I wanted to touch bases with everyone. All of my supporters, both friends, family and sponsors and let everyone know how my training is going and with only 3 more days left to go to my second 70.3 Half Ironman race of the year, just how anxious I really am.
Well, last weekend July 12th, marked the one year anniversary of my Triathlon career, in which I participated in the June Lake Sprint Triathlon. June Lake is near Mammoth, 7800 ft in elevation. And with much preparation towards my “A” races of the year, both the half and full Ironman events, I looked at the June Lake Triathlon as simply a race prep for gauging were my current fitness level is residing. Not to mention, it is a great local triathlon put on by the enthusiastic members of the High Sierra Triathlon Club. They simply put on a great race! There isn’t enough local fan support that line the streets, yelling and screaming at the athletes as they zoom by, however, the volunteers that do come out and cheer us on at the aid stations and technically challenging corners lend enough support to make up the difference.
Well the race went off without a scratch initially. I felt very relaxed and comfortable, maybe that was a sign of troubles to come? Well, the swim started off well. However, about 100 meters into the race, my goggles started to leak in which aggravated my contacts enough to make me lose focus and concentration. I know…. how lame is that? However, now with the lack of oxygen due to the elevation and blindness in one eye, I had to stop and try to fix my goggles. Well needless to say, it didn’t work all that well and I ended up coming in 65th out of 109 out of the water.
On to the bike I go; this was the first true race on the new bike and without much expectation and knowing that hills and more hills were fast approaching, I took the time to try to relax and conserve a little energy until the back section of the course that had 4 major hills in which I would try to hit hard and pick up spots along the way. Well, this certainly happened. I was zooming by people all the way around. I started passing people simply out of transition on the small hill out into the camp grounds. Zooming pass people on the down hills as if they were standing still. Based on my garmin, my top speed for the day was close to 45mph…. Damn, I was booken! Well at the start of the first major hill, I started up the hill and was again passing people. Then all of a sudden, on the third hill, another cyclist past me by, well I couldn’t simply let that go without challenge, so up on my pedals I went and tried to catch him…. Needless to say, I wasn’t able to, but was soon descending the last hill and making my way down the back straight away, back into the camp grounds. As a result I went on to post the 12th fast bike split in a time of 27:26.8 at 17.9 mph…
The run; well, what can I say… they lengthened the run portion this year by a 1/4 mile or so, sure felt longer than that. My garmin gave it 2.5 mile run. Needless to say, running at 7800ft elevation is hard enough and when you include rough terrain, soft dirt and sand hills, hills and more hills. It makes for a slow go around… I guess next year, I will need to buy a pair of trail shoes… I would think they would make a difference footing wise over just my regular racing shoes… I ended up posting a run time of 22:18.9 minutes, ranked 20th.
Overall, I finished the race in 17th place with a total time of 1:03:40.5… Almost 8 minutes faster than last years shorter race… I would say that I am improving, wouldn’t you. I also placed 2nd place in my age group which is a step up from 3rd place last year.
Ok, I am now only three days away from my next Half Ironman race, I am very excited and anxious to see just how fast and fit I am. I want to race and certainly hope that my new pair of goggles holds up and allows for a much smoother swim portion. In the event that you have absolutely nothing else to do on Sunday 7/20, you can actually track (in almost real time) how I am doing throughout the day. Just log on to www.Ironmanlive.com and click on the “Track an athlete" icon on the screen relating to Vineman 70.3, and then enter my last name
I thank everyone again for their support this year and look forward to posting a successful post Vineman Half Ironman race shortly.
