Vineman 2009

Last weekend was vineman 70.3. Despite completing several vinemans I have never had a good race in Santa Rosa. However, I still really like the race. It normally draws a good field, the course is hard enough to break up the groups on the bike, it generally hot and the run in rolling. Best of all, a friend from grad school lives there and it gives me an excuse to visit her.
The only down side of vineman is there are a ton of waves and this year I was going off near the end. Over an hour and half after the first wave. It was a really strange feeling to be arriving in transition after the pro men had exited the water and I still had plenty of time.
The swim is a 1.2 miles out and back in the Russian river. I got out to a clean start and felt pretty strong. As the group thinned out, I didn’t see too many competitors in front and was swimming solo. The turn around at vineman is always interesting because the river gets so shallow I was touching the bottom. I exited the water in just over 30 min—about the same time as my other half IMs this season.
I got off onto the bike and settled in for what I knew was going to be an interesting bike ride. The early part of the bike course covers some winding narrow roads and there were a lot of competitors in front of me. I was maneuvering my way through the field when I saw I fire truck on the side of the road. Apparently, a tree branch had fallen and landed on a rider and taken 2 others down. The branch caused a bunch of chaos in the area but by the time I got there the road was clear and the athletes were off receiving medical care.
I road smooth for the first third and then gradually picked it up. About 1 mile later a truck pulled in front and slowed my down for mile and I was caught by another competitor. I road the middle segment going back and forth with Chris Geist. As we exited the hills, I cranked it up another notch. I dropped my riding partner and just before entering transition caught the one athlete who passed me in the first mile of the bike. I road 2hr 27 min and felt like I should have pushed more because I was really strong at the end.
The bike to run transition is at a different location from the swim. When I got off the bike, I felt great but as I entered the transition, somehow I got my handlebars caught on a flags guiding you into transition and it took my bike out from my hands. It crashed to the ground and took a couple chunks out of my hand. I gathered myself and ran into and tried to find my shoes. My cluelessness continued and I ran onto the wrong row. I ducked underneath the rack and found my shoes. By then my riding partner was in transition so I said nice bike and was off to the run.
As I exited the run, I was caught fellow tribuys.com athlete Jen Chalmers. She looked great and was on her way to winning her age-group. I felt great and ran out in control hoping to have a good run. While I didn’t feel hot, I knew the day before it was warm and might be later on the run so I took special care to pull in fluids/salt. I actually thought the weather was pretty comfortable but I enjoy warmer weather.
The unique part of the run was all the athletes are very spread out and I knew several competitors. The way out was a string of saying hi to several friends having great races—Ian 1st ag, Charisa 2nd ag and PR, Kevin 4th ag and PR, Susan PR..etc…
I rounded the winery and knew the course was predominately downhill from there and it was time to push hard. I felt great until mile 9 and then the next two miles were a little tough. At mile 11, a told myself, just 12 more hard min and you’re done and managed to get it rolling again. I knew I was doing well in my wave but with 2 other waves I didn’t know how I was doing overall so it was push all the way to the line. I crossed the line in 4:15:39 with a 1:15:54 run!
The prelim results had me listed as second in my age-group, I was nervous with two waves out on the course, but I was 4th amateur overall so I thought I could hold onto a podium finish. Fortunately, I maintained my position after all the 35-39 men had finished. After some food and conversation, I packed-up my stuff and road to Karen’s for a shower as Dave road back to the start to get the car. Dave conveniently forgot his backpack so I had to carry both our gear home. Nice cool down but man the backpack got heavy over the past few miles.
After a quick shower, I checked on the chickens and Charisa and other stopped by for a shower. Steven was kind enough to grab a burrito for me. We made it back to the finish line just in time for the awards ceremony. They started it early! When does that happen? We missed Ian getting his award and got Kevin there just after they announced his name. On the bright side, we got there just in time for Charisa to go up. Then another fun surprise happened. They announced the fastest time of the day at 4:11. Ian was saying how close he was and I was sure the original results had someone going 4:05 in my division. However, by the end, they must have had his time wrong because I won my age-group by over 6 min and was the 3rd amateur. It was a really nice surprise.
My goals going into the race were to get on the podium, 1st qualifies, and run under 1:20, 1:15:54 works. The race went well and everything seems to be progressing in time for Kona. I still need some serious help with my swim and to keep working on the bike but any time I win my age-group and finish in the top 5 overall I have no complaints.
I have a couple good Dave stories to tell in the coming days..