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This user currently is not registered with Windows Live QnA account. Click here to learn more and get started. Alex's worldAugust 06 Half-Vineman Race Report (7/30/06)I did the Half-Vineman in northern California last weekend and thought I'd share some thoughts on the course and my own experience. I finished in 5:20:45, which was within my goal of 5:30:00, but a little short of my stretch goal of 5:15:00. Overall it was a great race, but not without a number of challenges. The course I would recommend the course. It takes place in the Sonoma Valley near Santa Rosa, about an hour’s drive north of San Francisco. T1 and T2 are in different locations, the swim being an out-and-back in the Russian River (1.2 miles), starting at Guerneville, west of Santa Rosa. The bike was slightly longer this year (57.5 miles), and winds through wine country, finishing at Windsor. The run (13.1 miles) is an out-and-back along rolling hills, with a loop through the La Crema winery at the turnaround. The course has stunning scenery and with qualifying slots for both Kona and Florida (70.3 WW championship) it draws a big competitive field. The two downsides for me were a long queue for registration and some pretty poor road surface conditions. Pre-race This was a B-race for me, in preparation for IM Canada, so my taper was negligible. I flew down to Oakland on the Friday before the Sunday race with my family, planning to take a full week’s vacation around the race.
Race day I got up at 4:45am and ate breakfast: a bagel, a GU and some orange juice. I arrived at T1 at 6:00am as planned, but was horrified to see the queues for the Honey Buckets. I dropped my gear off quickly and got in line, but only got into one at 6:44am, 10 minutes before my wave was due to start. Needless to say, I had the world’s fastest T0: I emerged from the Honey Bucket like Superman, pulling off my clothes as I dashed to my bike and gear, yanked on my wetsuit and darted down to the beach, yelling at folks to kindly get out of the way. The rest of my wave was in the water (it was a deep water start), and after quickly rinsing my goggles I headed out to join them. Then with 10 yards to go until I reached the pack… the gun went off. Fool! What an idiot for being so late! But I had grin to myself – I’d moved like lightening between that Honey Bucket and the water. Swim The swim was relatively uneventful. I started at the very back of the pack, and (unusual for me) actually managed to overtake a few people. Since the out section of the swim is against a marginal current, I really didn’t know what swim time to expect, so just pushed on. I only looked at my watch at some point in T1 and saw 38 minutes, and was happy enough with that. The T1 area was HUGE however (long and thin), and it felt like that transition took forever. Since your swim gear from T1 is shipped over to T2 for you after the race, you have to stuff it into a big bag for the volunteers to bring back for you. This probably took only seconds, but it felt like ages. With my gear packed, helmet and shoes on, I stuffed my sunglasses into a back pocket and was off. Swim time: 37:59 T1: 3:51
Bike There are a few straight stretches, and one signficant hill toward the end of the bike, but otherwise the course is best described as rolling. The first 100 yards of the bike features a short hill as the road climbs up and away from the river, and I saw more than a few people struggle as they’d forgotten to set their bikes in the lowest gear. If nothing else, I was pleased I’d made it to T1 the day before to avoid this pitfall. Once up the hill, I concentrated on settling into a rhythm. Heart rate was down, I was drinking lots, and everything was on plan. Then I heard something clatter on the road behind me. I reached behind me, fearing a bottle had fallen off, but they were both there – obviously something had fallen off someone else’s bike, not mine. At mile 5 the course leaves the highway and hits the country roads. It was from here that I incurred a number of challenges: the next 10 miles were short hills, nothing significant, but it was hard to keep a rhythm. Worse, the roads were bumpy and rough, the result of numerous small re-surfacing efforts. This was to have an unforeseen impact later. All was forgiven after that though, as the road surface got smoother and the scenery became more stunning. The course takes you past endless wineries, with great views across the Sonoma Valley and I did lose my concentration more than a few times. This evaporated as I started to feel nauseas. I had downed my first bottle of Gatorade / water mix and most of a PowerBar in the first hour and a quarter, probably a bit too fast and so had to hold off for a bit. At about 9:00am the sun started to come out as the cloud cover burned off. I reached back for my sunglasses, but found nothing. I tried again. Nothing. I checked again. Nada. Then I realized that “clatter” at the start of the bike had been my sunglasses falling out of my back pocket. For this race, you have to wear your race belt / running number while on the bike too, and I suspect the strap nudged my glasses out of my pocket. (I’m still annoyed at losing them.) Then at about 1 hour 45 mins into the bike, my left knee began to hurt. I’d felt a twinge for a while, but it was now growing to be more than a nuisance. When I felt some stabbing pains in my knee, I eased off on the speed for about 30 minutes. This helped, as funnily enough so did the only significant hill climb on the bike, and so by the time I got closer to T2, I increased speed again. With 7 mikes to go, I pushed hard, flying by quite a few people. I was enjoying the return to full-on double-thruster galactic-starship-light-speed (OK, it felt like that to me) so much that I almost came to grief. Turning left at one major intersection, I was going way too fast and came within 3 inches of flying off the road. With one charge of “idiot” for the race already, I was lucky not to add another for “reckless fool”. The rest of the bike and T2 passed without incident.
Run I kept it easy for the start of the run, making a point to walk and drink some Gatorade and water at every aid station. At about mile 4, I hooked up with another runner, and we ran together for the next 5 miles or so, chatting (actually a fairly breathless, gasping and stilted conversation) about our races. I left him on a hill at mile 9, and pushed on to the finish. I could feel my right calf wanting to cramp up but thought I could hold my pace without slowing and / or having to take any salt tablets. I pushed hard for the last 3 miles and skipping the last two aid stations. The final mile was tough but enormous fun. Run: 1:39:23
Overall Time: 5:20:45 Overall ranking: 362 / 1245 AG ranking: 96 / 313 A big thank you to my coach Ben Bigglestone for his constant guidance and of course a special thank you to my gorgeous wife and kids for their never-ending support. Only 3 more weeks now J. Nutrition Breakfast: Bagel, OJ, GU, Gatorade Pre-race: GU Swim: Not too much river water this time J Bike: 2 x 30 fluid oz. Gatorade / water mix 1 x 15 fluid oz. water 1 x PowerBar 2 x GU Run: 1 – 2 gulps of Gatorade and 1 – 2 gulps of water at 8 aid stations, 1 gulp coke at last aid station Post-race Looking at my bike after the race, I realized that my seat post had slipped down about ¾ of an inch – no wonder my knee had been hurting. I’d tightened the clamp on my seat as much as I dare on a carbon tube, but my bike had taken a pounding on those rough roads. Lessons for next time… IMC, August 27th 1. See the course and know the route (done, just repeat) 2. Allow enough time for warm-up day before and day of race 3. Tighten seat post 4. Put on sunglasses at T1
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