Vineman 70.3 Race Report- Peter Carroll
Vineman 70.3
My training leading up to Vineman 70.3 was Ok, not great. After CDA last year, and making that race and training for it a priority, this year family always came first. So, I missed a few more workouts, cut short others (mostly the long runs) and just couldn’t hit the desired intensity on others. I also have had some nagging injuries over the last 6 months that I didn’t want to aggravate and have come back. Then the 2 weeks before the race kicked it. It went from hamstring pull, to food poisoning one week, to GI bug the next week, to being 9 lbs lighter in the 2 weeks before the race. So, my goals still stood, but expectations were muted.
Swim:
At the Vineman 70.3 I had the last wave start at 8:38am. I’m not the fastest swimmer, but not the slowest either. So, I started my wave about in the middle/front of the pack. Everyone seemed to want to start at the back. I quickly found my rhythm on the swim. There were several (5-7) times where my hands hit the bottom of the river and I just decided to stand up and take 5 or 6 steps and then dive back into deeper water. It actually helped that I could see what my walking was the same speed as the swimmers around me. And it helped me catch my breath. The 2nd half of the swim was interesting because I seemed to be passing a lot of people. It seems that I was catching a ton of people from the wave in front of me (and a few from the wave in front of that). I got out of the water feeling good.
Total swim time 33:29 for 523/2094 Who knew I could swim? ;-)
Bike
I had no idea how I would do on the bike. My goal watts were 173, which was about 80% of my ftp. I ended up over that a bit. I had the ave watts displayed and not the normalized watts. Once on the bike, I felt really good. The rollers on the first 20 miles of the course were not too bad, although I did get passed by a lot of people. I saw my family at mile 18 or 19 and that was a great lift. The first hill on Canyon road was really easy. I got to the top and was expecting it to go higher. After the 2nd aid station was when things got interesting. Shortly after getting onto 128, A big bus passed me. Then the curves of 128 kicked in. The bus was unable to pass any of the riders in front of me (ie the slower riders from earlier waves). So, for about 3 miles I sat behind this bus, unable to pass it (it was too big to pass) and it being unable to pass any of the bikes). So, I lost a fair amount of time there going 14-15mph. Other riders began to catch up and we were all frustrated. Finally the bus turned off the road and I was able to try to find my rhythm. Then came Chalk Hill. Not too bad, I just grinded up as everyone passed me, then I flew past them on the downhill.
At the bottom of chalk hill came problem number 2. At the bottom of the downhill, you take a sharp left and go up a little riser to a right turn. On the uphill, I was trying to maintain my speed, a minivan decided to pass me. Then it got in front of me and slammed on its breaks. I slammed on my breaks and downshifted so I could keep pedaling, but my chain dropped. Crap. So, I had to stop and put it back on. Then I realized the damn van had stopped on the side of the road like 30 yards in front of me. STUPID person. Then I did something stupid. I was pissed, so I hammered it for a while. Dumb, but I was pissed. Then the 3rd thing happed (they always come in 3’s). I hit a pot hole and the left armrest of my aero bars broke in half. So, know I almost couldn’t stay aero without being very unstable. But I only had 10 miles left at that point. When I finished the bike, I realized I had gone a little too fast. I was shooting for about 3:10-3:15 and ended up at 3:04 (1207/2094)
Run
The beginning of the run I felt ok. After a few miles, I knew I was in for a tough day. I was getting tired too quickly keeping my pace goals. I took a gel and hoped for the best. I decided after 5 miles that I was just going to run by feel and not worry about pace as much. I’d keep an eye on my overall run time though. At the turn around, I was at 1:03. I thought it was going to be a lot worse since I had walk/jogged miles 5 and 6. On the way back from the run loop, I would run a half mile and then walk for a bit. I started walking the up hills and then running down them. That seemed to work well. With a little less than a mile to go, someone asked me what time it was. I actually had no idea. I looked and said 2:30. Humm… wait a minute (wheels squeaking in my head) I have 8 min to finish and I break 6 hours. So, I started running. And then my back cramped up, so I walked 10 steps and ran the rest of the way in. I saw my family right before the finish and crossed the finish time with a few seconds to spare!
Total time: 5:59:04
Final thoughts:
I’m really happy with my time, my goal was to break 6 hours and I cut it close, but I did it. My transition times were incredible (T1=3:19, T2=2:25). I am never that fast in transition, but I must be getting better at it. My family was the best. My wife had everyone organized so that I saw people several times of the bike course. She even had shirts made up for everyone that said “Team Carroll” on the front and “Peter Swims, Peter Bikes, Peter Runs, We Sit, We Watch, We Cheer” on the back. They were great!
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