MOST EPIC RACE/BIRTHDAY/CAMPING/ROAD
TRIP WEEKEND EVER!
I couldn’t think of a better way to start off my new age
than Vineman race weekend. I had the most awesome road trip buddy (Alex!) who
shares my love of techno music, Sonic drive-thru’s, and Snapchatting anything
& everything J.
The 8 hours on the road flew by! I also loved camping with everyone… although
it was more like “glamping” since we were basically in the backyard of downtown
Guerneville & within walking distance to stores. My birthday was filled
with so much love, cupcakes, swimming, running, exploring a new town, meeting
new friends and getting to know my current friends a lot better. I was able to
run part of the course and drive the whole entire bike course while jamming out
to a pre-race pump up mix including gems such as “Eye of the Tiger” and “We
will rock you”. (Thank you Andrey for driving & riding the whole course the
day before to give us a full report!) I got to finish off the night at dinner
with my parents, a hot shower and a cozy bed.
It. Was. Perfect.
The next day we spent most of our time at the Expo picking
up packets, getting our FREE compression socks and, errr, not-so-free race swag. After leaving, it was time for me to zone
out into race mode & lay out everything for the next morning… & check
it 15 more times before finally going to bed.
Onto the good stuff…
Swim: I’m so happy that the water cooled down enough to be “wetsuit
legal”! Sure, I could swim 1.2 miles in a river without one, but all of my open
water swims and races have been in my wetsuit so I was fortunate enough not to have
to try anything new on race day J.
A few days before the race we had a chance to get in the water for a short
pre-race swim & see the course, feel out the water and have a good idea of
what to expect on race day. Good to know beforehand that you actually have to
WALK part of it! Historically, before the swim start is when I usually lose it
and think “why am I doing this?” “I don’t want to do this anymore!”… But not
this time. I was actually EXCITED and so pumped to start the race! I was
enjoying the calm and cool grey sky before the storm; wading in the water with
all females 29 & under and feeling my heart race with excitement and
anticipation. The swim felt like nothing. There were buoys every couple hundred
yards which was so helpful because 1. I cannot swim in a straight line and 2. my
goggles (even with the anti-fog spray) were fogged up so dang bad! I finally had
a chance to fix them at the turnaround point where we had to stand up because the
river was so shallow. Imagine a zombie apocalypse in the water. It was such a
trip seeing all of the staggering bodies in full swim gear (wetsuit, swim cap,
goggles) trying to power walk in a rocky river, while at the same time seeing
people swim their hearts out on the other side. 42 calm surreal minutes later I
was out! I was happy to ditch my goggles and thankful I had a good swim to
start off with. It wasn’t very kind of them to put the 35-39 year old males
right after us, but was happy to finally get an early wave time & even
passed a few people in the wave ahead of me!
Bike: I heard from a lot of people how great the bike course
is and that it was their favorite part of the race, or why they choose to do
this race every year. In my mind I had pictured a hot, desolate course with
maybe a few vineyards, but I severely underestimated how beautiful that area is!
The bike course is surrounded (& shaded) by redwoods, multiple vineyards
and is made up of a whole lot of rollers. The course is relatively flat except
for Chalk Hill at mile 45 (that was just rude) and the best downhill EVER at
the halfway point! One of my birthday challenges was to get up to at least
28mph (my age), and that hill got my little self up to 34mph! Fastest I’ve ever
gone! Oh yes, tears were coming out the sides of my eyes and I had the biggest
Kool-Aid grin the entire way down. I even had a nice fog cover for the first
half of my race. I can honestly say that even though I heard “on your left!”
about 5,012 times, I really truly enjoyed myself. The only downside was the
quality of the asphalt. (If you’re familiar with the SB area, think Hope
Ranch.) I’ve never seen so many racers on the side of the road with flats.
Luckily… luckily luckily luckily I was not one of them. It’s always something I
fear during every race, which you can’t predict and is also inevitable. My boyfriend
bike made it through all 56 miles like a champ, but couldn’t make it back on
the car ride home!
[Side note: when I took my bike out of the car the back tire
was completed deflated. I still haven’t fixed it… I can only do so many
productive things per day. J]
Ok back to the race… I knew I was close to the end when I
saw the cemetery on the corner (see what I did there?). Never in my life have I
been so excited to see a cemetery! 3:39 hours later I had racked my bike up,
felt like I had adequate hydration & nutrition, made a promise to myself to
work on getting faster (& going aero!) and thanked God for no flats or crashes. ALSO… I’ll
have you know that I was only a bit emotional twice during the race (ok, 3
times if you count the finish line), and both times were on the bike. At the halfway point and at T2 when I heard my
timing chip beep as I rode over the mats, I felt an overwhelming surge of love
and could hear your cheers from 400+ miles away. I could barely keep it
together, but thank you for that.
Run: I was NOT excited to run a half marathon after that
ride. I definitely lost a few future children and wore my quads out pretty bad
from the bike. I took my sweet time in T2 (7min) to sit down & put on my
shoes, use the bathroom, etc. I gave myself a quick mental pep talk and started
my run. “The faster you get going, the faster you’re done!” My quads never
loosened up all the way and that run course was brutal! SO HILLY and zero
shade. My coach would have loved it, though. I walked up most of the hills, ran
the flats and downhills, and stopped at every aid station (each mile). I loved running
through the La Crema vineyard which was all dirt (better on my legs), and the
fact that they had a huge half dome full of misters (water, not males) that you
could run through. My run was absolutely just about surviving the rest of the race
and getting to that finish line. At a few aid stations I even got so desperate that
I dumped cups of water on my head & even took a swig of (real) Coca-Cola! I
don’t drink soda but I will admit… it was very refreshing at mile 10 plus
getting a little caffeine in my system to perk me up a bit. At last I saw that dearly
loved cemetery again & smiled the rest of the way home. I was really going to
make it!! The last half mile was filled with uplifting spectators, my parents
and fellow friends and teammates. It was all I needed to finish the race strong
in just under 7 hours, even with a 2.5 hour run.
I’m a half Ironman finisher.
I DID IT. THE WHOLE THING.
And just like that the race was over. The months of
training, the anticipation, the lists upon lists, nutrition & hydration
planning, my LIFE for the past 4 months… finally reaching its end in (what felt
like) no time at all. I definitely still am on race cloud 9, but it’s very weird
and wonderful that it’s over and time to move on to the next thing. I want to
go back to that race & relive it a bit more because I feel like there is so
much that I missed! I’m well aware that I’m far from the best, but this makes
me happy. I’ve learned, so far, that each race is MY race against the clock and
not other people. Instead of feeling intimidated, I feel joyous being out on
the course with people I admire. I’ve learned I can push my body and take more
control of my mind, & will continue to dig deeper and go further. I will
earn the respect, do the work, and maybe someday get on that podium. But if
not, it doesn’t really matter to me so much anymore because no matter what I’ll
still feel awesome & have some really cool hardware hanging in my room.
So to answer your questions… Will I do another one? Yep. Did
it discourage me from doing a full Ironman? Nope. Have I lost my mind? You bet.
P.S. Shout out to my awesome parents who are celebrating
their 31st anniversary today! Holla!
P.P.S. Super thank yous to Alex, Aldous, Amy, Paul, Marisa,
Andrey, the Martinich family, Tamara, Adrienne, Jason, Elda, and the
IronStalkers Mike & Kristine for your support and all-around awesomeness.
AND my coach AND all of you who were there in spirit!
