Kylie and I are signed up for IM Kentucky as our A race for the season. I scheduled Vineman 70.3 as part of our build towards IMKY, and as a second opportunity to qualify for Kona.
Based on my training my time goals for this race were 27 swim, 2:25 bike and 1:25 run.
I only scheduled a half day of patients Friday so we could leave at lunch time and drive to the Bay area. We made good time and stayed with Kylies mom that night. Saturday night we stayed with her dad at a cabin they have at Oddfellows campground on the Russian River four miles from the race start.
On race morning we drove the short drive down to the start and were pleased to get parking only a block from the start.
I saw Kylie off to the start of her race as her wave left 32 minutes before mine. Did a short warmup below the dam and then lined up front and center of my wave. When the horn went off I swam hard for a couple hundred yards then settled in behind a guy that was swimming the same pace as I was. I saw one other guy get away from us right away but was pleasantly surprised that we were holding second and third place in our wave. The guy I swam with was navigating perfectly so I was content to draft off him. At one point I turned over to back stroke and saw that we had gotten quite a gap over the rest of the wave. At the turn around he let me by and I pulled us back to the swim finish. (SWIM 27:27)
I had a pretty good transition and was off onto the bike. (T1 1:17)
I felt great on the bike and had to keep holding myself back at the beginning. I passed the guy that led our wave out of the water at about mile 4 or 5. The road was pretty crowded for the next ten miles or so before things began to thin out. I felt I was riding very strong, still holding myself back but was waiting to get caught. By mile 30 I was getting very excited because the run is my best event and I have not led my age group on the bike in a race of this size for over ten years. Around mile 35 two guys from my age group caught me, I went back and forth with them until mile 50 before I let them go but kept them in sight and within 15” and 30” respectively.
About a mile from the finish on a fast straighaway I was traveling at approximately 25mph when a car made a u-turn on the course and struck me. I was taken by ambulance to Sutter hospital where I was examined and xrayed. Fortunately nothing was broken, but I have some severe road rash, contusions and swelling all along my right side. As expected I am even stiffer today and will take my recovery day by day. Luckily I was able to find someone on short notice to treat my patients for a couple days.
Looking over the results today I saw that the athlete that was 15" ahead of me won our age group with a 1:28 run. If I had stayed 15" behind him to the bike finish I would have ridden 2:22 which would have been my best 1/2 IM bike since I went 2:24 at the Peterborough 1/2 IM in 1998. Kind of bittersweet to know that I have gotten my fitness back to a level where I am right there for a Kona slot, but that it did not happen on the day.
I hope that I will be able to compete at IMKY but am not holdng my breath and am focused on healing as quickly as possible, and the race would just be a bonus.
On a more positive note, Kylie did 5:54 - a 1 hour and 24 minute PB over the half ironman distance! Her race report is here. (Warning - LONG)
