AMAZING! This was the coolest race swim ever. At the start I hung back just a bit to keep out of the main fray, but soon was passing the slower swimmers in the wave. A couple hundred feet into the swim you pass under a pedestrian bridge. I had been keeping an eye on the bridge when breathing and sighting until I was clear of the bridge, then I rolled onto my back and waved (knowing my wife was somewhere on the bridge) she was right above me waving and hollering. Huge confidence boost to see her up there. The swim went smooth. My hands hit bottom quite a few times and my fingertips were sore later in the day from the contact with the gravel, but not so much as to distract from anything. Had to stand and wade around the turn around buoy because the water was so shallow. The rest of the swim went great. Only light contact from time to time with other swimmers.

maybe work on my sighting more in practice and figure out how to swim without swallowing the air that caused problems later.

T1 was pretty smooth. I took my time knowing that it was going to be a long day and I wasn't worried about the time. Transfered my garmin to the bike mount. Did my best to dry my feet and then get into sock and bike shoes. pulled on a bike jersey over my tri top before putting my helmet and glasses. bagged all of my gear, grabbed my bike and headed for the transition exit.

nothing

I love riding my bike, but I don't have much power so my speeds are low for my age group. I was hoping to average 16 mph and finish in 3:30. Early in the ride it seemed like I was on pace to meet or even beat that goal. The course was beautiful. Yes you are riding alongside a busy road for a while but not too far into the ride you take a very sharp and downhill turn *BE CAREFUL* and then you are off the busy streets for the rest of the ride. All seemed to be going well until about 20 miles into the ride I started getting some stomach discomfort. It got progressively worse over the next 20 miles. I tried stopping to use a port-a-potty around mile 40, but it gave me no relief from the stomach pains. The hills were challenging, especially when in pain. Coming down the other side and into Windsor should have been the easiest part of the ride, but it was the most difficult. I could not maintain the pace I had hoped for and I felt as though I was riding into a headwind for much of the last 15 miles. I did manage to come in close to my goal here but I was really hurting g by the end.

Looking back I'm sure the stomach pain had to do with swallowing excess air during the swim. It's something I've experienced before after training days in the pool, but I'd never experienced it like that during a race. SO next time I need to go easier on the swim and focus more on steady breathing. Possible eat something mild before and right after the swim to help steady my stomach while the air moves through my system.

The bike dismount is a long way from transition. Normally I'd have run/jogged with the bike for that, but in this case I was walking fairly slowly.
I racked the bike and switched shoes. Then while swapping helmet for hat and race belt I looked for the port-a-pottys. I spent several minutes to no avail trying to get relief from the stomach cramps I was now having.

hopefully be able to run with the bike and skip the long port-a-potty stop

This is where things fell completely apart and then my journey became not about myself but someone else.
I came out of transition running my hoped for 10 minute per mile pace. I saw my wife across the street and she yelled "you are doing great!" little did she know how terrible I felt. I managed to finish the first mile just a couple second slower than may planned 10 minutes, but it took every bit of my mental fortitude to keep running that whole mile. After that I just didn't have it in me to run through the pain for very long at a time. When I went back and looked at my Garmin tracking I actually ran a lot more than I remembered. This run was one of the most painful physical activities I've ever been through. At just about mile 10 of the run I was coming down a hill in the portion of the course that has runners going both ways and I saw a participant drop from cramping calves. I ran over to him and helped stretch his calves until he could stand again. Once he was able to walk I told him I couldn't run anyway and that I'd walk with him so he could grab ahold of me if he needed to. We walked the final 3 miles together and then at his insistence we each ran the finish chute.

Walking, walking, walking


Cramps!


Ironman 70.3 Vineman is awesome. I have no immediate plans to do another HIM race, but if I do one this will be my first choice.