Vineman 2008

Oh where to begin before I run out of writing steam. So we rolled mini coopers on our trip down and leap frogged each other leading the way.

We left around 8am on Thursday morning, of course after sbux and a snack. The day was good as we rolled out of town and the weather treated us well the entire trip.

We did a little car camping Thursday night at a little spot we located off of I5 and about 2 hours outside of our final destination. Set up the tents, took a little sink shower and hit the hay. Woke up bright and early the next day, took a quality 50 cent shower and hit the road.

On the way to the hotel we hit a couple of wineries; Kunde and St. Francis. Both very cool in their own offerings, looks and vibe. Purchasd a few bottles of wine and a bottle of yummie fudge.

After the winery, we ate lunch at a yummie little italian joint recommended by our lady at St. Francis. Then off to finally check in to the hotel.

Friday ended up being pretty chilled, checking out the swim area and driving part of the bike course. I think we may have eaten at the Brew Pub, but I cannot recall.

Saturday was spent checking in/packet pickup in the morning, checking out the expo, then finish driving the bike course. The evening of course was spenty putting bags together and getting ready for an early Sunday morning.

Sunday morning came early as I kicked off the party at 6:54am. Col 30 mins later, Kyle 30 mins after Col and MC just a handful of minutes after Kyle.

The swim was actually pretty cool. It was in the Russian River which is not that wide and only 3-8 feet deep. My age group, 35-39 was the biggest age group so we started in several waves. The water was about 6 feet deep where we started as I was bobbing up and down waiting for us to start.

We swam up stream and at the turn around buoy I looked up to site where I was at and saw about 8-10 people walking. Yes, walking through the water. Just wrong I tell ya. I even scraped the ground with a couple lazy strokes at one point and I wasn't even close to the shore.

I had my best swim to date about just over 37 mins. I thought my T1 time was long, but was only about 3 1/2 minutes before jumping on my bike. What a great bike course. While the roads were crappy, the bike course was great, good scenic ride through the wineries and really technical. I had a great time and had my best bike time of 2:41. Nutrition was 1 and 1/2 bottles of Perpetuum (sp), a bar and a bottle of gatorade.

Run transition was decent and I felt good going out. My goal was to run the first half as fast as I could, which is my usual M.O. and then shuffle my way back at a 9 minute pace. Did not totally work, which is really nothing new, but I know my run needs continued work. All that being said, I had my best run on a hilly course at 1:56. Sub 2 is what I was shooting for and got it again.

So I had my best 1/2 Ironman to date at 5:21:23. Beat my Boise time of 5:33.

Official Result:
Swim 00:37:34.7 T1 00:03:25.4 Bike 02:41:40.0 T2 00:02:14.6 Run 01:56:28.8 Finish 05:21:23.5

And right when you think it can't get better than that, we went to the awards ceremony and Kyle, MC and I all ended up with slots to the 70.3 championchips in Clearwater Florida. It's sort of a long story but we ended up getting extra roll down slots b/c we stayed and had better times than other folks that were there. So we all three join Col who earned her slot at Boise.

So while I really thought Vineman was last tri of the year, turns out it's not. So we are Florida bound in November:-)