70.3 numero uno

My first half ironman this summer was Vineman 70.3, held in beautiful wine country in July. It was my first race back, since I have been recovering from a pretty angry hammy at the beginning of the year. My running truly suffered due to the lack of training...so all I was hoping for was a awesome swim, stellar bike, and then hobble for 13.1 miles. This race is normally sunny and known to be very hot, so with that I planned and trained accordingly.

We flew into oakland and promptly drove out to the event, and checked it all out. San Francisco was actually partly sunny and gorgeous, wine country was definitely not. Lets say it was about 59*. Brr. This was setting the stage for race day.

Friday we swam a little, got my feel for the water (amazing) and then drove the bike course. Its a good honest fast course. Filled with hills, but lots of flat fast pavement much like what I have been training on in SoCal! So exciting! I unfortunately chose to stay ignorant on what the run looked like in person, and checked out the elevations, etc online...that would hurt me later.

Race day! Kev drove me out to the start, I was in my own head like normal, planning out my strategy. Swim was great, found some fast feet and (like we predicted) had a super fast swim, the river had a great downstream current going that day, didn't lose my sighting (like normal) and ended up super speedy. 31:47

Grabbed my bike, grumbled to Kev about whether or not timing was correct (couldn't believe it!), and was on my was. This was of course the day that my aerodrink threatens to fall off. Dang. Seriously? Had to stop, still in transition, and re-velcro it. *Mental note* double check everything. Always. GRRR. Mount line is at the bottom of a nice little hill, of course there are wrecks on it, as there are peeps who think that riding up the hill while trying to get their shoes on is a smart idea. I am happy I chose not to do that this time. *phew* Zoomed through bike course, saw some super speedy friends out there cheering me on, loved that! Got rained on 3 times out there, and my toes were painfully numb. Not good. Also most likely put too much power into bike, as I was feeling so rested, so this hurt a bit later. Was 5th off the bike. Well that felt awesome. 2:41 was a snappy day on a honest course.

The run is pretty much a nice little grade uphill, with some rollers, and a nasty climb on the way out....the last 6.5 is flat, and back down and over those random rollers. Well, when you put in way too darn much on the bike, your quads freak out (tired) and if you suck at running still...should definitely been talked to about pacing. Oh well, I got thru the run. Went from 5th place to 16th, totally heart breaking. So i didn't qualify for worlds at this race, broke my heart a ton, but knew that the field here is completely stacked and I should be proud of myself for blending in with this level of talent. Run time ended up at 1:55:09 :(