Vineman Half Ironman

Drove down to Guerneville California on the 17th of July for the Vineman Half-Ironman race. Natalie and I drove down in the Jeep and Jon and Julie went in Jon's truck with Gigi (my bike)in the back as we caravaned for 13 hours. It was a 100 degrees in Redding for a gas stop and smoky around Lake Shasta and down I-5 for awhile. Got to Guerneville and there wasn't any smoke down there. We rented a beautiful 1600 square foot 3-bedroom house with a hot tub and giant HD TV and beautiful master bedroom with glass shower and jetted tub.
Friday we swam in the Russian River from the start for about 7 minutes out and then back. Then rode part of the course for a total of 15.5 miles in very hot sun. Race day came and it was overcast and slightly misting, so it was perfect race weather. The swim was fun, a little bit of combat swimming as my age group was the largest according to the announcer. It was an out and back using two sides of the river with a sand bar in the middle. When I got to the turnaround, I got up and ran across the sandbar and then back in the other side and on the way back I had to watch out for people standing up to rest (it was shallow in places). Got out of the water at 33:49 and got on the bike and out of transition it goes up a ramp which was hard. Lots of rolling hills on the course through the vineyards as I tried to keep a good pace. At 30 miles I noticed my watch was blank. Then my speedometer started reading 15 then 21 then 9. Then the mileage went to 63 miles, so I had no technology the rest of the way. Rolled in at 2:52:39 for an 19.5 average. In the run transition I had to use the porta-pottie, but had to wait in line for a 6:21 2nd transition. Got out on the run and hit that zen place for a slow but comfortable pace. The run course was very hilly, but I ran the whole time and just grabbed drinks while not stopping. Finally finished the run in 2:10:16 for a 9:56 pace. So overall I did a 5:47:02 and finished somewhere around 83rd in my age group.
The race was on Sunday and we stayed until Thursday just relaxing and drinking and eating. For Natalie's birthday on Tuesday we went up to Calistoga to a mud bath place. That was different, we were floating in hot mud. I looked over and just her head was sticking out of the mud. Then we rinsed off and they had hoses to spray each other if you wanted. Then into a mineral hot tub, then into another room where they wrap you in blankets and put cold towels on your head and turn out the lights. It was relaxing at first and then I started sweating like crazy. We did some wineries and that was fun. Hop Kiln Winery was my favorite one. Then the long drive home on Thursday.