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Terenzo Bozzone's Journal
Vineman 70.3
posted by at 02:50 PM on July 21, 2008
Two weeks into solid training and my first race of this block is done and dusted.
Today was the Vineman 70.3 (half Ironman) in Sonoma country, just north of San Francisco near Napa valley where all the great vineyards are, hence the name Vineman.
It was probably one of the strongest half Ironman races of the year with most of the big names. The swim was straight forward, up and down a river, then a large bunch formed on the bike which was not the best as the course had a lot of small climbs and corners and there was a big yoyo effect through the group, I suppose all the accelerations did pay off as a few people started struggling near the end. I got off the bike in 4th about 3minutes off the leader but managed to string out a 20 second lead over Craig Alexander, one of my main competitors but he pulled that back within the first 2km, which was a huge shock to me as I thought I was moving fast. His pace didn't slow, but I managed to hang in there, struggling at times. We caught the leader Steve Larsen about half way through the run and Craig slowed up a bit, I thought I would test his legs and keep the pace going, I gained a small lead and it kept growing, I didn't know what was going on, was he playing with me or had his legs gone. I wasn't going to hang around to find out so I kept pushing along. With 1mile to go someone yelled that I was on for a course record, I was already giving it my all so all I could do was try and hold on a bit longer. I crossed the line in 3.49.30 about 30 seconds under the record and got a large 3L bottle of La Crema wine, who knows what I am going to do with that.
So all in all not a bad day at the office. In fact the last few days have been great, I have been staying with Chris Legh at this great homestay in Santa Rosa, the Devore's, where tradition says their house has a great curse where someone who stays their will be victorious. Well let's hope they don't wash the sheets!!! Okay that sounds dirty, but you know what I mean.
Quick turn around today, already back on my way to the airport to head down to San Diego for a day before going back to Portland to work on my recovery before getting back into some serious miles. My brother and I purchased a nice small car so I should have a bit more independance and save some $ on gas.
Next stop for me is TimberMan 70.3 in a month so will check in again soon.
categories: Race Reports
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