Wineman

The Vineman half ironman is one of my favorite race courses of all time. I love the scenery, it is spectacular. So when several friends said they were going to do it this year it didn't take much arm twisting for me to jump on board. We started out the year with a pretty good sized training group which slowly dwindled, race day there were only 3 left:( The big party out on the course was now a small intimate gathering - except for the thousands of other people at the celebration!
This was my third race in a month. I had a cluster of races, and I was ripe and ready to crush. I ended up with a glass full of whine. My glass was not empty once and here are some highlights of my day.

I started on the front line of the swim. I went hard at the gun, too bad a couple of girls uncorked early and got a good jump on the field. I settled in and followed the trail of bubbly in front of me. At times I felt like I could go around but she was doing such a good job navigating through the earlier waves and I was conserving some energy. It was a champagne swim, never before have I had a draft for the whole swim!

Out on the bike course I was making some noise. They were going to notice me, that was for sure. My bike was rattling so much, not once did I have to yell on your left. I would have preferred a nice subtle white on the ride but instead I was a robust, bold red.

I have been working on my running. I have been running harder than I have in years. Therefore I was expecting the run to be a simple variety, just a nice crisp jaunt through the rolling hills and vineyards. Instead it turned out to be a rather complex and at times flaccid bottle. I was able to turn it around just past the 7 mile mark. Not sure if this was over or under aged! 

La Crema of the day would be transition 2. Here I tied for 1st in my division. There was a really long run from the bike dismount line to the bike racks. Luckily for me I had recently spent a considerable amount of time practicing running with a bike. This time I didn't have to get the bike up over logs, or down drops and the ground was flat. Pretty easy drinking here!

It was a bottle half full kind of day, meaning I left my nutrition bottles half full. Woops, wasn't quite as hot as I like it and I didn't take in nearly enough calories. I also handed my flask of blueberry pie gel to me hearty at the start of the run, cause it was heavy in my pocket. Upside, my stomach wasn't rounded and there was no sulpherization out on the course. Next time I will pair my whine with a little more food.