The Vineman 70.3 race report was tentatively titled, “How it all came together.”
I thought google mapping the directions up to my cabin was a good omen when the distance was listed as 70.3 mile. But that was before I actually started the race, which became “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”
Expectations were set high for my last tri of the season but alas, a sub 5 half IM will have to wait until next year. My swim actually was good (for me) and I really enjoyed the 16 min. return portion of the loop after an agonizing 20 minutes going upstream. It was eerily quiet exiting the water as there were people lining up on both sides but not a soul cheering except my buddy Rahim who was surprised to see me strip my wetsuit off and throw it at him so that I wouldn’t get all my clothes in the swim bag wet.
My bike is something I’ve been working on quite a bit lately and it showed in my 56 mile split of 2:33. Anybody else lose a water bottle within the first couple of minutes? For me it was bye bye Carbo Pro but luckily I had 5 gels taped to my top tube along with a couple of salt pills. I was very happy with my bike but had to stop once b/c I thought I’d flatted but it turned out my back brake was rubbing and I was one of the lucky ones who went through the tree area before the fire dept. closed off the street for a bit. Towards the end of the bike my quads started to tighten up a little but I thought that it would loosen up once I started running.
So off the bike I went and before mile one, both my quads and hamstrings cramped up so much that walking became an issue. I contemplated DNFing but as it was a nice day and I knew that the under 29 females would be on their return trip on the run, I decided to give walking a go with the hopes of jogging as my legs loosened up. I ended up doing this awkward shuffle over the next 12 miles as I popped salt tablets like candy. It was awesome to see so many PacBikes & GGTC athletes and Thank You for the cheering and motivation as you passed me ;)
This race was my hardest tri in 4 years as physically and mentally I was spent. I managed to run through the finisher’s chute due to all the cheers but as soon as I finished I collapsed with cramps from my groin down. It must have been a funny sight as volunteers are trying to move me out of the way while people cheering were yelling at them to spray water on me and massage my legs. I don’t really recall too much of it but after about 10 min. they carried me over to the med tent. So that’s how my 2009 tri season ended. It’s been great and I look forward to challenging myself next year and hopefully breaking the elusive 5 hour mark. I ended up doing the race in 5:26. I’m exhausted and will now focus on a couple running races for the rest of the year. In Oct. I will be doing the Chicago Marathon and in Dec. the NorthFace 50 miler.
