A Grape Race

Settling back in after the Vineman 70.3 down in Cali last weekend.  Since I'm still run/walking and only about 2 miles at a time, this was going to be an "aquabike" event.  The race has two different transition areas which makes the logistics a bit complicated.  Seven of us had a rental house near the coast, no cell or internet but we did have Versus for tour coverage.  Went out for a "rolling" bike ride along the coast when we arrived on Thursday afternoon.  Since I wasn't concerned about tapering, I hit the hills harder than I normally would.  The week was more of a reverse taper, I didn't ride Sunday through Wednesday and then rode TWO whole days in a row Thursday and Friday.  We did a couple of swims in the river too, sans wetsuit (with swimsuit).  The water was probably 10 degrees warmer than at any open water swim I've done so far this year.  I may never do a cold water race again, it was so nice.

Friday night we went to the athlete's pasta dinner.  During the pro panel, Tyler Stewart said that she hasn't run in 7 months but was doing the whole race tomorrow.  Everyone at our table looked at me.  She's been bike racing instead.  Christine punches me in the shoulder.  And then she said although she races in the pro division, she works a full time job.  She decided years ago not to dedicate her life to the sport and trains about 8-12 hours per week.  So basically she nixed ALL my excuses.  The only one I have left is that I don't have her physiology; on that training program she busted out a course record on the bike and a 1:23 half marathon on race day.  If only! 

We had dinner at the house on race eve.  I had a nice big glass of wine that I thought was appropriate in the spirit of the race.  The finish line of the swim had an arch made of wine barrels that I thought was pretty cool.

 
Running out past the barrels of wine.

As I made my final preparations in T1, I was talking to a gal next to me doing her first tri.  Suddenly I noticed we were the only 35-39 AG women still standing at the bike racks.  I asked her where the swim start was and said uh, it might be time to head over there.  Ended up being a bit of a scramble through the crowd but made it into the water with about 3 minutes to spare.  That's plenty of warm-up time for me.  The water was warm, did I mention that?  72 degrees according to the announcer. The swim is an out-and-back on the Russian river, going against the current at first and then turning around into the current.  Generally I felt pretty good during the swim, harder on the way back just due to muscle fatigue in my shoulders and lats.  Not the "I just want to roll over on my back and float" kind of fatigue that I usually get in open water.  The strangest thing about the swim was that the water was shallow enough in places to stand up.  So you'd be swimming along and see a couple people in their caps just standing around mid-swim.  And no, I didn't PR in the swim because I ran it!  When I got out of the water I noticed there were a lot of bikes still in my transition area, which is unusual.   I haven't done a lot of half iron races but this was a PR swim and I finally cracked the top 50% of my age group.  Hooray for mid-pack results!  Next time, I want to break the 40-minute barrier- only 21 seconds to go.

The woman next to me in T2 asked "are you allergic to sunscreen"?  I said no and she proceded to spray another coat of sunscreen on my back which was much appreciated.  She said she's been burned during this race before, and probably noticed that I am one who likely needs all the sun protection she can get.  After a leisurely 6 minute transition, I was on the bike.  We had ridden part of the course on Friday so were familiar with Chalk Hill that came about mile 45 *I think*; that is to say, it wasn't really a huge hill.  But the road was pretty rough in places and kind of winding.  Other than that I was pretty oblivious to the course details, other than we rode by a lot of vineyards and wineries.  There was one short super-steep hill near the beginning and some hard turns.  The rest was pretty rolling.  I didn't pay any attention to my power and decided just to ride by feel.  I did TT the last 5 miles into town which was fun, blowing by people like I didn't have to run afterward.  Because I didn't.  Crushed the guy wearing a pink tutu and bunny ears (on his aerohelmet) as we were rolling in the final stretch to T2.  Once I got into T2 however I was a little bewildered.  What do I do?  I didn't have any gear stationed there because my plan was to roll right over to the car.  I found a volunteer near the run exit who was able to take my chip.  I stood there for a minute looking around, thinking about how my chip was going to show infinite time in T2.  Then asked her how to get out of there!  They lifted up a banner so I could roll out into the finishers area.  But there was no food out yet, so nothing for me there.  I watched Mirinda Carfrae win the women's race with a 1:16 and change half marathon- the announcer noted that her run split was only 8 seconds slower than Chris Lieto :)  Finally realizing I was stumped on how to get out of the finishers area too, not being a finisher, I asked another volunteer how to get out of THAT area.  Thinking about it later, this was my first DNF ever.  I've been DFL and DNS, but never DNF.  No wonder it felt strange.  Not bad though, considering how long I've been racing; triathlon, running and biking.  And I had a good excuse.  My bike was also a PR but again, I haven't done that many half iron races.  And you can't really compare times across different courses. I feel pretty good though considering my bike training over the past 3 months has been lacking in both intensity and volume.

Post-race refueling consisted of chips, salsa, guacamole and Corona, among other things.  My travel partners had some PR performances and one finished her very first half iron.  We started talk of training camp in Kona next spring break ;)

Comments

[Katie]

LoL - Great RR! Love the big glass of wine prerace. It fit right into place. Nice job on the swim PR and bike. Come on now, you couldn't let a guy in a tutu beat you ;p

A planned DNF takes a lot a maturity and courage. Not only should you be proud of your PRs but more so of your great sportsmanship.

[Martina Ralle]

Great reading your report.
I did the aquabike a few years ago. It was their first year of having it and I attributed the absence of a real finish for aquabikers to it being a new event. I see they still haven't changed that.. Or did you sign up for the full tri and only ended after the bike?

[Maggs]

Nice. I definitely think it was the way to go!

[Woodsy]

Martina, there is an official Vineman aquabike but it's at the end of the month- same weekend as the full Vineman. I signed up for the tri last fall not knowing that I'd still be rehabbing patellar tendinitis. I'll just have to go back when I can run and do the whole thing!