8:00/mile. As it turned out, I did the first mile in 8:23, which would be the fastest mile of the day. From there out, they were all right around 9:00/mile. As with the bike, it takes focus and discipline to stay within your plan in the early part of the run, but it's critically important.

The course is three out and backs. The first lap was easy enough, but I was still worried about my stomach and my ever rising heart rate. It really wasn't until around mile 18 that I felt confident that I wasn't going to have GI issues or totally blow up. On the first loop, I was running paces that would normally be upper zone 1 for me, but my HR was upper zone 2 and by the end of the first lap into zone 3. Everything I had read was that peripheral fatigue would be the limiter, and I wouldn't be able to keep my HR elevated through the marathon, so this was really concerning. I was imagining walking the last lap with my HR 50bpm lower than it currently was. So I did some checking in with my body, as I had at the mid-point on the bike, and I really felt like my effort was appropriate and well below aerobic threshold, and I felt strongly that my training suggested I could run a sub-4 hour marathon if I executed well, which I felt I had to that point. So I stuck with it and stayed comfortably (as much as possible at that point) right around 9:00/mile.

Coming back into town at the end of the first lap, I got a big emotional boost seeing my family and friends twice, once on the way in and again on the way out. Getting that first bracelet felt bittersweet -- it was great, but I knew 90% of the struggle still lay ahead.

And it did. In the second lap was when it started to really get tough. I don't have a lot of specific memories, so suffice to say that it's hard. You have to dig really deep. You lean on whatever you can -- knowing your training was solid, wanting to prove yourself, knowing your friends and family are watching, mantras, videos of Craig Alexander... whatever gets you through, over and over and over.

Nutrition wise, Gatorade was too sloshy, so I decided to go with 1 shot block (33cal) at each aide station, which would be around 250 cal/hour. That worked really well, as one was manageable even as they started to get really gross toward the end. I took water with each one, and whenever I could grab an extra cup, poured some on me to keep a little cooler. On the third lap, I went to Coke for the first time ever... it does what everyone says it does -- gets you through.

On the first lap, the Barbs Race ladies were all over the course, so it was a lot weaving through them, with the occasional glimpse of the super-fast IMers who were ahead of me. But by the third lap, more-or-less all of the Barb's ladies were done, so I knew that I was ahead of nearly everyone I saw out there. That was a nice boost. As it became more and more likely that neither my legs nor my GI system was going to collapse, the reality of hitting the goal that I'd been working so hard for so long for came into focus, and that was all it took to hold my pace through the final lap. I walked the big uphills, as I I think I had some on the first two laps, always carefully defining a non-negotiable point where I would start running again. That worked well. At the turn around point of my last lap, the volunteers were giving out frozen Icee pops -- that was great, as much for the cold as the sugar.

Once I was seeing miles 23, 24, 25 on the pavement, it was close enough that I was pretty much cruising. As I came into town for the final time, I saw a few guys ahead of me that I thought I could pass, so picked it up a little, and fairly quickly the threat of debilitating cramps reared up in my left hamstring. I backed off just a bit, but still did quite a bit of passing (no one in my AG, it seems) in the last couple hundred yards.

As I turned into the finishing shoot, I saw 11:07 up on the clock, and a huge smile shot onto my face. So much training and so much hard work in that run all collapsed into that moment of cognition of what I had accomplished.

Hold back a little more in the first 30 minutes, though I don't think I did much damage.

Walked around a bit, but had some trouble staying on my feet. Food was pretty unappealing, but the chicken soup was from on high! Hot, salty protein!


To get critical over an 11:07 first IM, coming off my first year of training with a 3:55 marathon and 2:35 oly, seems overly critical, but it's probably valuable just the same. Bike power could give me a faster bike split and set up a stronger marathon, so I think that's the first thing to target. Swim mechanics could be improved and transitions executed more efficiently, but all-in-all, I'm quite happy with the result.


Vineman is a good race -- it makes a great first 140.6. It's getting bigger, which gives it a nice feel -- I had worried it would feel homey for being so small, but it never did. It's still family and novice friendly though. And of course, it's in an amazing location. I shipped my bike and flew across the country to make this my first IM, and I would do it again. After the race, I spent a couple days in Sonoma and a week in Yosemite with my family -- hard to beat that.