2009 Vineman 1/2 AquaBike Race Report

So, this is what I have been working towards for the last 6 months. Warning: this post is kinda long, feel free to skim.

Race Morning:
Sara and I got up at 5:30 am and started the double-check ritual. You know, double checking all the stuff we got ready the night before so we wouldn't have to check it again and just get going in the morning. Yeah, right. When I went to braid my hair and realized that I never got around to buying new little red hair ties the day before. "No red hair ties on my adorable braids?! Whatever will I do?" Big black hair ties at the end of my little skinny braids would have to do. Then, I pulled on my tri top to discover a hole on the front seam. Great. I scoured the hotel room for a sewing kit and nothing. Crap. "Do a race with a growing hole in my tummy?" On the way to the race we stopped at the front desk and snagged the last sewing kit in the hotel and I sewed up the seam while Sarah drove to the start. We ended up at the race start about 30 minutes later that planned due to the sewing and parking 1/2 a mile away. Ack! My wave starts at 8:10 and I'm getting body marked at 7:50? Crap. I squeeze my bike on to the rack, much to the chargin of some of the ladies on my rack. "Sorry, the rack holds 10 (I think) bikes, move it!" The family showed up and helped by taking stuff like sweatshirts, glasses cases, and keys off our hands. I slathered on the sunscreen, got my post swim gatorade and PB&J out, socks, shoes, etc. out, in no particular order, on my towel.


Bob (Molly's Dad), Molly, gnome mascot, me, Sara

The Swim:
Finally headed down to the water to warm up. I was in the water for all of a minute before they wanted us out of the water to walk through the "corral" to activate our timing chips. Alright, fine. More walking on the rocky shore. "Oh my god. I'm really doing this." Luckily, the water was lovely. Perfect temperature. I positioned myself towards the front, but not at the front and to the outside. BLAAAHH!! The start horn sounds and off we go. I start off nice and steady and fight off the people trying to run over me. I find it fairly amusing that triathlons have all kinds of rules for the bike (no drafting, ride single file) and run (no ipods) but the swim is a free for all. I get in my groove and just keep swimming and swimming and swimming. It was in a river so I couldn't see the whole course and was wondering where the turn around was. We reached the turn around and it was pretty shallow so people were standing up, walking or running in the river. I popped up for a few steps and then dove back in. It was pretty shallow on that side of the river so I stayed close to the buoys where it was the deepest. I was having a great swim trying not to kick too much, but really enjoying myself. When I got to the last bridge over us and I could see the finish it was time to pick up the pace. I started pulling and reaching further. Then I was out of the water and walking to my bike. Jill, super spectathlete and injured mermaid) was right at the fence screaming her head off for me.


Doesn't the swim start look fun?


Just keep swimming, just keep swimming . . .

Time: 36:52.7 PR!

Transition:
I took my time at transition to pull on my bike shorts, slather on some more sunscreen, drink some gatorade and eat a half a PBJ sandwich. Dad was right there snapping pics. I brought my arm warmers and wasn't sure if I needed them. I looked at Jill and she was talking to someone, so I turned to Dad and said, "arm warmers?" He said, "yes," so I struggled them over my damp skin. I didn't want any more of my sandwich so I got Dad's attention and tossed a 1/4 sandwich at him. Isn't he lucky? Time to head out.


Ready to go! (note the excessive sunscreen)

Time: 9:59.4 (maybe I took Heidi's comment, "what do you care how long your transition takes?" too seriously. at least it was under 10 minutes. barely.)

Bike:
As I headed out of transition I had a great surprise and saw my friend Christina, yay! The ride starts with a small hill, but in my rush in the morning and didn't put my bike in a good gear so I walked up the hill. Then is was time to start the long 56 mile ride. My goals for the ride: Take time to look at the beautiful scenery; take the first 10 miles of rollers easy; enjoy the experience; and finish in 4:30 hours but 5 would be acceptable too.

I spent the first few miles spinning to warm/wake up my legs. I was immediately grateful to Dad for telling me to put on the arm warmers. It was chilly at 15-17 mph. Almost after the first turn, not even a mile into the course, there were two guys stopped. One's face was bleeding and the other was picking up bike stuff from the street. I have no idea what happened but what a crappy way to start the race. I kept going and all the super fast women from Barb's Race (the women's half ironman tri that started 5 minutes behind me) started passing me. Including my supafast friend, Chris. She had a great swim and was off on her big adventure. I kept riding, hit the first big hill and the the section of rolling hills. Heidi joined me on the rollers and asked how I was doing and reminded me to eat and drink. What a good coach! Then she laughed and said, "You have so much sunscreen on your face is white! You are so cute, I wish I had a camera." Great. Then she went on to rock her Barb's Race. Well, the excessive sunscreen gave me something to do for awhile. I started rubbing my face when I could. Not too much later, Marisol past me, she was going fast!

I managed to do the rolling bottle exchange thing at the first aid station (tossed my bottles out and grabbed new ones while still on my bike). I was so proud of myself that I grabbed a mini Clif bar, too. More beautiful vineyards. I was managing to look around. But at the same time I was wondering what the hell I was doing out there. I wasn't even 20 miles into the race and I was tired and my legs hurt every now and then. Why? Why was I riding 56 miles? This was going to hurt. But I kept pedaling. I heard a group of women chattering away behind me. I guess it wasn't a difficult race for them. They passed me and then came Molly. She commented about how the group was breaking a bunch of rules, they didn't seem to care. Molly had a great swim and was off for a fast ride. Bye Molly!

I checked my bike computer and saw I was at mile 25. Almost halfway there! I passed the spotted where I ripped a hole in my tire on the training ride and gave it a little wave. Mile 27. This was the area I missed on the training ride and there was a pretty long incline. I was steep just long, that's why I have all those gears, right? Mile 28! Yes! Halfway there, it was all "downhill" from there. My time was around 2 hours. How did that happen?

I stopped at the second aid station in Geyserville to finish off my liquids before getting more, take off my arm warmers, and rub off the excess sunscreen. The sun had come off and it was a beautiful morning. Then off I went to the lovely Alexander Valley. My legs were tired, my quads were burning, I was worried because I still had Chalk Hill to deal with. Then I started an internal (occasionally verbal) conversation about what to do on Chalk Hill. Walk? Inch worm?

"If I inch worm (ride, stop, catch my breath, repeat) I will have ridden the whole hill. But my legs are already tired. Maybe I should walk. But then I'll be bummed that I walked. However, I don't want to get in the way of the people doing the full vineman, if I stop and start I might bug them. So, I'll walk. No, I'll inch worm. But, then again . . . "

You can imagine the rest. My final decision was, "we will see when we get there." I stopped at the aid station at mile 41 to use the porta-johns. I guess that means I was drinking enough. my hydration solution was: if you think "should I have some gatorade?" that means you should. I had a little trouble getting my two pairs of shorts back were they belonged so I had to stop make some adjustments and add a little lube for the last ~15 miles. Two guys passed me and I heard one say to the other "this is Chalk Hill." Then as he passed me he said, "no stopping on Chalk Hill!" Um, dude, this isn't the hill. I kept going over the rolling hills before the really steep part. When I finally got to the steep part I pedaled until I couldn't go any further, then stopped and walked one steep straight part. I got back on the bike in a little shady spot and rode to the next shady spot by a group of Team in Training spectathletes. I stopped took a breather then got back on for another short burst of riding to the next group of spectathletes. They were playing some nice mellow music and told me the top was just around the corner. I got back on my pedals and they gave me a big cheer for riding to the top. Now it was really downhill! 8 miles to go!!!

On the training ride, the last 8 miles were torture. "Where is the end?" So, I prepared myself for the long final 8 miles. At this point the lead Full Vinemen athletes were passing me on a regular basis. I was trying to stay out of their way and they were encouraging me to keep pushing. There are some lovely views so I took a moment to appreciate them. Said hi to some beautiful German Shepards dogs playing in front of their historic house, asked some spectathletes to do something about the wind, and thanked all the volunteers and law enforcement at the intersections. I was dreading this part so much, that it went much faster than expected. And, I was much faster than I expected. This is it, this was the end. I didn't have to do anything but cheer my friends after this, so now was time to push. I was pedaling hard the last few miles and came flying into the finish. I was focused, but I could hear Mom, Dad, and Cabe cheering as I made the turn into the finish.



Time: 4:19:59.6

I did it! I was done! I swam 1.2 miles and rode 56 miles!! No flat tires! No falls! I did it!!! Christina was there at the finish for a hug and Mom was right there to give me a big long hug.

Total time: 5:06:51.7!

Now it was time for Sara to come in. She had a good ride and me all her goals. We were done!


We did it!

All photos courtesy of Jack D. Johnson