Vineman Race Day

Swim: 32:20

Woke up earlier than I need but who can sleep in on race morning. My wave didn't go off till 8:22 but who doesn't want to watch the pro's in action. These guys and girls are fast! Just check out those swim times for the pro men leaders! While waiting for my wave to start a guy walks up to me and asks if I fight. I get this a lot with my ear. I used to wrestle is my standard answer here. I recognized the guy and asked is he was a Diaz. I knew that one of the Diaz brothers did this race most years and indeed it was Nick from the UFC. He is way more famous than me... well that's cause I not famous.

It was finally my turn and I was ready to get going. The hard part this race morning was keeping myself calm enough to I didn't use all my adrenaline before the gun for my race went off. Two hours after the pro's is a long time to wait when your all ready to go. As mentioned before this is a great swim set up for me. Smooth waters and straight lines. It showed in the swim times and mine as well. I was happy with my swim time and headed out on the bike with some good energy.



Bike: 2:34:42

This was a challenging and beautiful bike course. Rolling hills with few challenging climbs to keep you honest. There were some tricky handling sections on this course and the scariest part was when the course was shaded by the trees so it made some of the rough roads tough to see. Charting a clean line on this course was the difference between a pinch flat and no flat. There were many casualties on the side of the road changing their tubes out. I felt good throughout and felt I did a great job with my nutrition. I passed a lot of people as most of the field started ahead of me on this day. One of the athletes I passed was 80 year old Madonna Buder. She is INCREDIBLE! I gave her a big thumbs up and yelled Madonna as I went by- hopefully I didn't scare her and made her crash.

Run: 1:39:18

I started to run and the heat started to make itself present as there was no tree cover on the run. I felt good coming off the bike and just started to cruise. I knew if I could have a post a good run time that I would have a chance to post a personal best. This would be a good feat considering this was my 10th 70.3 race of the year. The volunteers were awesome and the crowds were very supportive! As I hit the turn around point I looked at my watch and knew I was on pace. The roads to the turn around had more uphill sections then on the way back, so this was an exciting thought. I turned up the jets, loaded up with Gu and just kept running. The night before I had a conversation with my friend and pro triathlete Heath who told me to post a 4:50:10....well at the end of the day I missed it by 14 seconds. Not bad if you ask me. My final time was 4:50:24 and 2 minutes faster than any 70.3 event I have ever done. Booyaa! The announcer gave me props all day long and talked up the world record and the cause. It was a great day for exposure to quest!


The race ended with some great post race food and me jumping in my car and driving 12 hours to get home to be with my family. Thanks for all the love and support!