Wearing my super fast ROKA Maverick wetsuit, I was confident I could come out closer to the front in the swim but as I sculled on the start line I looked across at the two super fish athletes Laura Bennett and Meredith Kessler only to see they were both wearing the same suit as me! Damn. I exited the water in 11th place but within contact of the main pack with Rachel McBride 40 seconds ahead and Meredith & Laura 2:38 up the road.
I moved into 7th place soon after mounting my bike as I took advantage of running my bike to the top of the steep hill instead of mounting at the bottom. My new bike was in tip top shape thanks to Alex at SRAM who came to see me as soon as I arrived in the States from Australia. He went over the bike with a fine-toothed comb and provided me with a selection of shiny new Zipp wheels with custom World Champ decals. With my bike firing I hoped my body would too after the travel half way round the globe from Australia.
Not long into the bike I passed Melanie McQuaid and Emma Kate Lidbury to move into 5th. Throughout the bike the three of us would shuffle around with Melanie dropping me on the last long downhill - this girl is a demon on descents.
As I was approaching T2 I was warned there was a sharp turn before a quick dismount but I guess I underestimated how quick it would be after the turn. Before I knew it the dismount line was right in front of me and I was still in my bike shoes, I hadn't even loosened them so I had to jump off with my shoes still on. Not a big deal usually but the run to rack my bike was quite long and all on concrete. I looked like a waddling amateur trying to quickly run into T2.
I started the run in 4th place, and with a rather slow transition I was told I was now 3:30 behind Meredith but Rachel and Melanie were in sight. A couple of km in I moved into 2nd place, slowly making up time on the leader but by 7km I was in pain. Not a usual racing pain, I could feel the balls of my feet pounding and ripping to pieces. They were starting to feel like I was running bare feet on the hot bitumen. By 10km it felt like I was running on knives so when I got into the nice gravel loop around the Vineyard I stopped and had a bit of a look to see if I could find out why and maybe fix the problem. Everything appeared normal, the tread was still on the bottom of the shoes and there were no big rocks stuck in my shoes. So I continued on and pleaded with my feet to wait another 11k or so and then I'll stop and pamper you as much as you like.
When I got to a small out and back section I saw I was still a long way behind and I tried to convince myself that if I ran faster, not only may I be able to make up time faster, but more importantly I'd be in pain for less time so I tried to pick up the pace. Every step was a jabbing knife and the faster the pace the harder it hit me.
I've seen several triathletes heel strike when landing - It can't be that hard I thought! So I tried it (along with all sorts of running gaits to try land anywhere other than my forefoot)...without success. There must be some trick to heel striking because I was running on the spot. And still in pain.
There were many times in the last 10k when I was so close to pulling the pin and tearing my shoes off under a shady tree somewhere. It was a constant battle inside my head trying to decide which would be more painful - running knives or getting DNF. While the battle continued in my head, the mile markers thankfully continued to tick over.
When I finally reached the line of spectators I knew I was close to being done. I no longer minded that I wasn't winning. All I could think about was crossing that line and kicking my shoes off. When I got into the finishing chute I think I totally forgot I was in a race and that I should be smiling, happy, I was just about to cross the line in second place. And second to the brilliant Meredith Kessler. But instead of taking it all in I passed through the banner, kicked off my shoes and tried to hobble off. All I wanted was a bucket of icy water to put my feet in and a shady piece of grass to sit on.
A huge congratulations to Meredith for the win. If I had to chose who to come 2nd behind, I would chose her. She was out front doing her own thing all day and none of us could close till she finally stopped and waited for us all at the finish. Congrats also to Rachael and Melanie, both super strong on the bike and running on to come in 4th and 5th.
The biggest thank you goes to Pat and Barbara for their hospitality during our stay in Santa Rosa. They've been my home stay there 3 times now and it feels like returning to family when we visit. Travelling to Santa Rosa in July has come to be just as much about catching up and spending time with Pat and Barb as it is to be racing Vineman 70.3 on Sunday morning. Can't wait to see you guys next time!
2nd - 4:14:13
Swim 27:24 (11th)
Bike 2:21:37 (3rd)
Run 1:21:31 (1st)