Vineman - 7/20/08

Today was the famous Vineman 1/2 ironman race in Santa Rosa, CA. This race is now a 70.3 qualifier for the Clearwater Florida race in Noevember. Temperatures were excellent! Water temp. was 71 degrees, and by the end of the race air temp was maybe in the low 70's. Most of the day the Pacific Ocean marine layer kept a cloud layer over the area and kept the temperatures at a comfortable level.
My day was O.K. as I put in a 5:31 for the day. My goal was to go below 5 hrs., however the course was much more challenging than I thought.
The bike course had numerous rolling hills, and a couple decent climbs. The hills were easy to get up, but they definately zapped my speed and this was my biggest area where I lost incredible time. Also, on some parts of the bike course the road was quite a bit chewed up and I was getting rocked around pretty good on the bike.
The biggest bummer to my day was I lost my hydration/nutrition on the sections of very bumpy road. On all triathlon races that I do, I never take aid on the bike course as I have my own nutrition. I unfortunately did not know that my nutrition fell out onto the road and I had to ride nearly 30 miles without any fluids and this caused the bonk feeling to settle in when the time began to start running.
When I exited the transistion to begin the run, I hit the first aid station and slammed some Gatorade, however as everyone knows when you bonk - the feeling does not go away fast. Thus all the Gatorade in me was just bouncing around and making me feel nauseaous. It took nearly 4 miles for that feeling to go away and by that time my day was done. I was feeling the pain and trying to recover nutritionally - so I decided to walk most of the short hills and run the flats. Thus my 1/2 marathon was a dismal 1:59 - and I was expecting to put in a 1:40 on the run (something that I am easily capable of accomplishing). Anyways, a slower than expected bike, no nutrition for a long period of time, and a poor run lead to my 5:31 performance for the day.
However, this was a fun race that had a couple thousand participants along with some very famous professional athletes competing as well - so it was still a good day!
I plan to do the Soma, AZ 1/2 ironman in October and should definately be able to go well under the 5hr. mark with an incredibly pancake flat bike and run course. So hopefully my health and fitness will still be there and I can keep my nutrition locked onto my bike. If so, it should be a good race to end the season.
Next week, I will be doing the Pyramid Lake sprint triathlon outside of Reno, NV. Hopefully will be a good day!