Vineman PBP
Woke up early Saturday morning at 3:45am. Very un-rested with 3.5 hours of sleep and probably under-nourished, though I felt fine, I guess. Numb may be a better word. Had my usual race morning drink from Starbucks, Triple Grande Caramel Macchiatto with lots of extra caramel drizzle. Started waking up from the caffeine and got ready. We said we needed to leave by 5am, so I started to feel a bit of a panic that we weren't going to make it out on time. Used the bathroom, put on my tri suit, double checked that I had everything packed up, ate some PB&J and a blueberry banana pouch and off we went at 5:15. I wondered if I had enough calories to start off the day, but I just couldn't stomach anymore. My usual morning habits do not include breakfast, and my nerves didn't help with the force feeding.
Got to the parking lot a little bit before 6, quickly pumped up our bikes, grabbed out transition/special needs bags and headed over to T1/river. Note that John's start was at 6:30 while mine was at 6:36. I found the women's racks (all Vineman ladies were packed together into two racks inbetween the mens) and went down to look for a spot while John went to rack his. Sheesh, some of the ladies there were a bit greedy with their space. I asked if I could rack after seeing there were 5 bikes on and they were like, um, you can rack over there - looks like there is more space. Really, Woman? There are 8 bikes on that rack, what's up with your vision? Whatever, didn't want to deal with such snots and moved along. Found a nice lady who offered to move her rack over so I could get in. As I was preparing my T1 spot, John runs by with a "good luck babes" and runs off to the bathroom. I wanted to follow him because I needed to go too, but I didn't get done setting up until about 15 minutes later. So I walk over to the porta potties on my own and see ridiculous lines. wth? There's no way I'll get out of the potty in time for my wave start. Instead, I ran up the hill and out to a couple of public restrooms hoping no one was there. Whew, I got lucky as there was no line for the women's restroom, and about 5 guys waiting for the mens. Did my business, posted a FB status (that never got posted b/c there was no reception) and ran back to T1 to put on my wetsuit.
I heard the announcer speak of the men that already started. Aw sh*t, really? That means I'm up soon. So I put the bottom half of my wetsuit on, stuffed my ears, grabbed my goggles and cap and ran over to the starting line. I tried to zip up as I ran through the crowds and wasn't successful. In a bit of a panic, I asked the guy closest to me to do me a favor and zip me up. He wished me goodluck and we parted. I then put on my swim cap and stuffed my hair right when I got to the starting point where the mats beeped. As I slowly stepped into the water and put on my goggles, I hear the announcer say something like, "35 seconds before the women's silver caps start". What?! 35 seconds?! Crap. I guess no warm-up for me...time to dive in. I swam over to a pack of women, yelled out goodluck and the race started.
I can't remember if I heard a gun, but some sort of noise started the swim. I put my head in and started moving my arms. As crazy as the morning started, I was really calm once I began swimming, mentally that is. I put everyone around me outside of my mental zone and did my own thing. When I saw someone coming up from behind, I tried to move out of their way so that they wouldn't break my rhythm. Every once in a while I stood up when I saw other people standing. This was to take a little breather and to also save my hands from scraping the bottom. Standing up and walking hurt my feet, so I tried to do this as little as possible. I did swim into someone walking, which was kind of funny. Another swimmer's arm whacked me in the head and another guy knocked me pretty hard to where water got into my right goggle. I tried my best to keep my heart rate low while trying to move through the water as quickly as I could. The swim was two loops. Once I got to the turn around point for the second, I was super happy knowing that I just had one more round of swimming to go. Second loop was pretty much like the first. Gotta admit, the 2.4 mile swim wasn't that bad at all! I got out of it feeling pretty good - I wonder if the Sea Band a girlfriend gave me helped here. I wore it on race day and didn't get any motionsickness!
Found an available wetsuit stripper to help get my suit off and then jogged over to my bike. Pulled out my PB&J, took a few bites, wiped my feet down, put on socks, shoes, looked for sunblock and couldn't find it, used my other sunblock and tried to spread it on the arms, downed a Powerbar pouch or two, put on the rest of my bike gear, stuffed my wetsuit in the bag, took a picture of a few volunteers and then walked my bike out of transition and up the hill. T1 took ~10 minutes ;)
I opted not to put on my arm sleeves b/c they are a pain to get on when wet, but I regretted that decision once I started biking. I was cold. And I was cold for a long time. I think because I was so cold for so long, I had to pee really bad many times for the first 30 miles or so. Prior to the start I told myself I'd hop off the bike about every hour to make sure I ate, but for the first break I hopped off mainly because I needed to pee. I'll admit I tried to pee on the bike, but it just wouldn't happen. My mind said pee, my body was like, no... you're not on a toilet. Sigh, breaking habits are hard!
Mile 18 was the first aid station (every aid station had porta potties). The queue was a couple people deep, so I didn't wait too long. Ate couple more bites of my PB&J sandwich and went on in. To my surprise, I had to go #1 and #2. Uh oh. All morning so far #2 has been runny, and #2 at the aid station was not expected. I had this fear that I ingested a parasite from the swim or yesterday's tap water and race day may be filled with unexpected runs! Ahhhhhhhh sh*et.
Hopped back out, had another PB&J bite, downed a salt capsule and continued on. I think about 8 miles later I needed to pee again. Ugh. Since I took a pretty decent break at the first aid station I decided to pass the second aid station. I remember staring at station #2 as I rode by slowly and thought, I need to pee, but I don't want to stop. Should I? Will I regret this decision? Ah well, just keep going. I re-filled my aerobottle with Perpetuum and Carbo-Pro, so I had enough calories to last me until the next stop.
Finally got to station #3 for some relief (only #1, no #2, so that was a huge relief that took some stress off my mind) and gobbled the rest of my pb&j before the climb up chalk hill. I was feeling alright by then. Not tired, but not ecstatic either. Went over the hill, my legs enjoyed the break along the descent and then eventually made it back to Windsor high school, where I had to turn left to do another loop! Argh. Loops are mentally tough to do in races for me. I envied those I saw ride into T2.
About a few miles into loop two I finally felt comfortable temperature wise. Finally, I may go the rest of this ride without the need for a potty break! Stopped by the special needs station to fill up on pouches and Vitamin water, chatted with a girl from Houston and then off again I went. I think one guy tried to pace with me (he actually said he liked my pace when I told him he can pass), but I dropped him on the rollers. For most of the ride I kept singing and playing songs from Bastille in my head to pass the time. My favorite of the day was their acoustic version of Flaws in Paris. Without music, I'd drive myself nuts talking to myself all day...
Around mile 100 I wanted to throw away my bike. I was cursing up a storm in my head and had thoughts about who the eff made up such a tortuous event. *ssholes. Just a couple more laps (a lap is 5 miles on my garmin gadgets).
Finally came back to transition and I got in around the same time as this older gentleman. We walk our bikes through and all of a sudden he gets a medal. Wha? He's done. Lucky! Turns out he only signed up for the swim and bike. I made my way to my running shoes and sat down. Swapped out socks, took out my phone for a pic and fb status update, sprayed some sunblock, put on my watch, visor and off I went for 26.2 miles.
I was pacing as expected the first few miles, about 10:15min/mi. I was in no mood to run (as I noted in my FB status) but I had to keep going. At the first aid station I stopped to pee again. Whew. That was a big relief and was my last potty stop for the rest of the event. Eventually I got into a rhythm with the run, but that was short lived once I encountered a hill (there are 3 of them in each lap). Stopped by most aid stations to sip on cola, water and energy drink. I chatted with a man for a bit while we walked together. He had done Vineman many, many years ago and came back for one last hoorah. He told me to enjoy the finish line before I took off jogging again. I saw an acquaintance on my way back out for the second loop. She was blazing through to the finish. Gah, she is so fast! Someone else yelled out from the side, Go Madeleine! I wasn't quite sure who that was, but he obviously knew me. I also saw Phil, Tiffany and Minh when I went out for the second loop. I yelled out, "Go Tri Gang!" And waved. I tried to look strong as I saw Phil with his DSLR. It was great seeing them out on the course cheering me and John on! That meant a lot to me. Thanks, guys and gals ;)
I started walking and running quite a bit on the second loop. I wasn't sure how my legs would hold up around mile 20-26, even though they were feeling OK that moment. Along the route I gave lots of thumbs up and cheered people on. There was a moment where I got really annoyed. A couple of ladies were coming from the opposite direction and talking pretty loudly. As we passed each other one of the girls said to the other, "you are too pretty to be doing this!" Woah. Wtf? what kind of comment is that?! Are you trying to say women who do triathlon are not supposed to be pretty? I got very annoyed thinking about her for a few minutes and then brushed it off. The other lady was very attractive, IMO. I thought the other lady's comment was dumb. Whatever. I gotta run.
Around mile 19 or so I tried to do some mental math and figured that at the pace I was going I could possibly finish the marathon In sub-5. Woot! So I tried to keep steady and hoped nothing bad would happen for the next 7 miles.
Well, around mile 21 something went wrong. Really wrong. The inner side of my right knee felt horrible, like something was about to tear horrible. I couldn't run anymore. OK, maybe I could've if I ignored the pain, but I wasn't going to risk IM Arizona for this. I would walk a few minutes thinking it would help and then tried to run, but no go. Whatever was wrong felt like it was about to snap if I tried to run. I knew Vineman was a prep race and I had to come out of it un-injured, so I surrendered to the pain and walked. Sub-5 marathon hopes gone and sub-14. I smiled at those who cheered me on from the sides with their positive words. Gah, I had to walk the next 5 miles and I knew it. That was tortuous. Sun was setting and I knew that it was going to get cold quick, and all I could do was walk. That sucked. I picked up my walking pace to go as fast as I could and watched the light of day fade away. I remember walking on the dark road with trees around, I could hear some guys ahead of me. I'm about to pass them. One guy asks me, about how far to the finish? My watch said 1 mile left. Oh, thank goodness. My walking was about 15 minutes/mile, so I knew I only had 15 minutes more to endure. I turned onto the road where I had about half a mile to go. Street lights were bright and I could see volunteers at the corner waiting for stragglers like me to get to the finish. I wanted to run. I wanted to finish strong. So I tried. Pace picked up to about 10 min. And then 9min. My watched beeped. 26 miles done. F*ck this. I'm going for it (thhe finish). The pain that was in my right leg 5 miles earlier mysteriously disappeared. My watch said 8something pace and I was happy. Turned some more corners and finally crossed the finish line! I saw John and very soon after Phil, Minh and Tiffany. I was ecstatic. It was so cool seeing tri-gangers at the finish! They also brought some delicious treats for us. Hmm, macaroons. :) Thanks so much for being there!
We didn't know how long we'd stay post race, so we got a group picture and parted ways. I was surprisingly feeling pretty good. I was walking without pain and my foot was feeling alright (two weeks earlier I stressed the arch during a sprint at the end of a training run). John grabbed me some chicken soup and I sat down to have some. Yum. It was good so I asked for more. Then we decided to go home and I realized another mistake. When I tried to get up and walk over, I couldn't. Something in my left hip got stuck and I was forced to hobble over. I knew I shouldn't have sat down! I did some squats and that seemed to fix the problem. Whew. Got into the car, grabbed some Popeyes and called it a night! :) next weekend, Mt Shasta century ride!
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