Vineman Race Report...My First IM

Triathlon Forum
1

So, I completed my first IM. Although I suppose I can’t exactly call myself an ironman, since it wasn’t a WTC branded event, and of course, by slowtwitch standards, I think I have to be under 10 hours (or is it nine, or 8:30) to have really ‘raved’ an IM. Whatever.

Regardless, it went well. Vineman is in Windsor, CA, near Sonoma, and you ride through some beautiful wine country, and right by many famous vineyards. Makes for a nice ride, albeit hilly. Unfortunately, the run was not so scenic, and was oft accompanied by the smell of cow manure, or baby goats bleeting. Still fun though.

Swim was 1:20:44, which was certainly not blazing, but good enough to get me to T1. The Russian River was quite shallow, and at the turn around point, you almost had to walk, it was so shallow. My fingertips were not gently scraping against the bottom, rather my entire forearm was smacking the bottom in those spots. However, despite that, I kept swimming, and was faster than the people who walked.

T1 was 5:36, in which I put on a pair of bike shorts and a jersey over my tri suit. I’ve found in training, that for long rides, I am more comfortable like that.

The bike was great (for me) 5:43:35. Averaged about 19.5 mph, and passed a whole lot of people that swim faster than me. Got clipped by an RV around mile 25 (he passed to close, and the awning support sticking out the side brushed me) I managed to stay upright, and yelled and flipped the driver off. I’m sure he is hurt by it… Around mile 70, my rear wheel decided it didn’t need one of it’s spokes. Fortunately, the spoke did not get wrapped up in the cogs, or anything. I had to stop and thread it out, but got back on my way just fine, minus one spoke. Finished up, and realized T2 was still only lightly populated with bikes, so I must be doing well. And then I realized I still had to go jogging for a while. Bummer.

As I had dreaded, I basically exploded on the run. It was a three lap course, each lap approximately 8.7 miles. First lap was 1:24:40, which, if I could have kept that up, wouldn’t have been terrible. Second and third laps, though were both in the 1:40 area. Oh well. I did managed to finish, though. Walked the hills, and jogged most of the rest.

Final time was 11:59:40. My soft goal was 12 hours, and my hard goal was 13. So, I made my soft goal by 20 seconds. Makes me happy. 109/684 overall, 99/423 in mens, and 31/114 in M35-39. I’m obviously not earning a Kona spot anytime soon, but I think I did well.

Nutrition worked out well: 1 clifshot block in T1, 10 GU shots on the bike and gatorade and water, and gatorade and cola at each aid station on the run. No intestinal problems at all, although I did have to stop at the last 4 aid stations on the third lap of the run and pee. Obviously, I was quite well hydrated.

Some memorable notes:

Did have to stop once on the run and sit down for a #2. I’m sitting in the portajohn, and I get really dizzy, and then I think to myself that if I pass out in the portajohn, no-one will know, and I will probably die in here. So, I took care of business, fought off the dizziness, and got back out of there and ran. Good thing!

At the distant turn around point on the run, saw the CHP officer who was directing traffic writing a ticket to two young gentlemen. Apparently it was either a DUI or open container bust, since there was a open can of budweiser on top of their car. Nice. Glad these two drunks didn’t hit anyone for the portion of the course they had to drive on to get where they were currently at.

Bike course was quite scenic, as mentioned. Hills weren’t to bad, at least compared to the Auburn Half (6000’ of climbing in 56 miles) Vineman full has 4000’ of climbing in 112.

Run course was stinky in spots, and the hills were no fun. Two quite steep spots, and the rest was rolling hills.

Next race (and I use race as a relative term) is the Pacific Grove Olympic Distance, and then in October, a MTB tri as part of Scott Tinleys Adventures. Then, finally, in November, IMAZ, where it’s ok to call yourself an ironman afterwards. My goal for IMAZ is 11:30, which includes not blowing up on the run. So, more run training in my future.

2

Great race report.

I think you mixed in just the right amount of pride, humor, and self-deprecation.

Congratulations on exceeding your soft goal and making it in under 12:00.

3

Nice race and report.
I think I’ve hit the same porta potty in the run at every ironman race I’ve done. Wondering how long it would take to find me. It always seems 150 degrees in there and no air movement.
It is amazing to find those hills on the run aren’t so bad on fresh legs. Chalk Hill always seems steeper the second time over it.
Good Job!

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Couple of other things from a race report point of view:

Weather was great, the marine layer kept us covered and in the low 60’s until about noon, or so, and then it started getting warm, but I think it never got beyond 80 or so. Other years have had 100+ temps, so we were lucky.

Bike course was rolling hills, only one really step part, but since the bike was sort of two laps, you went up the steep section twice.

Bike course was also very bumpy! The roads were all older and paved poorly. Certainly not cyclocross action, but pretty bumpy. And I bike commute 16 miles each way on county roads, so I am quite familiar with bumpy.

Run was hilly, as I said.

Race support was great. Aid stations every mile on the run, almost seemed like there were too many!

The lines for the portajohns at race start seemed shorter than other tris, perhaps due to the lesser amount of people, but there were plenty of portajohns either way.

The swim took place at Johnson’s Beach on the Russian River. As I said, it was quite shallow, and the temp was around 73 or so. Wetsuit legal, but some folks choose to go without, and they were fine. me, I’m a crappy swimmer,a nd I need all the swimming help I can get!

Johnson’s Beach is a misnomer, because the name ‘beach’ implies sand. No sand, only rocks and dirt. Some parts of T1 were covered by carpet, but there was no way to avoid getting rocky/dirty feet. I put my shoes on in T1, so it wasn’t so bad, but if you are one of the tri shoes already strapped to pedals and run barefoot out of T1 kind of guys, it might not be the best place for that.

T2 was in a blacktop parking lot at Windsor High School, adjacent to the finish line. By the time I got there, the spare gels I had stashed there had completely melted. Sun and blacktop don’t mix. I suppose if I had biked faster and got there sooner, it still would have been cloudy. Note to self: bike faster.

As I said, race support was great, and they had plenty of good food for athletes at the finish. Pasta sald, chicken breasts, burgers, plus all the normal stuff (cookies, bananas, brownies, etc…) Much better than the dominoes pizza in a box that was at the Oceanside 70.3 (an IM branded event, I might add)

All in all, despite being a smaller, non WTC branded IM (or perhaps because of it), Vineman was a well put on, thoroughly enjoyable event, that I would highly recommend for anyone’s first IM (or second, or third, or etc…) I’ll be back next year, most likely.

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Way to go! You are an “Iron-distance Man!”

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Congrats on making your soft goal time.

I think we were racked next to each other in T2 as I remember hearing about your spoke issue and I think our T2 times line up (me faster swim, slower bike). I was #326.

When I saw the cop yelling at the DUI on the way out, I thought to myself “never do something stupid in front of a bored cop.” On the way back I saw the open container on the roof of the car and thought “never do something REALLY stupid in front of a bored cop.”

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One other thing. I also stashed a spare long sleeve shirt in T2 just in case. I kept my spare gels under that and they came out all right.

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Way to go! You are an “Iron-distance Man!”

Nah, he’s a VINE-MAN! '-)

clm

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Yeah, we were. I was #323 How’d you do?

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I finished in 11:25. My goal was under 12 and my dream was under 11 so I was happy. I’ll try to get a race report up soon.

I still can’t believe that our rack of 10 bikes was full while every other rack in T2 had like one bike on it.

11

Outstanding job. You apparently didn’t blow up on the run like I did.

Yeah, that was funny that in T2, our rack had almost all the bikes there, and most fo the rest of the racks were still empty.

When you finsihed and picked up your bike did you see the rack across from ours that had fallen over and the tangle of bikes on the ground? I felt bad, but I didn’t want to try and pick up the bikes and maybe damage them further, so I just let some of the volunteers know.