Vineman is always one of my favorite races. I hadn't raced it since 2008, so I was glad to be going back. I drove up friday afternoon, getting in around 7pm. I was looking for a little 70.3 redemption after the Mackel debacle and the poor showing at Orlando 70.3. I was going to pass on this race, as I just didn't feel like doing the long drive up and back. However, a few things conspired against my intention to not race--Lynda, Lynda, and a college buddy who I haven't spoken with in 30 years, who called me ou
t of the blue and asked me if I was doing the race. Well, I had to acq
uiesce. Someone was trying to make me go besides Lynda, and I know Lynda and my friend Nick didn't know each other. I told Lynda I would 
do the race on one condition: she had to find me a ride to the race start on race morning from my hotel. She happily volunteered Trevor and Nicole, th
e happy Vineman couple.On saturday morning, I met up with the PTC group, and we did a little jog around some nearby mall. After that, we headed over to the registration. That evening we got together for a little carbo loading in downtown Santa Rosa. After some chicken parmigiana and a couple of microbrews, I slept great, and was up at 4am. And the Trevor and Nicole team picked me up and took me to the race!
I met up with Nick at transition. He hadn't done a tri in 20+ years. He was in for a
treat. He was a swimmer, so he just speedo'd it. He planned on riding a rented bike. At lease he owned his running shoes--at least I think he did. We were in the same age group, so we headed over to the river swim together.The swim went without a hitch except for the very shallow part at the turn around. Usually, it's not this shallow in the middle, but my fingers were scraping the gravel with each pull. The bike is awesome. Chalk Hill is no biggie. When I started the run, the weather was slightly overcast and in the low 70s. Pretty darn perfect. The run went great. Plan was to negative split it which I did by a few seconds. I finished strong with my best run split since 2008. Overall, a PR for me at this distance by 9 minutes and a Vineman PR for me by about 10 minutes. My bike was pretty solid.
Swim 27:12 (non wetsuit)
T1 3:47
Bike 2:49:01
T2 2:30
Run 1:47:09
5:09:39
AG place 32nd
Overall place 352nd
After the race, the food was great. By the way, the transition areas were much better this year than in the past. The bike in and run out were much simplified.
After the race, I got Lynda to drive me back. Then, we gathered at Nicole and Trevor's estate in Santa Rosa for an awesome catered dinner with some great wine. Thanks Nicole and Trevor for hosting us. That was pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty nice and generous of you.
