Cindybigglestone
07-24-2007, 06:58 AM
Ben and I went down to Cali to do Vineman 70.3 and here is our story...
We arrived Thursday afternoon put our bikes together and headed out for a short ride to get the travel out of our legs. It was hard to ride fast as I was constantly looking around at the beauty of the area. We stayed at Roma Vinyards in the Alexander Valley of Sonoma County it was amazing. The roads didnt give me much confidence since they were extremely broken up mainly chip seal and very narrow with cars going around you at 50 + mph gotta love those California drivers. The days leading up to the race we managed to get in a few rides, a couple T-runs and swims. Since we are always training for Canada there is never a taper for a 1/2. I felt tired at every workout thinking I havent recovered from the desert 1/2 two weeks ago. All thoughts of a PR went out the window.
OK this is the exciting part. Race morning standard really wake up have breakfast drive to swim start. Which was about 40 minutes away. We arrive at the venue and start unloading the bikes and gear when I hear Ben say I've forgotten my helmet. I think no problem that sucks but we can find one for him to borrow. Then I hear him say no goggles, no nutrition, no race number no sunglasses and some other colorful words I'll leave out of this race report. Its to late to drive back and get everything since that would take about an hour and half. So I say lets go set up our bikes and then we'll look for help. Thankfully we run into Matt Leito who Ben knows well and he takes us to his car so we can get Ben what he needs. A helmet, goggles(not B70) and a couple gels. I give Ben half of my electrolytes and he should be good to go. For more detail on Bens race morning I hope he will reply to this.
My wave start was at 7:02 so I get my suit on say good luck to Ben and get in the water. I feel tired and nervous as I usually do before any race. When the gun goes off I start my swim try to work hard but as usual I came out middle of the pack. The waves were 8 minutes apart so my goal was to get out of the swim before getting caugt by Ben who left at 7:16 :) In transition I tried to quickly get out of my wetsuit and slipped on the gravel fell on my ass knocked over my bike and started laughing at myself. I try to get as much dirt and rock off myself and head out for the bike. We drove the course in sections and I was not sure how anyone considered this a fast course. I went out as I normally do upset with my self for being a slower swimmer and start to get my legs burning on the bike. Looking at every leg for AG and start counting. I got passed by Ben early on the bike and decided I need to take it up a notch and work a bit harder. I passed 41 girls in my AG on the bike so I was pleased when I got to T2 but didnt know were I was out of 155 girls in my AG. As I started the run I felt great. I havent trained the run all year and just recently started running three times a week. The run was so called an out and back gently rolling course. Ya! gently rolling was not what I would call it. More like super hilly with short flat sections. We should of driven the run course or maybe that would of scared me. But it is what it is and I felt good and gave it everything I could. I take Cola and water at the aid stations a gel at mile 6 and 9 and holding on to ice when ever it was available. The day felt about 90 + so it was warm and I was loving the heat. I did feel sorry for the later waves knowing it was only getting warmer for them. Overall a great day challenging course and highly competative field.
I managed to PR the day with a 5:08 and got 13th in my AG. Ben had a great race despite all the trauma of the morning with a 4:24 7th in his AG just missing a Kona spot by 2 min . We learned a lot at this race and we're both looking forward to Ironman Canada.
We arrived Thursday afternoon put our bikes together and headed out for a short ride to get the travel out of our legs. It was hard to ride fast as I was constantly looking around at the beauty of the area. We stayed at Roma Vinyards in the Alexander Valley of Sonoma County it was amazing. The roads didnt give me much confidence since they were extremely broken up mainly chip seal and very narrow with cars going around you at 50 + mph gotta love those California drivers. The days leading up to the race we managed to get in a few rides, a couple T-runs and swims. Since we are always training for Canada there is never a taper for a 1/2. I felt tired at every workout thinking I havent recovered from the desert 1/2 two weeks ago. All thoughts of a PR went out the window.
OK this is the exciting part. Race morning standard really wake up have breakfast drive to swim start. Which was about 40 minutes away. We arrive at the venue and start unloading the bikes and gear when I hear Ben say I've forgotten my helmet. I think no problem that sucks but we can find one for him to borrow. Then I hear him say no goggles, no nutrition, no race number no sunglasses and some other colorful words I'll leave out of this race report. Its to late to drive back and get everything since that would take about an hour and half. So I say lets go set up our bikes and then we'll look for help. Thankfully we run into Matt Leito who Ben knows well and he takes us to his car so we can get Ben what he needs. A helmet, goggles(not B70) and a couple gels. I give Ben half of my electrolytes and he should be good to go. For more detail on Bens race morning I hope he will reply to this.
My wave start was at 7:02 so I get my suit on say good luck to Ben and get in the water. I feel tired and nervous as I usually do before any race. When the gun goes off I start my swim try to work hard but as usual I came out middle of the pack. The waves were 8 minutes apart so my goal was to get out of the swim before getting caugt by Ben who left at 7:16 :) In transition I tried to quickly get out of my wetsuit and slipped on the gravel fell on my ass knocked over my bike and started laughing at myself. I try to get as much dirt and rock off myself and head out for the bike. We drove the course in sections and I was not sure how anyone considered this a fast course. I went out as I normally do upset with my self for being a slower swimmer and start to get my legs burning on the bike. Looking at every leg for AG and start counting. I got passed by Ben early on the bike and decided I need to take it up a notch and work a bit harder. I passed 41 girls in my AG on the bike so I was pleased when I got to T2 but didnt know were I was out of 155 girls in my AG. As I started the run I felt great. I havent trained the run all year and just recently started running three times a week. The run was so called an out and back gently rolling course. Ya! gently rolling was not what I would call it. More like super hilly with short flat sections. We should of driven the run course or maybe that would of scared me. But it is what it is and I felt good and gave it everything I could. I take Cola and water at the aid stations a gel at mile 6 and 9 and holding on to ice when ever it was available. The day felt about 90 + so it was warm and I was loving the heat. I did feel sorry for the later waves knowing it was only getting warmer for them. Overall a great day challenging course and highly competative field.
I managed to PR the day with a 5:08 and got 13th in my AG. Ben had a great race despite all the trauma of the morning with a 4:24 7th in his AG just missing a Kona spot by 2 min . We learned a lot at this race and we're both looking forward to Ironman Canada.