This photo is from the last day Kyle and I had our regular Wednesday afternoon mountain bike ride around Lake Natoma, the last week of November.  It’s been so cold this week that it’s hard to believe we were wearing short sleeves at sunset less than a month ago.  Hopefully we’ll have some fun snow photos to share soon.

I wrote this report last summer, but we didn’t have the site up yet.

I picked Vineman 70.3 as my first ½ Ironman after doing the Full
Vineman Aquabike last summer. Vineman is a fantastic race
organization, the races are well organized and supported, and the
volunteers are fantastic. After having lived with Vineman 70.3 as my
ultimate goal for the 2008 triathlon season since the end of the 2007
season, it feels strange to be writing this report.

When I entered the race last winter, I didn’t realize that my 8-year
old son was going to be dealing with an ultimate competition of his
own, the NorCal Swim League Championships. It was his first season on
swim team, and he’s taken to it like a fish. My parents, the swim
team veterans from my childhood, did Championships duty for Shane so
that I could race Vineman. After watching Shane’s preliminary 25 free
on Saturday morning, Kevin and I headed to Sonoma County with the
older two boys.

We arrived at Windsor High School at 3:00pm for the athlete check-in
and race expo. Most the athletes had already come and gone so the
crowd was small. Surprisingly, I enjoyed the 5:00pm pre-race meeting.
The USATriathlon official responsible for explaining the intricacies
of the combination of USAT rules with Ironman rules made the talk as
interesting as anyone could. He got a few snickers from the audience
as he reminded us all that our friends think we’re crazy and it was a
bit humbling to be told that most of the volunteers think we’re heroes.

After the pre-race meeting, we headed to Flavor in downtown Santa Rosa
for dinner. It was a fantastic meal with lots of good prerace menu
options. There were many other Vineman competitors dining there as
well, we all had on yellow athlete wristbands making us easily
identifiable. We arrived back at our budget hotel in Santa Rosa at
8:00pm, giving me enough time to sort out my swim/bike transition gear
before hitting the sack at 9:00. I slept well and had no problem
waking at 5:00am Sunday morning.

We were out of the hotel room before 6:00am, my mostly uneaten bowl of
oatmeal in hand, and on the way the Johnson’s Beach in Guerneville.
Even bringing it along for the car ride, I still couldn’t eat more
than a few bites of my breakfast. We arrived in Guerneville with
plenty of time for body marking and setting up T1. My swim wave
start, women 35-39, was at 7:34am.

I got in the water as soon as my wave was allowed, did a small warm-up
and positioned myself at the front line of the start wave. The
countdown seemed to last forever, but when we finally got the horn to
go, I shot off the front with a small pack of fast swimmers, and we
had plenty of room to swim until we started catching the wave in front
of us. Even when I had to start weaving around the slower swimmers
from the previous wave, it was still smooth going. My swim was solid
at 29:06, but it would have been good to be under 29 minutes.

I jogged into T1 and immediately got confused about the location of my
bike. I even have a crazy looking yellow saddle that should have made
it easy to locate. It seemed like forever, but I’m sure was only a
few seconds before I got my bearings. I had the shakes while I was
trying to pull off my wetsuit and get my helmet on. Faced with
pulling my socks onto sandy feet, I realized I forgot an extra bottle
of water to rinse off my feet. I was in T1 longer than I would have
liked, 4:49, but eventually made it out of there and onto the road.

I decided to run my bike up the short climb out of T1 and was glad I
did as I ran around a couple of riders struggling to get into their
pedals. Kevin and the boys were there cheering me on my way. When my
bike computer showed me the time and a bunch of zeros, I realized the
sensor wasn’t working because my front wheel was on backwards. I
thought briefly about stopping to fix it, but didn’t want to take the
time. I worried a bit because I wanted to make sure I rode an average
of 18 mph so that I would have some energy saved for the run, and
without a computer I was relying only on how I felt.

The bike was fantastic. I know the course well and remembered all the
little tricky places. No lost water bottles for me or being caught
out in the wrong gear. I was a little nervous about grabbing Power
Bars and Gatorade while riding through the aid stations, but I had no
problems. I called out what I was looking for and a volunteer would
step up for the handoff.

I did have a scary moment at the second aid station, mile 29, when a
guy came out of the penalty tent right in front of me and crashed. I
looked over the front of my bike at disk wheel and white carbon fiber
frame and thought for sure that I was going to go right over the top
of him. I somehow managed to swerve around and keep on going, whew!
It was very scary, and I remember thinking some people obviously
belong in the penalty tent.

I am starting to really enjoy hill climbing and powered up Chalk Hill
Road without a hitch, "Yeah Baby!" I felt like Superwoman when I
reached the top and flew down the descent. Coming into Windsor, I saw
a Sac Tri Club jersey a couple of riders ahead and decided to ride up
and say. It was Ronnie; we shared the normal supportive chit chat and
then separated to finish the last couple miles into T2. My bike time
was 3:07:21, which works out to 18 mph for the 56 mile ride. Who
needs a computer?!

When I scoped out T2 at Windsor High School on Saturday afternoon, I
thought it seemed like a long run from the bike dismount line to the
racks, but on race day it went quickly. I easily found my running
shoes and hat, courtesy of another competitor’s yellow smiley face
balloon. I took my socks off to get the residual sand from T1 out
before running and then slipped them back on. I wanted to use the
toilet, but didn’t want to wait in line, so I thought I would get the
next one. T2 time 4:37.

I headed out onto the run course feeling strong. Although I wasn’t
great in either transition area, all those bike/run transition
workouts obviously helped my legs get used to the change in activity.
I felt smooth and settled into my normal running pace, just over 10
minute miles. There was a steady flow of people running out with me,
but not too many finishing yet. I mentally divided the run into
one-mile increments to the next aid station. Each aid station I
arrived at had a line for the toilet, and I still didn’t want to wait
around. Finally at mile 4, the toilets were empty and no one was
waiting. The only catch was pulling my sweaty tri shorts back up, ugh!

As I kept on running one mile at a time, I was glad for the trail run
series I did this spring because I felt strong up all the short hills
on the course. I got to the top of one hill and was amazed at the
sight of the huge mass of runners going both directions on the road.
I saw a couple of other local athletes on the course and cheered them
on. A couple of the guys from Sac Tri Club passed me; their
encouragement along the way was fantastic. I made it to the turn
around at La Crema winery no problem and enjoyed the music being
played at that aid station. I was starting to wonder why KC hadn’t
caught me yet, when I felt a tap on my shoulder and there she was.

I was doing great on the run up to mile 9 when my body decided to
stage a rebellion. I was very low energy and felt sick. I started
doing run/walk intervals for about two miles and that really slowed
down my pace. Finally at mile 11, I started feeling better and
finished the run strong.

It felt amazing to run back toward the finish line. I’ve never had so
many people cheering me on, and I felt a little overwhelmed when I
realized I had done it. The announcer said my name as I ran down the
finishing stretch, and I raised my arms to signify my own personal
victory. My run time was 2:27:25 and total time was 6:13:19, my
average heart rate over the entire race was 161. My best estimate
goal going in was 6 ½ to 7 hours, and I was thrilled to be faster.

Kevin and the boys were there to meet me at the finish chute with even
more good news. Shane had an amazing best time in the 25 butterfly
prelims that morning and was the first seed for finals. I got my post
race meal, and had a chance to talk with some of the other athletes.
I took a very public cold shower at the baseball field, and then we
headed back to the swim championships. We made it in time to see
Shane swim the free relay, but missed his butterfly victory in the
finals with another best time. What a fantastic weekend!