Vineman 70.3 Race Recap

After a week vacation in Oregon, I flew back to Santa Rosa to race in Vineman Ironman 70.3. Oregon in general was quite damp, cold, and cloudy, but the sun usually came out during the afternoon so the beach could be enjoyed.

This race was going to be my first half ironman distance race and there was a lot of uncertainty in my mind on how things were going to play out.

I had a few ailments going into the race including shin splints in my right leg that were still present as well as a blister on my foot that was not fully healed. To treat those ailments, I packed a mini medicine cabinet along with a gel pack brunch on the top tube of my bike. My plan was to take two Advil around mile 40 of the bike to prep me for the run and prevent the shin splints from acting up. I also traveled with two strips of mole skin that I planned to place on my feet during T2 to prevent the blister from bothering me during the run. The Advil ended up working perfect for preventing the shin splints but the moleskin disappeared during the run and my feet ended up blistering. The blistering ended up being the least of my problems as I will explain later.

The swim leg was in the Russian River which was an interesting experience. Parts of the the river were so shallow that I had to alter my stroke to prevent myself from scraping my hands on the bottom. Many people were actually walking at these shallow points which was a weird sight to swim through.

At the start of the swim I tried to find a fast guy in my wave to draft off, but I kept on swimming up on his legs so I decided to take off on my own. Overall, the swim felt fantastic. The water was the perfect temperature and there were no waves or current. It felt like I was swimming in a pool. I actually wish the swim was longer, which is usually not the case for me during open water swims. I end up leading my AG out of the water with a swim split of 24:37.

Because I was in the 11th wave to start, there were a lot of people already on the bike course in front of me. I actually liked that because it provided targets to catch up to during the ride. I was expecting the 56 miles on the bike to seem like for ever but the time went by quite quickly. The scenic vineyards and overcast weather helped make the ride a fairly pleasant experience.

I maintained the lead of my age category coming into T2 with a bike split of 2:20:51. I really like the pic below :)

After a really strong swim and bike, all I needed to do was bring it home with a strong run.  Unfortunately, that was not the case. The run is where my race went south. In the past, I occasionally had stomach cramp issues that I attributed to the jostling of liquids and gels in my stomach. To prevent the cramps, I went light on the Gatorade and gels towards the end of the bike leg and into run. This was a mistake.  

By the time I got to the loop around the winery at the half way point I was losing it both mentally and physically. My mile pace had dropped from just over 6 minutes to well over 7.5 and even pushing 8 minutes. I was definitely bonking and I knew I needed to get some fuel in my body stat. From that point on, every aid station was like a Vegas buffet to me.  I was double-fisting coke and Gatorade while I had an energy gel hanging out of my mouth. I actually thought I was going to have to open a tab for all of the refreshments I was taking. I eventually got some energy back around mile 11, but it was definitely too late to make up for the majority of my run. I ended up with a meh 1:31:20 half marathon...something I know I can improve on with the correct nutrition.

I was happy to have made it through my first half ironman distance race and definitely think it was not as grueling as I was expecting.

Final Results:
     Time: 4:20:15
     Placement: 3rd AG, 9th Overall Amateur

The third place finish was good enough for me to capture a slot in the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Henderson, NV on Sept. 11th. I am looking forward to it and know what I need to improve on...mainly, be smarter with my nutrition and get ready for some heat.

Special thanks to my Parents, Aunt Sue, Uncle John, and Cousin Steve for traveling to the race to take pictures and cheer me on.

As always, a special thanks to TriSports.com for their continued support. I suggest venturing over to TriSports.com and browsing their extensive selection of multi-sport products. If you find something you like, you can use coupon code MTRIPP-S to get 10% off your purchase. Using the coupon code will also help support me with my triathlon endeavors :)

You can also check out an excellent gallery with some additional photos of the happenings at Vineman at TriSports University. There happen to be two pics of me in the gallery.

Next up is the hometown Hermosa to Manhattan Beach Dwight Crum Pier-to-Pier Swim on July 31st.

Oregon Trail

Sunday was my last day in Portland before heading to the coast. I got my swim on in the morning and then explored Portland a little looking for some tasty coffee. While walking around, I ventured past this sign:

Apparently, if you ride a bike with no front wheel you might fly over the handle bars. Good thing I now know. I also came across the "Brewcycle". I was just imagining riding past that in the middle of a race or seeing it racked in the transition area next to all the TT bikes.

The coastal destination was Lincoln City, OR, which is approximately 100 miles Southwest of Portland. On the way to the coast, I met my sister and her husband at Left Coast Cellars for some vegetable soup, carrot cake, and pinot noir.

I got dropped off and rode my bike for the final 25 miles to the coast. There was a pretty nasty headwind, but luckily the majority of the route was flat or downhill.

The Oregon coast weather pattern this time of year consists of cold, wet, foggy mornings which eventually clear up in the afternoon.  Below is a picture of the beach near our vacation home on Monday morning.

I went for a ride late Monday morning after the fog cleared and the roads started to dry. The green Oregon landscape is a nice change of scenery from Redondo Beach.

Part of my ride took me past Chief Kiawanda Rock. Looking at the rock from the shore, I thought it might be a neat open water race to swim out, around the rock, and back to shore. Only downside is that the water temp is around 50F, pretty cold even with a wetsuit.

Lincoln City is right on the Oregon Coast Bike Route. I rode North for 27 miles and then turned around and returned on the same route. It was generally rolling hills other than a 3 mile Cat 3 climb at mile 6 and 48. The first climb was fun, the second...not so much. I believe the temp stayed around 60F which was sort of chilly.  It's going to be quite a change later this week in Sonoma. Overall, I only lost two oxen and luckily my carriage did not get stuck in the river.

Me at the end of the ride...

With the wet roads, my bike was quite dirty at the end of the ride. It's OK though because I already cleaned her up.

Oregon

I'm in Portland! Yesterday was the first day of my 12 day vacation along the west coast. I started by driving from LA to the Santa Rosa Airport then jumped on a plane to Portland, which happened to be my first time flying on a turbo-prop. It was a good experience especially because they served complimentary micro-brew IPA and the flight attendant noticed my Dark Side of the Moon t-shirt and started talking Pink Floyd with me.  

I'm going to spend a couple days in Portland at my sister's pad, then drive to Lincoln City on the coast for a family reunion next week.  Below are a couple pictures of the view from my sister's condo in Portland...nice change of scenery from the rooftop views I get in Redondo Beach.

Next Friday I will drive back to Portland and hop on a plane back to Santa Rosa where I will stay until the following Tuesday. During my stay in the Santa Rosa area I will be racing in Vineman. So, that's an overview of my next 1.5 weeks, and of course, I will not be thinking of work one bit during that time.

Now that I'm back on track with the running portion of my training, I decided to go on one last long run before the race next weekend.  I did a few loops along the river and over the bridges shown in the pictures above. It seemed to be quite a popular running spot with some fairly fast runners out there today. Probably due to the proximity to Nike and U of Oregon.  Overall, I think I put in about 10 miles and my legs are feeling good.  I plan to throttle down and give them some rest over the next week.

More vacation/training updates and photos to follow...

MRI #2

I just got back from having my 2nd MRI taken this year. Back in February, it was on my right shoulder and that resulted in a laundry list if issues: torn labrum, impingement, arthritis. After going through several weeks of physical therapy, my shoulder is now feeling fine. The MRI taken today was on my right leg (tibia area).

Three weeks ago, I saw the doc because I was experiencing pain in my lower right leg during and following running. I had an x-ray taken and pointed out where it was hurting. Based on the location of the pain and lack of anything seen in the x-ray, he suggested that I had medial tibial stress syndrome (shin splints) and that there was little chance that it was a stress fracture. I was told I could continue to run and to follow the standard practices to get rid of the shin splints (run on soft surfaces, stretch, ice, use shoe insoles, etc.). So, I continued to run and the pain started to go away but then slowly came back when I started to increase my distance for Vineman. When I went back to the doc for my follow-up appointment this Monday, I showed him where the pain currently existed, which was higher than previously...about halfway between my ankle and knee. He indicated that the location of pain carried more risk of being a stress fracture and advised that I have an MRI to take a better look. That explains the reason for my 2nd MRI procedure this year. Good thing I have a nice insurance policy!

I now have a follow-up appointment next Wednesday to go over the MRI. If it shows nothing, I'm good to go for Vineman. If there is indication of a stress fracture, it is likely that I'll be told to not run. At that point I'll have to figure out what to do for Vineman. Walk the half marathon? Just stop after the bike leg? Not sure...I'll cross that bridge if I have to come to it.

I haven't run since Monday and my leg is feeling OK right now. I think I'll test it out with a couple mid distance runs over the weekend. This is not an ideal situation two weeks before Vineman, but I guess that's life. On the bright side, my swim and bike are feeling great right now.  

Completely unrelated, but here's a pic of a turkey wrap I made while camping at Wildflower. Mmmmm...