Oh but for a piece of duct tape- Vineman 2012
Vineman 2012
This is a gorgeous race venue. IMO- I would guess that Ironman has not taken over this race because the swim venue doesn't have enough space for a transition that can accommodate 2500 participants. I would encourage folks to consider adding this to a must do list.
I will skip the extensive stress caused by Fed Ex computers not keeping track of my bike as it made it's way across the USA. In the end, it made it on time.
As an aside, I use duct tape all over the place. I have duct tape on my front aero bottle to hold the cover in place. I often use it to hold the number on my bike. It marks bottles. It secures the box my bike is shipped in. It holds an assortment of items together that I carry.
The swim is in a river with a temporary dam. They say that going against the current adds 1 minute to your time each lap. But there are so many people swimming against the current, I am pretty sure it is a wash, at least for the first loop. The river is shallow. If you are prone to panic during OWS, all you have to do is stop and stand up. Many folks took advantage of this factor. But this is not a slug fest. Everyone seemed to make an effort to stay away from bumping/ hitting others.
Considering the shoulder issue that I aggravated a month ago, every swim RR came out at 1:28. Slow for me. So to get out of the water on race day at 1:11:xx was a total thrill for me. I cannot explain this.
Prior to race start, as I was looking for the mount line for the bike, I chatted with a helpful volunteer. The mount line is at the bottom of a short hill. She told me to walk my bike up. When I told her I was thinking that but didn't want to be a dork, she said all the pros did it. Sold! That was exactly what I did.
Bike was beautiful. Some of the roads were in bad shape, but not any more than at any other event. There was a lot of nutrition left behind after some of the more severe bumps. Being a member of EN for over 4 years, I have my PE dialed in quite well for my race effort. I received a new pair of race wheels with a PM back at the holidays. (I have 2 now- I am extremely fortunate.) All through training for IMSG, I had problems with the new PM readings. So when it crapped out at IMSG, I was prepared. Ultimately we sent it back to Cyclops and they declared I had gotten water into it and they had fixed the problem. They sent the wheel back to me, but it was so far out of true, it would not work on my bike. I had to pay $$ to get that fixed. I was sure I had not done anything to get water in it, but it seemed to work now, so I let it go. It worked fine for the final 4 weeks of training. When it looked like Fed Ex might not get my bike to me, I mentally prepared to ride by PE. I even did some race imagery to prepare me for this effort. It was a relief to get my own bike. But then my PM stopped working after 45 minutes of riding. This was annoying, but not a reason to panic. Basically it made me ride the bike TOO easy, erring on the side of caution. It also gave me the time to admire the scenery, I didn't have to stare at any numbers. Bike was around 7:05:xx.
In my RR, I had the straw extension of my aero bottle come undone. Easy enough to reinsert. I didn't really think about it. As I was preparing the bike the night before the race, I pushed the straw extension in further than I ever had before. I was quite proud of that achievement. And we all know what happens with pride....During one particularly rough stretch of road, I did lose that extension straw to my aero bottle early in the first loop. I considered stopping to get it, but the section was too crowded and I didn't want to cause a crash. I decided if it was still there when I returned hours later, I would pick it up. In the mean time, I managed with the super short straw, which made for some interesting bodily contortions to get a drink. I stayed hydrated and hours later, found my extension. Rinsed it at the aid station and thought "oh but for a small piece of duct tape".
For those interested- due to GI distress I switched from concentrated Infinit to Skratch lab this year. Every hour I drank a 24 oz bottle of Skratch lab that had 1.75 scoops and ate 1/2 a Bonk Breaker at the top of every hour. I used water in my aero bottle with Nuun tablets. My biggest concern was hydration. Since I peed more than an average of once per hour on the bike, I was fine.
In the end I was happy to get off the bike. The day had become quite hot, but no humidity. Which probably was good for me. Taking heat pacing into consideration, I went out slow with a plan to walk the hills. I stuck to this plan for every hill. On the first lap I picked out a spot to resume running that was "too far away" on the first lap, but I knew that by the 3rd lap it would be "too close". Every aid station had a garden hose. Starting at mile 2, I had them hose me down from head to waist. I was wearing arm coolers. I would leave the aid station on the verge of shivering and by the time I arrived at the next, I was hot and nearly dry. I did this for 2 laps, basically cooling down every mile for 17 miles. I was "running" past other racers that were complaining that they couldn't move faster than a walk because they were "overheating", yet they would cross the street to avoid the water hose.
Run nutrition- trained with Skratch lab, but before the race, I decided this was not viable. I did not want to carry anything and I can not stomach Gatorade, which was the on course nutrition. Not to mention it was lemon-lime---- YUCK! I have yet to find ANY sports drink in that flavor that I can tolerate. I went with Powerbar chews and water, I took some clif shot blocks for a change of flavor, and drank cola. 5:12:xx
I could not think about finish times. My goal became to finish before dark. As I made the U-turn to return the final 4.3 miles, I did my sun measurement and knew I would not be finished by sunset, however the alpen glow would provide enough light. I was very happy to cross the finish line in the light. It was a good day. 13:39:xx
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Comments
Great job, and nice seeing you out there on the bike course! Your run strategy looks pretty similar to what I did: walk the hills, and soak myself in water. I liked the Gatorade, but I agree that it was pretty strong at some of the aid stations. The energy chews were yummy though.
Good luck at IMAZ! You are awesome!!
P.S. I keep a long piece of electrical tape on my top tube in case of emergency. It's got just enough stick left after I peel it off the bike for one more use.
I would freakout if my PM or Garmin stopped during a race. I can't even do an easy bike or run without my metrics. So well done!
@Peter- Loss of data is bound to happen at some point. Start getting a feel for PE. It's worth it.
How many athletes are racing Vineman Full these days? I went up to the race back in...'03 or '04, I think, and there were about 300 + the Barb's Race folks. It looked to be a lonely day out there on the bike but the 3 for 2 deal is awesome.
There was NEVER a time when I was not being passed/ passing folks, event late in the bike.
And the carnage on the run course was just like any other full distance event.
This is a race that is worthy of EN support, IMHO.
Hmm, I thought there were more folks for Full Vineman? They were capping the field at ~1100, and I think they said that there were still ~80 slots open or so a week before the race. Anyway yeah, there were plenty of people out there. Think this would be a pretty good race for the team to support if we can wrangle some more folks in. How can anyone say no to the 3 for 2 deal?
Ok, wow, awesome to see the growth!!
Did they do wave starts then for the full? Vineman Half '00, pre WTC involvement, was my first half IM eva and I recall wave starts of about 100. Curious how they organize the full?
It is a wave start. The river gets very crowded at times, but nothing like IM.
I think there were somewhere around ~40 people in my wave (M29 and under + pros). VERY relaxed and laid back start for me
. I got overtaken by tons of people in later waves though, so I had to fight through the crowd a bit at some points (or I just said screw it and walked a few steps just because I was tired of getting bumped 
).