Vineman 70.3 Race Report

Well I am back in Boulder after a successful trip to California. The weekend involved my second 1/2 Ironman of the season as well as my Dad's and friend Brett's first 1/2 Iron race. I also found out after the race the my friend Roberta raced her first 1/2 too. I was so honored when she told me that it was I who inspired her to do this a few years back when she watched me race my first triathlon in LA. Go Robbie!

So the week before the race was not the greatest. I wasn't in the best head space. In fact, Thursday before the race, JZ, Billy and I went out to do some intervals on the bike and I couldn't even do them. Billy was doing 2x20 getting ready for Ironman Lake Placid (which he will probably kick ass in this weekend) and JZ was doing 2x10 in prep for Vineman. All I had to do was 4x5min. I got SO dropped by both of them. JZ and I had to have a quick chat about weather or not doing this race was going to be a good idea. The issue was that I was not having consistently strong workouts and just raced like crap the weekend before. The whole thing was stressing me out and I honestly didn't know what the right answer was.

I believe that if you are going to race you need to be ready to give it. Granted, you won't always be able to, but you should have the ability to put your best effort out there on the course. I didn't know if I was going to be able to do that. My fear was that I was going to get out there and have nothing from the gun and then have to "get through it". I'm not a big fan of dropping out. Haven't ever done it and really don't ever want to. I am not in the league of folks that can go to a race and make $5,000.00 dollars so I also don't qualify myself as someone who can drop out so I don't "waste the effort" and go make money the next weekend.

Anyway, I had to figure out what was in my control and start making decisions based on those items. The ability to make a decision is very underrated. You can't have athlete ADD. You need to sit down, evaluate and make your decision. So that is what I did. I decided that while things haven't been going as well as I wanted since I got the infection, I did still have fitness in me and would go into the race relaxed and try to pace it a bit slower so that I can hopefully have a strong complete day. I think I also had to come to terms with the idea that my best effort right now may not place me as I high as I like but it doesn't translate as a bad race. I want to race Clearwater this year and in order to do that I need to do a 70.3 and get a slot. Not a hard task as there are plenty of them and they roll down like a fat kid on a grass hill. But none the less I would have to do the race and finish.

Saturday before the race, JZ and I went to the river to swim 20 min, then bike 1/2 the course and run 30 min. Quite the opposite of what I did the day before Lifetime which was nothing. When we got into the water I was surprised that I could hang on her feet. Granted, she wasn't swimming super hard, but JZ doesn't really have a "slow" speed. So that made me feel good. Then we got on the bike and things felt "crisp". The run also seemed fine. I really needed that boost. Just to know that I didn't feel like dog pooh on Saturday made me excited to race.

Race morning I woke up with a freaking kink in my neck. Honestly I had to laugh. I was pretty much of the mind set "Big fucking deal. I'll just breathe to the other side or something." It was the lamest thing that could be happening but I will say that it is almost the following Saturday as I write this and I still have a bit of kink so it wasn't some "pre race" fake injury thing.

When I got to the water I opted to not use my wetsuit. The water was too hot and I would overheat for sure so I used the Speed Suit instead. My wave started at 7:10. 40 min behind the pro wave. We would have a ton of people to climb over on the way back. While I was floating in the water waiting for the gun I was really just trying to relax and cut myself some slack. No pressure, just see what happens. Oh and remember now you are breathing on the left side!

When the gun went off I hit it hard and scoped out the fastest guys in the wave and got on their feet. it turns out there were only 3 of us. We had a 3 way line going with me on the back. It was fast enough to drop our wave but those two guys were not fast enough for the kind of feet I wanted. It was so relaxed and enjoyable but I had no desire to go around and try and swim harder. The energy to do that would be wasted.

When we hit the turn it was so shallow and crowded that we had to stand up. The guy in second started to walk slow while the guy in first took off. I had to give him a slight push and said "Yo! Get on yellow caps feet!" He picked it up and we were back face down. They were pretty good at navigating all the Tri Wreckage. There were a lot of slow swimmers from the prior wave. It was a mess.

Once out of the water I was very happy with how it went and got on the bike and started rolling. I finally got my SRM to work again and had it for the race. JZ told me not to look at the numbers as we don't totally know what they should be but after a while I just tried to keep it around 275 and 315 for the climbs.

Around 8 miles into the bike I was getting ready to pass a women from an early wave and at that moment it looked like she was going to pull over for something. She went in the middle of the road and started to stop. I was passing on the left and was like "What are you doing!! Don't stop there!" I went around her on the right as I was going pretty fast and as soon as I turned the corner a big "OH FUCK!" came out of my mouth. I slammed on my brakes as a decent sized Oak Tree had fallen into the road. It was blocking the entire course and as I got off my bike I realized that a rider was under the tree and two others were also down on the ground. The one rider was actually hit by the tree. The back end of his bike was smashed and he was in bad shape. The other two looked like they ran into it after it feel. This was a bad situation.

There was one spectator there already and I wasn't sure what to do. There was nothing I could do for the injured riders and to be honest I thought that the race was going to be canceled or majorly delayed. I knew that all the people in my age were already up the road. There were two waves in front of mine and the one I was in was the last and I was in second place. I had to think fast because I didn't want to be out of the race. I looked at the tree and noticed that I could crawl under it. So I did that and then dragged my bike under and just said "I will tell the very next person that I see what has happened and send help". The one women there was tending to the hurt riders so that was the most effective thing I could do for them.

Off I went as I tried to get back into my groove. Kinda hard after what I just saw! The rest of the ride was uneventful. I never got passed and was solo except for the slower riders on the right. The whole ride felt great. Complete opposite of last weekend. I think part of that was that I raised my saddle height. My quads were not loading up at all. The mistake I made on the ride was that I didn't get enough fluid in. AND I had on a camel pack on. 100% my fault. I had a minor stomach cramp so that may have been the reason I wasn't taking in the fluids.

When I got off the bike my SRM had me at 2:18 for the ride. "Damn! Where did that come from???" It felt so easy. However, the lack of hydrating left my legs a bit flat. I was behind the 8 ball and thought I could make it up on the run. I peed as I ran through transition and it was a short stream of yellow jello. Not a good sign but doesn't mean that it is game over. The legs were a bit heavy and maybe I rode too hard? But I settled into my pace and tried to get fluid in. It was blazing hot out and the run turned into a shuffle for me. I still had an okay run time of 1:25. I thought it was going to be a 1:32 but it wasn't that bad.

There was a bit of comedy on the run. I'm sure JZ doesn't think it is funny but she did bring it up today so I figure it is fair game to write about. People that know us understand we are a harsh crowd. I made jokes about her IM AZ dnf about an hour after it happened. To her face! Anyway, I dropped my salt when I was on the bike and didn't have any. About 4 miles into the run I see JZ in the distance on the ground. It was disappointing to see this happen again but I kinda knew something was up as I had not seen here on the way back yet. The funny part is that I didn't say "are you okay?" or make any reference to what happened. All I did was yell a bit before I was going to pass her. "Joanna! I need your salt!" If you could only see the look I got. Dropping your salt pills on the bike: $12 dollars. Asking JZ when she is on the ground dropping out of a race for hers: PRICELESS!

So the run didn't go well but I gutted it out and was happy with the overall race. Plus, when you take the tree into account I don't get chicked! A goal this year was to not have slower times than any pro women. I think the tree covers that! And I don't plan to do any races with Chrissie in it! hah!

I also think that even though I was only 6th overall armature, that I made a mistake giving back the pro card. While I am not as fast as the top pro guys, when you are in the AG waves you aren't even in a race. None of the guys that beat me were in my wave. If you look at the pro guys times, the swim and bike are all the same for so many of them. And not THAT much faster than what I did. Granted they ran me into the ground but I know in the end, I am actually a runner.

It's not that I think drafting is going on, but they are able to sit legal and see the competitors. It makes a difference. It's too bad that they don't have more races with elite AG waves to allow a race for fast AGer's that want to make the jump. But I made the decision to stay AG this year and I have make the most of it.

I look forward to my next race here in Boulder (5430 1/2 Ironman). It will be my first race at altitude. Should be fun!

I will post my Dad's race report up here in a few days. Very proud that he has been so committed to this since the initial motivation in Hawaii. Amazing to me that he got it done on such a hot day!

good times,
bdc