Vineman 70.3 Race Report

Wow…half way there…..when we started this whole TTW venture, this day seemed like it was years away.
But, July 20th came and went with a good dose of drama and excitement that seemed fitting for the half way mark….you know, to keep us honest!
We headed out to the airport on Friday for #8 and a flight schedule of “Ottawa-Toronto-San Francisco”. We were able to hang out with a good friend of ours, local triathlete Tina Pippy who was working that day. Once checked in, we were surprised by another friend of ours working as well who was able to upgrade us to Business Class for the Ottawa-Toronto leg.
In Toronto, the bad signs began, as my carry-on was pulled for inspection. This is not the first time, yet this screener was adamant that there was something funny looking in my carry on. Since we have done this “airport screening” thing a few times, Brian asked the guy if he was looking for a pair of triangle shaped metal things that are inside a pair of shoes (the usual culprit) ….his reply….”We’ll see!!!” Shocked, Brian told the now TWO people looking in his bag, that if they were indeed looking for something like that, it would be his cycling pedals that are tucked into the white cycling shoes. Their reply…”It could be, but we will find out for sure!!!” Ugh….why bother to try and help!

The flight to the West coast was nice and uneventful. We arrived at around 10:30pm local time and were looking forward to our room. We then were advised that one of our 3 checked bags didn’t arrive and was still in Toronto. The man was nice enough to go all the way down to the baggage area and tell us whether it was one bike, two bikes or our “toiletries and clothes”. Both bikes were there….we would just need to wear these clothes for another day!!! Wheuff!
We made our way to our hotel in down town San Fran to realize, that hotel chains lend their names to places without consultation !!! We pulled into this “chain” hotel to be put in a room that was not fit for anything but being rented by the hour!!! With new tooth paste/brush in hand we crashed and pondered changing our reservation for Sunday after the race….this was to be home for another night!
First thing Saturday morning, we checked out and headed to the water front, as we had a few hours to kill before we had to return to the Airport to retrieve our lost bag. San Francisco has always been one of Heathers favourite cities. It's not the weather (it was a cool 59 degrees when we landed! Heather could have worn her winter jacket!), it's not the Golden Gate Bridge, although that is spectacular - what a cool thing to drive on!, it's a little bit about the architecture and the cityscape - the SF hills are every bit as steep as they seem - but it's mostly because of Fisherman's Wharf and the sea lions who call it home. We even got to have breakfast at Joannies Dinner (Joannie from Happy Days!).

After we retrieved our bag from the airport, we made a bee-line for Santa Rosa which was where we were staying for the race. After checkin into our hotel there, we headed to the race site which was yet another 20 min down the road!!
As we approached the venue that held the registration, kit pick up and expo, we decided to get checked in and make contact with the race organizers that knew we were competing. Once we had our race kits, we walked the transition. We were told that the California rep for BLUE was there. We chatted with him for a while and he introduced us to one of his pro riders whose hubby was a TC surviour as well…..we shared some stories for sure!!!
After that, we happened upon a promo tent where Craig Alexander was signing schwag. We thought we would say hey, since we had chatted with him in St. Croix and had exchanged a couple of emails. As we approached the table (no one else was in line!) he saw our TTW vests, immediately recognizing us and making us feel very welcome he and his friends. He even signed a TTW visor (we are both sponsored by Headsweats) which we will auction off at some point.

THIS is where the drama begins. We head to the parking lot to build up the bikes. With Heathers’ built, Brian began on his, immediately noticing that the wheel is sure not fitting in as well as it always does. After a very close inspection, he saw that the derailleur hanger is bent along with a badly bent derailleur! Damage control begins! We go back to see Devon from BLUE. He puts us onto a mechanic on site, who happens to work on BLUE bikes. He thought there is nothing he can do onsite and his shop is over 40 miles away. Brian then sought out Amy (race management) and told her of the situation. She immediately contacted a bike shop about 20 min away that would either try to fix it, find a demo bike B could use, or sell him a bike, which, crazy as it sounds, beats a DNS any day!!!
We tossed the rides into our rental and bombed it to NORCAL Cycle shop, where the 18yr old wonder kid delicately bent the hanger into place, replaced the derailleur with a new shimano part, and got my BLUE back to tip top shape!!! He did say, as we left there, “I hope it holds out tomorrow!!!” Ugh!After a couple of “nerve calming” cervezas, we headed out for our pre-race meal to put together our race plan for the next day.

The Swim:
Race morning brought cool temps and a 30 min drive to the race start. To be clear, this race, logistically, was the worst we had seen. The swim start/swim end and bike start (where we would park our car in the AM) was 15 miles from the race end. At the end of the day, we would need to take a shuttle back to the swim start, with out bikes, to get the car, just to drive it BACK to the race end to get the bikes….confused yet?

Brian's wave was set to start at 6:54 AM with Heathers 40min later. We left in what we thought would be ample time, but once we got there, everything felt really rushed. To save time, we had body marked ourselves in the usual spots before we'd left our hotel. As we walked through the body marking area on our way to transition, we noticed that they also seemed to putting numbers on participant's hands and right thigh. Not wanting to risk any kind of penalties, we thought we should probably follow suit. We're still not exactly sure what the purpose of having the bib # on our hands was - we were told so they could be seen on the bike, but when ya ride, we’re pretty sure WE were the only one that had the right view point to be able to read the hand numbers. We surmised that it was for the swim

This was a river swim which Brian had done before in Carleton Place, Ontario for a half iron there, so it was not new. After a few delays, Brian wracked his bike as did Heather in transition which was set up in a make-shift rock covered parking lot and made my way to the swim. We were told that the swim “at some points would be only 4 ft deep”. We both had goggle issues during the swim. Once we noticed that some guys were RUNNING parts of the swim, it allowed us to fix the goggle issue easily!
The finish of the swim came sooner than both of us expected. As always, Heather was happy to exit - only 8 more swim starts to go. Whewf!

The Ride:
What a ride…! The country side in Northern Cali is SWEET. The course was a lone loop ride with a good number of hills with one “big one” at the 72km mark. These hills were rolling hills with a good amount of aero possible. Brian rode for a while with a guy who had done a ton of races for CAF, and had rigged up a speaker for his ipod that was mounted in his rear too pouch. He had a great selection of Snoop playin, including “Gin ‘n Juice”, one of my faves. They chatted for a while and told him that he had just received a card for the “loud” music...but was more than happy to give IM 4 min of his time in a penalty box then not have his tunes. This guy was alllll about havin fun and making a difference! Most of the course was beautiful though, with undulating hills winding through the many vineyards of the Russian River Valley. What evil temptation those vineyards are! The movie Sideways kept playing over and over in my head, and it kept me company for most of the ride. What a great flick.
Heather saw one crash. A girl was lying on a stretcher with a neck brace and appeared to be out cold. She reminded myself of how lucky I was to escape serious injury in Austria. She wished for her to be ok.


The Run:
Not knowing the run course at all, we knew not what to expect. Brian has been having issues with his feet going numb on the bike. Have ruled any relation to my orthotic, and suppose it may be cleat placement. None the less, he started his run first on numb feet…its like trying to open a beer when your arm has “fallen asleep”….try it some day! By mile 1.5, they started to “thaw” out. But his left foot was SUPER sore in the toe box area of his shoes. By mile 2, the pain was stupid and he knew he needed to stop and see what it was (far too early for a blister!). As B pulled his shoe from his foot, out fell a GU gel that he had put in his shoe for the run!!!! It did not pop (thank fully) but the edges sure did a number on his pinky toe!!! STOOPID!!!!
Heather headed out on her run next. She knows she has been an avid supporter of Newtons, but she had been eyeing these Zoots for awhile now, and after having tight calves in Lake Stevens, she thought she'd give them a shot. She was told that she could wear them without socks since they were virtually seamless. Bonus! Of course when she told that to Brian the night before he warned her that she'd get blisters, and she TOTALLY “foofooed” him.
Blisters. There are no seams!!!! Ha!
By mile 4, she started to feel a little rubbing. By mile 7 she thought it was going to be a bit of a factor in her run. By mile 10 her feet were hurting so badly she wondered how she was going to pull of another 5k. The only thing that kept her cadence up and kept her focused was knowing that there was the chance that Brian was waiting for her. On the out of the out and back, she had figured that if she was going to catch Brian on the run, she could not see him before the 6 mile mark. That would mean that he would be just a mile ahead of her, and if she made up a minute a mile, we could finish together.
Brian’s average per mile was 10:10 and held that to the end. At the 12 mile marker, Brianlooked back and Heather was within sight so he pulled to the side momentarily and waited to thoroughly enjoy the last mile together, even though neither of us had big smiles by this time of the day.

With heads held high, side by side, we crossed the finish line together to 2 TTW PB’s!!! We were also reminded that we were half way through this odyssey.

After taking a moment to ourselves (as we do after each race) we shared some war stories over a fabulous food spread at race site. We then walked bike-less about 750m to the busses that were to take us back to the swim start. We saw, however, that they were letting people take their bikes…SWEET! So, a 180 back to the transition zone to grab our rides. Walked the 750m again to the busses only to be told that they should not have been allowing the bikes and would not allow any more. So, we decided Brian would leave the bikes with Heather and take the bus to the swim start, grab the car and return. 1.5 hrs later, the bikes were packed, we were beat and we still needed to drive to San Francisco.
We had cancelled that nasty hotel and chose to stay closer to the pier. After a huge sushi dinner, TriTheWorld said BYE to San Francisco and called it a night.

This was the “half way” race for Heather and me…..eight 70.3 races under our belts in less than 4 months…yet we are as stoked and as pumped as we were in Oceanside at race one!!!
We have 3 more in 3 weekends, so perhaps the spring in my step may not be there by the end of Germany, but we are off this weekend to Newfoundland 70.3, brought to you by Meroni & Sons International, proud sponsors of TTW!

Ride safely!

Brian and Heather