Vineman Ironman 70.3 - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I liked the wade start and started good. I passed a lot of people in the first 200 meters and probably should have started more towards to front. I swam most of the swim by myself because it appeared I was between the fast and slow swimmers. It was very sallow at the turn around and I had to modify my stroke to keep from hitting the bottom. It was interesting to see a line of people walking at the turn around and I was happy to swim past them as it was defiantly faster to swim than to walk. With about a 1/4 mile to go this guy was swimming in a zigzag and continually banged into me which was annoying. I was happy with my swim performance.

My navigation was off because I was not staying next to the bouys.

It was a long run to my bike rack but at least they had laid out mats on the gravel. I decided to put my shoes on in T1 because there was a hill right after the mount line and in the past it has been a disaster when I try to ride up a hill on top of my shoes. I am glad I did because I saw several people having problems. I did not have my normal transition set up because of the point-to-point race and had trouble getting the rocks off of my feet due to not having a any water or a towel. It also took longer because I had to stuff all of my belongings into a plastic bag and the rope broke when I attempted to tie it.

Have a towel to wipe off my feet.

The bike course was amazing and by far the best part of the race. It covers 56 miles of some of the most beautiful areas of Sonoma County from giant Red Woods to grape vines. The first 5 miles were flat followed by 15 miles of rollers then roughly 20 miles of alternating sections of rollers and flats and then the hilly section that included Chalk Hill, which was not bad, and it finished with around 5 miles of flats. My derailleurs got a good work out and I dropped my chain twice (I had a long talk with my bike mechanic after the second time).

I should have not held back on the bike because the run was pure hell.

Long run/walk in to my rack. I sit down to put on socks and then got my hat and sun glasses. The spray on sun screen came out of the bottle like a fire extinguisher due to the heat. Not having my normal transition set up effected my transition time.

Run more on my way the the rack.

I should not have held back on the bike because the run was pure hell. The official temperature was 97F, but when my wife came to pick me up at 2:00PM the temperature gauge in the car stated 111F. I witnessed two people collapse on the run and saw four others sitting on the side of the road who had either collapsed or were about to collapse. I could only run for about 5 minutes until I would over heat and would have to walk. Everyone I saw was doing the same routine. It was by far the worst run I have ever done.

It was HOT!


I was on track for my sub 6 hour Half Ironman, but the heat on the run prevented me from obtaining my goal. However, given the conditions on the run, I am happy to have completed the event.