Sierra Trip Reports

Date: Sunday, July 14, 2013

Location: Sonoma County, CA

Photos: Sarah (unless otherwise noted)

Last Sunday I participated in the Ironman 70.3 Vineman Triathlon, which consisted of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run, and was held in Sonoma County, California. This was my first half ironman distance and I had a blast! Thanks to the generous donations of friends and family I was able to raise $825 for Building Bridges Worldwide, a not-for-profit organization founded by several of my friends from college that is committed to constructing schools, orphanages, clean water wells, medical clinics, and bridges in impoverished communities both domestically and around the world.

I was also pleased with my results – I ended up with a total time of 5:38:29, with the following splits: (i) 37:22 swim, (ii) 4:12 T1, (iii) 3:01:32 bike, (iv) 3:56 T2 and (v) 1:51:27 run. I ended up 85/205 participants in the men’s 30-34 age group that finished the race, 587/1405 of men that finished the race and 703/2156 participants that finished the race.

The 1.2 mile swim leg took place in the Russian River starting at Johnson’s Beach in Guerneville. Leading up to the race the water temperature was hovering in the mid-70s, so I was not sure if it was going to be wet-suit legal. The morning of the race was pretty cool and foggy with cool temperatures the night before – so the water temperature in the river dropped a bit and we could use wetsuits. I was happy as swimming in a wetsuit is definitely a bit faster.

My age group unfortunately went last for this race – we didn’t start until 8:36 in the morning (two hours after the first pro group started). While this did enable me to sleep in a bit, it ultimately led to running in a very hot part of the day. Also, there were a lot of people ahead of me on the course so the bike course did get quite a bit crowded, but it still worked out fine.

I had a pretty rough month at work leading up to this race and my training definitely was diminished, but I was not nervous for the race as I was still confident in my fitness level to perform pretty good. My main goal was to stay inside my heart rate during the entire swim and bike so I could run harder. Ultimately, I was successful in that goal and had a pretty good run.

Getting ready for the race it was foggy out and Sarah was super nice to get up early and come cheer me on!

After waiting around for our age group to get called last, we got in the water and I warmed up a bit. The transition area was set up in a way that it was open all morning. This was key as it meant that I didn’t need to get at the race at 5:30 AM to set up and then wait until 8:30 for my wave. Fortunately, I was able to get there around 8 and quickly set up my first transition.

I lined up mid-pack for the swim and we were off!

I generally just try and get into a good rhythm and take it a bit easy on the swim to save myself for the run. I was feeling good in the swim, but the water was so shallow! I am about 6’4” with very long arms, so towards spots I couldn’t fully stroke as I would hit the bottom with my arms.

Near the turn-around point the water was so shallow I literally couldn’t swim. I tried dolphin diving for a while to make progress and eventually had to stand up and walk through the water as quick as possible. As I looked around, virtually every competitor was doing this. It did make the swim seem a bit odd, but after about 100 yards I could start swimming again.

I felt good coming out of the water and headed up for a quick run over to my bike rack.

In the race, there were separate transition zones for T1 and T2. After my transition, I put my swim gear in the provided plastic bag and headed off for the bike leg.

The bike leg was extremely scenic and a great course! As the day wore on the fog burnt off and it started getting pretty hot out. The course was a lot of rolling hills throughout Sonoma wine country. It was a little hard to get into a set cadence as I had to pass a good amount of people from prior age groups since we went last. It honestly wasn’t that bad, though, and at least kept the ride interesting by being able to see a lot of people. I believe they flip the order each year, so next year I suspect my age group might go first after the pros!

One shot from the bike course from MarathonFoto – the official race photographers. Photo: MarathonFoto

The big leg was really fun – it has just under 2000 feet of climbing, including a 385 foot climb on Chalk Hill, which comes at mile 45 of the ride. It was a pretty short climb given some of the much bigger climbs around the Bay Area like riding up Mount Tam. But still I tried hard to push up it without elevating my heart rate too much.

T2 was at Windsor High School, which was also the location of the finish line and the expo. Sarah was waiting for me when I arrived and it was great to see her and talk to her during my second transition!

My second transition was a little slow as I really had to go to the bathroom so took a quick break for that.

The run course was awesome! It was an out and back course that was pretty hilly – running on side roads through wine country. At one point the course heads into La Crema winery with a cool loop through the vine fields. It was really unique and I liked it a lot.

I felt really good on the run and was able to keep a pretty constant pace. The aid stations each mile were stocked and I alternated between water and GatorAid Endurance each other station. Each three stations (so each 3 miles) I took an energy gel.

The last mile of the course had a lot of spectators and I really tried to turn it up. I enjoy trying to go all-out the last mile of races and sprint across the finish line. I was so focused that I didn’t even catch Sarah among all the people – but she got some good shots of me!

Crossing the finish line – note that the clock is the total time of the race from when the first pro wave started. Given I started over 2 hours after that first wave, my total time per my timing chip was 5:38:29.

I honestly felt really good after the race, although I was pretty hungry! They had some good food after the race, although I was a little disappointed family members couldn’t join us in the food area (or that I couldn’t leave the food area with my food to sit with Sarah). So I just wolfed down a sandwich and fruit and chocolate milk and caught up with Sarah!

All in all it was an awesome race and I am definitely signing up for this next year. Up next I have the Lake Tahoe Triathlon – Olympic Distance, next month. I don’t have any more races in the fall given the wedding, other than the Big Sur Half Marathon in November. However, I am already signed up for the 2014 Ironman 70.3 Hawaii in June which Sarah and I are really excited for!

Thanks again to Sarah for all the pictures and cheering me on, and thanks to all of my friends for the donations.