SWIM - 20 miles      BIKE -  727 MILES       RUN - 231.7 MILES

Del Valle Open Water swims by On Your Mark Events. 

This was a combined event with a 1/2 mile swim and then your choice of a 1 mile swim, 2 mile swim or 1 mile swim and 3.1 mile run.

I decided that after the past 6 weeks and all the hard events I have competed in, a nice swim event would be a welcome change.  I decided on the 1/2 mile swim and then the 2 mile swim.

The time between events was short, only about 20 minutes.

This is a no wetsuit event with about 100 competitors. the water temp. was about 72 degrees.

The 1st race was the 1/2 mile. It was the water start, the announcer counted down 5,4,3,2,1 and the airhorn went off.  I had lined up in the front and took off.  I put my head down and sprinted without a breath for the 1st 20 strokes.  When I took my first breath, I saw one other swimmer off to my left keeping pace and then he really put it in gear and swam away from me.  I took a breath to the right and no one was there. The 1st buoy was all the way across the lake about 400 yards.  The guy ahead of me hit it at least 50 years ahead of me.  I hit the turn and saw a group about 10 yards behind me.

I put my head down again and swam hard for the next turn buoy about 200 yards away.  when I made that buoy and made the turn the group behind me looked to be about 15 yards back.  Good, I made a little time on them.

I was heading back towards the finish at this point, so I pushed  hard, kept my stroke count high and took breaths every other stroke.  I usually breath every stroke.

The end seemed to take forever, but I kept pushing and finished the 1/2 mile in 11:47, the group behind me had made up some time and ended up only 5-6 seconds behind.

The guy who won the race was a minute and 1/2 ahead of me.

The next start time was only 20 minutes after I had finished the 1/2 mile.  Some swimmers who had done the 1/2 mile were also doing one of the other events, 1 mile swim, 1 mile swim and 3.1 mile run or 2 mile swim.  some had taken 20-25 minutes to finsih the first event so they had very little time to recover and get ready for the next event.

There was one swimmer who was accompanying a first timer.  He was just finishing the 1/2 mile when they started the count down for the next event. He never even got out of the water, just turned around and made his way over to the start.

There were alot more people lined up for this start, many were in wetsuits.  You could not tell what event they were doing, so when we took off, some went out fast.  Since I was doing the 2 miler, I just started swimming at what I thought was a sustainable pace for this 45+ minute swim.

There were many swimmers who were ahead of me after the first mile, but as these swimmers headed toward the beach and I made the turn for my second lap, there was no one in front of me. 

I headed back out towards the other side of the lake and made the left hand turn towards the far turn buoy.  I breath to the left and saw 2-3 swimmers only 25 yards behind me.  Yikes,  can't let them catch me....  I picked up my stroke count and kept swimming.  I was going much hard than that first leg, but i was all by myself.  I looked behind me every 20 strokes or so to see if the group was catching up, it didn't look like it, but they were working together and could obviously see me.

I kept going and hit the last turn buoy and only 500 yards to go.  When I made the turn, the group was closer.  I put my head down and stroked real hard, counting to 50 strokes.  when i looked back, i had put a little distance between us.  Again I counted to 50.  I had also started to pass a few swimmers who were doing the 1 mile.  Now it was harder to see the group behind.  One last stroke count to 50 the turn to the beach and finally across the finish line.

1st place! The group behind me was less than 30 seconds.

1/2 mile results -     http://onyourmarkevents.com/results.asp?id=2211

2 mile results -        http://onyourmarkevents.com/results.asp?id=2214

Vineman 70.3 - 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run

I have done this race 12 times.  I know the course.

The swim takes place at Johnson Beach in Guerneville.  1.2 miles up and down the damed up river.  My wave went off at 7:42 am, wave 10 of 14.  The announcer said that our wave was the largest ofthe event, all men over 50 years of age.

I lined up at the front and when the horn sounded I took off.  It was me and 1 other guy at the front, but within 100 yards he dropped off my pace.  I started catching swimmers from wave 9 fairly fast and by the turn around buoy I was catching swimmers from wave 8.  When I exited the water, I was in first place with no one else in the transition area for my wave.  My time was the fastest out of the water by 2 minutes.  Unfortunately, this was a triathlon and I still had 56 miles to ride on my bike and 13.1 miles to run.

I ran out of the tranisiton area with my bike and started pedaling.  I had borrowered some custom wheel from my friend Maury and had switched the cassette from my wheels to his.  Unfortunatley, I am mechanically disabled and didn't tighten the cassette down enough. So within 5 miles it sounds like my wheels is coming apart.  I figured that since the wheel was secured, the nosie was really the problem so I kept riding.  I was going back and forth with another competitor for most of the ride and he stated that he could always hear me coming.  I ended up with a bike split of 2:41 which was right where I thought I should be.  11th place off the bike with 5-6 guys in my age group just ahead of me.

I head out on the run and immedialty pass 2 guys.  it is hot, really hot, 90+.  I don't like heat and don't do really well in it.  I ran the first 5K (3.1 miles) and felt ok,  I made the mistake of walking through an aid station to get gatorade and water, and then I started run/walking.  Each mile was torturous.  I tired to pick someone ahead and would run to pass them, I would get ahead of them and then start walking.  Run again, walk again, it was painful and frustrating. A few more guys in my age group passed me but I passed a few of them back in the closing miles.

I ended up 18th in my age group.  5:31.  

The Markleville "Death ride" is another big event in my calender. When I originally planned out my schedule last year, this was one of the 6 big events I picked.  It sounded really good at the time.

The past couple of weeks leading up to the event, I was re-thinking my intelligence regarding this event.  for anyone who doesn't know what the "Death Ride" is and why it is call the "Death ride" go to www.deathride.com . With this ride people have the option of ride 1,2,3,4 or 5 passes.

The course starts in Markleville, Ca. about 40 miles southwest of Lake Tahoe.  Markleville is at 5,500 elevation.  The ride takes you up and over Monitor Pass, elevation 8,314.  So if you choose 1 or 2 passes you would ride 45 miles and 5,628 feet of climbing.  The average grade is 9% on the front side and 8.3 percent on the backside. 

there were over 4000 riders signed up for the event so the roads were crowded.  I started at 5:45 am when it was at least light enough to see the road.  i spoke to some friends that started as early as 4am.

The weather was good and the air temperture was a comfy 62. The climb up Monitor is relentless and each turn just revealed more climbing with no end in sight.  I was averaging only 8 miles per hour so I hit the top of Monitor at 7:20, almost 1:30 minutes after starting.  the ride down the other side of Monitor was wide open and fast.  My speedometer indicated that I hit 51 miles per hr. on that decent. It took almost 25 minutes to get down.

when you get to the bottom of Monitor you take a hard left turn to head towards Ebbets pass.  The road meanders along an Alpine Creek/River which is flowing fairly well.  the scenary is beautiful, taking my mind off my legs which are already sore.

Upon hitting the climb up Ebbett's the climb is 13 miles with a 7% grade with a couple of sections of 10 and 12 percent grade, just to make it interesting.  The summit is small with the ride organizers having a rest stop.  It is really crowded with peole and bikes and food.  Quite the scene.  My camera died so no good pictures. 

The ride down the backside of Ebberts is fast, only 5 miles.  You hit the bottom and turn right around and clmb back up.  It is now almost 12:30, I've been on my bike over 6 hrs. and only ridden 76 miles. When i was riding up Ebbett's  I found my high school mate Andy Coolidge, he is a mentor on the Team in Training group and was riding with one of his people.  We talked for about 20 minutes as we were riding up the pass.  it was great visiting with him.  Right before the summit we were separated and i didn't see him again.  It was great to see him out there on a beautiful day.

After the summit of Ebbett's another fast 30 minute decent and the lunch stop.  ran into some more friends, John, Matt, and Bill.  I told John and Matt that i was considering finishing at turtle Rock and forgoing the last Pass.  They said they would ride with me and see how I felt as we went thorugh the start/finish area.  Once you pass through the start finish area, you still have almost 40 miles left. 

Off we go and start riding, after lunch I felt ok.  We rode about 5 miles and I passed Paula on the side of the road.  She had been hanging out waiting for me to ride by, so I stopped and lost touch with John and Matt. After a few minutes, I started back towards Turtle RocK. Bill came by and i jumped onto the group he was riding with and rode with them through the little town of Markleville.  Paula had passed me on the road and when I rode throgh town, I saw her car but kept going.

When I arrived at the start/finish area, I decided to stop another 38 miles would take me 3 hours and I had been on my bike for over 7hrs and a total of 12,086 ft of elevation gain and 91 miles.

The weather was starting to turn with a summer mountain storm coming in.  the widns were whipping up, so my decision ended up being ok.  Although I wanted to finish the complete ride, I also wanted to be able to enjoy the day with all the great people out there, the views were incredible. it is an amazing, brutal, beautiful ride.

One day, I will make all 5 passes and get the ice cream at the top of Carson pass. ONE DAY!

10K on the 4th of July.   The race took place in San ramon, Bishop Ranch, an office park about 10 minutes from home.  Nothing like a local race with a lot of people I know.

The race was 2 loops, almost completely flat.

first lap I went out too fast, 1st mile 6:40, and first lap in 20:23.  Slowed up, ended with a time of 43:49, still not bad with an average per mile pace of 7:02.

6th in my age group 43 overall.