This was my first HIM last year and I was looking forward to racing there again just to see what another year of fitness would produce. The IM training plan I'm following has me scheduled for a HIM in late September so I wasn't as ready for this race as I would of liked to of been. I was a little stressed about not being ready so I was very good the week before and ate 'clean' and healthy. No candy and no wine!
We drove up to Windsor Saturday morning and met our friend Mike at the check in. This was Mike's first HIM. He had been dropped off by his wife Bonnie. She was then going to meet our other friends Nancy and Cindy who drove up for some wine tasting and race cheering. Vineman has a mandatory race meeting we had to attend before they let us pick up our race packets. Afterwards, we set up our T2. This is a point to point race so we had to leave our running stuff here and we would bring our swim/bike stuff to the start in the morning. The racks were set up in the order of the swim wave starts and there was a whole rack and 3/4 of another rack for the W50+ group. I set up my spot at the end of the 3/4 rack because there was a big divider sign for the rest of the rack and I knew I'd be able to use it to find my bag quickly :)
After the three of us were all set up we met Bonnie, Nancy and Cindy at Seghesio Family Vineyards for a picnic. They had brought a wonderful, healthy (mostly) picnic lunch for us all to have and relax with while they enjoyed some wine.
Here I am flanked by my Vineman Virgins ;)
The racers and the winos!
If you play music around these girls, the dancing and singing can't be stopped.
We had a wonderful pre-race dinner at a little bistro in Santa Rosa.
Then back to the hotel for an early bedtime and a 4:00 am wake up. I had my normal pre-race breakfast of an english muffin, peanut butter, a banana and some coffee. Then the three of us headed out to the race start, the Russian River in Guerneville. The girls slept in and enjoyed a fun morning before heading to T2 and the finish.
This is T1. Below a hill to the left is the swim start.
Dave and I.
Mike and Dave.
The Three Amigos.
Swim start.
The swim waves go off every 8 minutes for 2 hours. There were over 2000 racers. One of my favorite things about this race is they don't have the wave starts go out in the traditional way of young to older. I was in wave 10 of 18. With that start, it makes me feel like I have lots of company because when I'm in the last wave, the run is pretty lonely!
Mike went out in wave 8. I knew I would never catch up with him because he's fast! Dave was in wave 11 and I knew he's catch me on the bike. The swim is an out and back. The river isn't very wide so it's pretty easy to sight. It also isn't very deep so there are a couple of times when your hand will hit the bottom. My wave start was good. The water got a little churned up but I worked on starting out with a steady stroke. There was more contact then I've had for a while but I just forced my body to maintain it's space and made people go around me. That worked until Dave's wave starting catching up with me and then it was Grope City! Those men have no shame! Actually, it wasn't too bad and the best part is all the contact didn't slow me down too much which was great training for IMAZ! I did get up and walk around the last turn buoy because if I didn't I would be swimming between all the other walkers legs and that would of been interesting! After the turnaround, the course is slightly shorter and there is a very slight current so it went by really fast.
Swim time 2011: 49:21
Swim time 2012: 45:33
T1 was good. We had to stuff everything into a bag before we left and that took a little more time then I was hoping but overall I don't think I wasted too much time. Last year I stuffed everything into my big tri bag and handed it over to Dave and Kathleen as I was leaving. Stuffing into the smaller bag they gave us so it could be transported back to race finish took those extra seconds. Yea.......I'll go with that story :)
T1 time in 2011: 5:16
T1 time in 2012: 6:03
There is a small hill heading out of T1 so I geared down ahead of time. A lot of people just run up the hill (including the pro's) instead of riding up and potentially crashing into wobbly riders around them and I thought I'd leave my options open in case there weren't a lot of racers around me. I had lots of company so I ran up the hill and off I went. The course is absolutely beautiful! There are a lot of rollers and some fun downhills. I decided to push on the bike and see how much my legs would get trashed. I always feel like my legs are trashed in the run anyway so I decided I might as well push. Dave was behind me and I was hoping to get half way around the course before he caught me. Wrong! He caught me about mile 20 and we went back and forth for a while passing each other. Then he went on ahead and I didn't see him until T2. Chalk Hill is the big hill everyone talks about at about mile 45. I was very pleased to get up it without too much effort. It was hard but it was much harder (or maybe it was steeper!) last year. Overall, I was happy with my ride. I did a good job of remembering to drink/eat my nutrition and I think that helped a lot. I rolled into T2 feeling good.
Bike time in 2011: 3:40:39
Bike time in 2012: 3:28:59
T2 was also good. I was happy to easily find my bag with my run stuff. I found Dave too! He was looking for his bag so I hurried up and ran out so I could get ahead of him a little :)
T2 time in 2011: 6:13
T2 time in 2012: 4:38
Running out of T2 and seeing all of my girlfriends!
(I need to do something about those thighs.)
I started out on the run feeling pretty good. It was starting to get a little hot so I wanted to make sure I drank at each aid station and kept up with my nutrition. I decided to walk through the aid stations and keep a steady pace in between. I think I drank more during this run then in any other race and it wasn't terribly hot. It paid off because I ran consistently. I took a few more walk breaks towards the end but not nearly as many as I usually take! The best part was I think I could of run further so that has given me a little more confidence for November.
Run time in 2011: 2:40:32
Run time in 2012: 2:32:02
Total race time in 2011: 7:22:11
Total race time in 2012: 6:57:15
A big fatty PR for me! I truly was surprised that I did so much better since I came in feeling undertrained but that just goes to show you what another year of fitness will do for you. I might just do this race again next year to see what I can do :)
Dave had a great swim and bike. About half way through the bike he got a bad stomach cramp that stayed with him throughout the run. He finished feeling pretty bad and ran much slower then normal. He gutted (yes, pun intended) it out and finished though so he's happy. He even said he's do another HIM!
Mike had a great race! He finished 13/27 and hit his target goal time and I think I'll be able to convince him to do another HIM too :)
After a post race chocolate milk, we headed back to our hotel to sort out cars and my girlfriends set up a wonderful picnic to tide us over for the drive home. Nancy volunteered to drive Dave's car and that was the greatest thing!
.......and one of the things we all race for.........
