Not having done much in the way of training over the past month since Ironman Japan I guess I could have expected to struggle a bit with the pace of a fast half ironman. My real battles started before the race though where on the 45 minute car ride to the start town of Geurneville I got car sick and vomited three times. I didn't feel very well for the hour before the start but of course I was going to try and race.
I instantly knew that I wasn't myself when I struggled straight away in the swim. I actually got dropped by the main group going out the turn a round. I fought my way back up the group on the way back downstream and started to feel a little better by the time I hit shore.
Onto the bike I initially felt fine and tried to set a good pace to bridge across to the leaders but after I topped a small climb about 10km into the 90km my body felt like it had been hit by a Mack truck and I went all heavy. I could feel the lactic acid in my muscles and all of a sudden I couldn't get my heart rate up. I let the group I was riding with go and I was left in no mans land. After trying to fight with my body for 5 - 10 more minutes I decided to sit up, enjoy a Sunday morning ride in wine country and try agin another day. It is always disappointing to have a DNF. I have only had one other DNF in the last 2 years and something I have worked very hard on is to fight through the harder days like Vineman, but I feel like I made a good decision to pull the pin and put my energy into my training for the next 10 weeks leading into Hawaii. After an easy month and a bit of partying post Japan my mind and body are prepared to take on the hard work that lays ahead.
I have to commend Joe Gambles on his awesome race at Vineman. He has been close to a 70.3 victory on many occasions in the past few years and he put together a very strong race to totally dominate a quality field. He is definitely a big player in the 70.3 distance and will be one to watch in Clearwater!
