Vineman 70.3 Race Report Summary: This was a beautiful venue for my first ½ Ironman. I did minimal preparation and finished with very slow times. My swim consisted of zig-zagging up and down stream to the point where I heard a kayaker observer holler out, “watch that one”. I guess she was worried about me. I can only imagine what the bridge spectators though as they watched from above. Being passed on the bike about 1900 times gave me momentary relief as I briefly got a legal draft although 20 seconds at a time x 1900 times, although the views were pretty good there too. My computer was broke on my bike and I didn’t know my speed. I gauged my effort by my heart beat monitor. So I took it easy and never exceeded 175 bpm except once, on the hill. The rollers created a great deal of leg fatigue and I was surprised how technical the shifting became as I continued up and down the hills unable to take real advantage of the short downhill’s with curves. Overall it was a beautiful scenic ride through the vineyards. The run was more of the same uphill downhill and flats. My back and knees were a bother and my bronchitis I have been fighting for two weeks didn’t help. Probably didn’t help that I did a Toughmudder at Snow Valley the weekend before. I stopped to relieve myself at every opportunity and take in nutrition. I took my time in transition about 10 minutes each in T1 and T2 and continued to pace myself. I completely lost track of time. Enough of my excuses, I just wanted to finish injury free and gauge my fitness level. I did not train. That is the bottom line. I would not likely do it again without training as directed by Tri-Club coaching. I set the bar pretty low for improvement though and look forward to the next one. In fact my ex-girlfriend pointed out that I did not earn the right to wear the T-shirt as I finished in 8:21. So, I guess I can’t be called an Ironman 70.3 finisher. All in all, I finished the distance injury free and had a great time. Thanks for reading.