v-man round 2

race report from my second attempt at Vineman:

swim: i was wading out at the start line chatting with susan, aran, and joanna and felt myself actually calm and the plan of attack for the day was clear. my plan was to take it nice and easy and attempt to make it through the run as well as last year. we start and i actually wasn't pummeled by all the women around me which is a nice change from every other race i've done! i kept a decent rythm and even drafted for a while.

just before the turn around bouy i felt hands on my ankles and calves as the men's wave behind us had caught up to me and they were attempting to drown me in order to speed up their races. i couldn't believe it as i'm NO threat to their winning a spot for clearwater since i'm not even in their gender let alone age group! regardless, i got fed up with it and on a few of the guys frog kicked to get them to leave me alone :)

all in all, the swim felt decent though i managed to be a few minutes slower than last year. estimated time: 41 mins

t1: this is not the easiest transition as there are hard rocks underfoot and not much carpet from the swim to the actual bikes. i noticed that mine was one of the few left on my rack and attempted to get out of my wet suit as quickly as possible so i could catch up with the girls on the bike. the one mistake i made here was not having a towel to stand on or water to wash off my feet before putting them into my bike shoes so i kept trying to swipe them on my wetsuit which wasted a little time.

i packed my bag, handed it to keith, asked my time, and headed out. on the way out i saw trent and heather and picked up my run up the hill with my bike to heed trent's advice and "hammer it". estimated t1 time: 7 mins

bike: it started off a little chilly and i never quite got the feeling back into my toes through the whole of the course. my plan of attack was to keep it comfortable and not push too much as i knew the run was going to be more rough on me this year than last for lack of training. nothing spectacular about the ride. i did pass a few girls in my age group including aran and amanda. i passed the area where the tree had taken out a few competitors though all that remained was the fire trucks and a cop car.

somewhere close to the chalk hill turn i saw coach melekian and yelled for him as he flew by me. going up chalk hill i saw jason changing a tire and was surprised that he didn't pass me along the bike course on the way to t2. all in all, pretty uneventful but a very nice course and one of my favorite rides (including chalk hill)!

overall i think i actually held back a little too much on the bike and could've gotten closer to a 3 hour bike but ended up with a 3:25 bike which isn't tooooo shabby and a personal PR for this distance of a course.

t2: i heard my fam yelling as i rounded the corner into t2 and ran my bike to my spot. i got there and noticed that yet again, someone had knocked my stuff around. never fails to happen yet somehow i'm always surprised. i threw off my helmet and threw on my hat. put on the socks and shoes and grabbed my water bottle. i skipped the water over the head as i'd already put my socks and shoes on and decided to skip the sunblock as i was trying out the marty method of sunblock which i'd find out later didn't work for me! estimated time 4 mins

run: started out fabulously as jennafer was there to run the first 100 yards with me and then bry and matt were there for some pictures as i headed out on what would promise to be a VERY hot run.

i started out and right away knew i had repeated my mistake from last year as i didn't use the restroom in t2. i hit the first aide station with port o potties and had to wait but i knew i wouldn't make it another mile to the next stop so i stretched as my calves felt like solid rock. the stretching definitely helped and when i headed back out, i felt like i could possibly repeat last year's time which i'd be more than happy with!

i kept an eye out for people i knew and ended up running a bit with a breakaway girl until she dropped back. i saw coach melekian again and he looked like he was flying so i yelled something about how he looked like he was doing well and kept on movin! i later saw chris and made a peanut joke :) for the most part, i was running the flats and downhills and walking all up hills in an effort to attempt to save my legs. this is what i did last year and seemed to be working for me again.

somewhere around mile 5 or 6 i realized that i'd been socializing too much and not really paying attention to my nutrition and downed a gu and two salt tabs which would turn out to be a mistake. i got to the beginning of la crema and realized that i really should've been slower to take in that gu and started to feel sick. i walked the second pond (except where the photographer was!) and stopped a sec at the bathroom past the aide station.

i passed jason as i was leaving for mile 7 and he was just getting to la crema. i was really starting to feel the heat and the improper nutrition on the beginning of my run so was walking more than just the uphills which was discouraging.

i hear a panting and feel a bit of water on my left shoulder and realize that BG is now walking next to me! it was great to see him even if he did look about like i felt :) i really didn't think i was going to be able to keep up with him but we ended up running the rest together which was a lifesaver for me!! i'd talk us into and out of running and walking and since he was there, i talked us into more running than either of us really wanted to do.

we saw veva and yelled some encouragements back and forth, saw penny and paused for a hug, saw jodi and praised her swim as we all knew she was more than capable, saw iris and encouraged her to just keep on keepin on. saw steve at the last aide station and knew we only had about a mile and a quarter left. we ran the first stretch, then walked a bit so we could run the last mile into the finish. we ran into the finisher's chute and though we were going to die but knew we HAD to finish with a good run so put the gas back on :0) estimated run time 3 hrs, 11 mins

it was great to finish with BG and see my fam there cheering and taking pictures and see Team there being supportive even if i did only train with them a handful of times!

all in all, not a bad race even though i really felt like i should have done better. i've been kickin my butt about the fact that i really should've trained more and let work take more of a back seat. good lessons for pumpkin man and Ironman New Zealand!

~danban