Yes, 70.3 can be fun. I wasn't so sure after Wildflower in May--not that the camping
wasn't fun. The Vineman course is not only beautiful, but the course is flattish with a lot
of rolling hills--Chalk Hill at mile 43 on the bike isn't that bad and the hills on the run are
mostly gradual with no real steep inclines. Weather was great, although once it got past
noon, the temp's soared into the 90s from the low 70s at the start.
I was in the first wave start at 630am leaving 5 minutes after the pro's. You start in the
water which is nice, but they didn't do any countdown to the start time. All of a sudden
the cannon went off (i didn't even know the pro's had already gone), we all looked at each
other with a WTF expression and then all started swimming.
Its a point to point bike ride with the finish about 15 miles from the start, so unfortunately
I didn't see David Piper or Rich Miller till I was almost done with the run. The run course is
an out and back with the turnaround on the La Crema winery grounds--very nice. The run
is nice, but it definitely got hotter out there as the day wore on, so the later waves got
sacked with a lot more sun. I saw our PTC supporters, Gary and Stephanie after the race--
they looked well hydrated and were all smiles.
I ended up 55th in my age group, 477th overall in a time of 5:29:35. To date, this felt like
my best end-to-end race.
IMHO, there are many, many positves to this race course and very few negative ones. Only
three negatives that I saw--First, the logistics of the start and finish aren't great; they
shuttle your T1 bag to the finish, but in T1 you gotta make sure you stuff your bag with
everything or its lost (the pro's had bag stuffers). After the race, you have to take the
shuttle back to the start to get your car. Second, the "beach" is more like a gravel pit on
the shore of a river than an actual beach, but they carpet the paths for the most part. And
three, the start of the bike is basically a steep driveway that you need to climb from a dead
start. So, once the swim is over and you're up the driveway, you're home free...
Swim 27:19
T1 3:15
Bike 2:58:36
T2 4:15 (I must have stopped for a little wine tasting)
Run 1:56:09
Total 5:29:35
Some other Pasadena area athletes that I know from Rose Bowl Masters and who should
join PTC who did real well were Jason Fox (M29 years old, 5:02:41) and Sierra Snyder (F30
year old, 4:54:09).
BarryMan
