Vineman 70.3: Lessons to Learn

Going for bigger challenges, I had on Vineman 70.3 my second half-ironman triathlon. It was my first registration, my A race, while Wildflower was to be my rehearsal. Vineman was special because of the M-dot logo, I should say.

It taught me a lot of lessons, I am happy and proud to say. First lesson was never to travel on the previous day of a long distance race. Trying to save time and money, I went from LA to San Francisco on the morning of the previous day, spent hours driving and dehydrating, wasted my lunch time at the expo, and ended having lunch at a supermarket at 4PM, about fifteen hours from the race start. Bad plan.

Driving back and forth along the bike course, still made to have dinner with colleagues from LA TRI, at a place to have a pizza "to die for", with an old ambulance for deliveries (see picture).

Slept well, but worried through the hot night for have forgotten to check again the race course, with no Internet or IPhone access to do so at bedtime. That was my second lesson: study carefully the race course, months and weeks before.

Transition area and swimming start were crowded, with many colorful distractions and loudspeakers, and I almost missed the start of my wave. The Russian River is a beautiful place, and its warm calm and shallow waters were a pleasure to swimmers of all levels. At mid-course I regretted to wear full wetsuit, sweating while touching the bottom with my hands. At the end, I regretted not to have trained better: 57:32, in such ideal conditions. Of course, transition area was half empty. Little problems packing everything, and T1 was 4:19.

Best bike ever was followed by my worst run ever; cooking under the hot sun, I had foot cramps over the first four miles, followed by excessive fluid intake up to mile 6 and consequent abdominal cramps and nausea over the last six miles: 2:44:20. Last three miles were
a slow long nightmare, watching the minutes fly over my tired legs and dizzy head.

Packing everything under the hot sun and my burning rage, recovering from nausea and abdominal cramps, I felt the bitter taste of dissatisfaction. 7:16:50 was my time.

One last lesson was still to be learnt from Coach Brian Melekian, at the exit of transition area.

"Hey, are you OK?"-he asked.
"I am upset because I did not break seven hours."- I said.

"DID YOU have FUN?"- he returned.

Yes, ideed. It was fun, probably even when I was hurting.

That's why I love Triathlon. And that's why I will come back to Sonoma.

"A person who aims at nothing is sure to hit it." - Anonymous.