Napa Half Iron Recap

On Saturday, I completed my first triathlon of the season.   The race was the Napa Valley Vintage triathlon, which is a half iron distance course.  To sum it up--it was a hard day for more than a couple of reasons, but I'm very happy I did it and pleased with my performance.

My day started as I expected--I woke up, drank a cup of coffee, microwaved a breakfast sandwich, and got ready to put my stuff in the car.  It was about a 30 minute drive to the race site and we got there about 6:45 for an 8am race start--a little close for my tastes, but it's a small race and getting set up for a half iron is really no different than for a sprint.  I pulled my bike off the car and went to top off the air pressure in my tires, and my rear tube blew out.  The valve just fell apart on me, with the screw portion of it blasting out of the tube.  I've had this happen on a couple tubes recently so if anyone knows that I'm doing something wrong to cause it--please tell me!

I switched out my tube, pumped up the tire and reseated my rear wheel.  It was rubbing against the frame and I couldn't figure out why.  I decided to walk to the transition area (about a mile) and get set up and then figure it out.   Got in at 7:20 and was very conscious that I had precious little time left.  I got my bike set up, ran to check-in and then returned to finish getting ready.   At this point, I hurriedly finished setting up my transition area and then took a look at my rear wheel.  The break from fiddling with my wheel gave me the fresh perspective I needed--I saw that I had a bulge. The tire hadn't seated correctly when I pumped up the tube.  I deflated the tire and then pumped it back up.  Problem solved.  Thankfully, this was the only technical issue I had all day.

I sunscreened--got Brian to do my back (Thanks Brian!), and got my wetsuit on.  I headed to the start line and got in the water just about when they called us all back to start the race.  I wound up at the front of the line and decided to stay there.  Prior to the race start, they had us all sing "America, the Beautiful" and--well--let's just stay that triathletes, as a rule, are not singers.  The gun went off and I found myself in the lead for about four minutes before I decided to pull back and let the guy drafting off me take over.  I remained in his draft zone out to the first buoy where we turned into a set of waves that rivaled anything I've swum in before including ocean swims--this was a lake swim, and I'd prepared myself mentally for a nice, smooth-as-glass one-point-two miler.   This would be the first time that day that I would need to rapidly adjust my expectations.  The long arm of the triangular swim was all into the waves and it didn't matter which direction you breathed--I swallowed water on both the right and left side when I was ill-timed with the random, wind-driven crests and troughs of the lake surf.  I understood completely during this swim why triathlons often cancel lake swims due to high winds.    I finally rounded the seconded buoy and headed back to shore--at least where I thought the finish line was.  I couldn't see a finish buoy and was told later that it was repeatedly getting blown out of place.  I exited the water and looked at my watch to see 33-something which was a disappointing time, but I knew the conditions had been rough. I would later find out that I was 3rd out of the water and the fastest time was a 31--two pieces of data that changed my perception of my own performance to something dramatically better than I had first thought.

Brian saw me at T1, and he said that my coach would tell me I need to work on my transitions--and I remember thinking "and she would be right" but what I said was "I don't care." In my rush to get ready prior to the swim, I had a pile of stuff to put on (note to self--buy a Tri-singlet and wear it for the next race).  I got on the bike and started off on my ride.  There's not much to say about the ride--it was hard. There was a lot of up and down, and I was constantly slamming from my highest gear to my lowest gear. Rapid change of expectations #2--I would not be having a sub 3 hour bike split.   I had to stand on some of the climbs because they were too steep to handle from a seated position.  A flatter portion of the course existed somewhere after the 30 mile mark. My aero position felt really good there.  The bike finished out with a fairly hilly final 8 miles but it was the final three and a quarter that really stood out to me.

I'd gone through the bike ride with a focus on it being the hardest part of the course.  The run elevation profile led me to believe that it would be pancake flat and that belief came crashing down around me when I biked past the runners that were ahead of me.   The single flat part of this whole triathlon was the transition area.   Luckily, the run course was at least "rolling" and not aggressive.  It would merely take intelligent pace management--which is something that I have rare instances of accomplishing well in my past.  I ran up the hills as conservatively as I could and then recovered on the downs as much as I needed too.  Rapid change of expectations #3: my planned goal of 2:05-2:10 on the run would need to fall away.  I spent the first 10 miles of the run preparing for a good effort on the final three.  I split 1:09 for the first loop and 1:08 for the second.  Pacing was well accomplished--and it turns out that I had my fastest run split for a half iron.

My day was much harder than I expected. I'd gone out to the race thinking a sub-6 hour effort should be possible, and for many reasons, wound up not making that.   But my perception of this race remains intact.  In speaking with my coach after the race, she asked me if I accomplished what I wanted to and I said something like "I'm not sure why I specifically did this race."  But the reality is that I do know why--it's why I do triathlon in general, and it's why I do a lot of the hard stuff I do in life--it's about the challenge.  It just turned out on this race day, the challenge was a little harder than I had foreseen it. I adjusted and rose to the occasion.  And I'm happy.