Napa Half Iron Race Report

Ok ladies and gentlemen...here is my official race report from last Saturday's race at Lake Berryessa near Napa, CA. Flew in on Friday with my father, who was kind enough to accompany me to this race. Made our way to Fairfield in our rental minivan, and got checked into our hotel. I got my bike put together with relative ease and then found a local bike shop to pick up CO2 cartridges. Then we made our way back to near the hotel and ate dinner. After dinner, I got my bike and nutrition and fluids all ready to go for the morning. Woke up at about 4:45 on Saturday morning, ate a bagel with peanut butter and had a cup of coffee and made our way to the race site. It was about an hour drive on some windy and narrow roads. Once there and parked I got my transition all set up, got checked in, did a little warmup jog, put the wetsuit on, and then made my way down to the swim start.

THE SWIM - The swim was relatively uneventful, maybe coulda been a little faster cuz I stopped a couple times to adjust goggles and unfog them. Water was a chilly 62 degrees, but I adapted to that quickly. Overall I came out of the swim in about 10th position. Transition was ok. Always a little wobbly going from horizontal to vertical and then running...

THE BIKE - Out on the bike now...The course was definitely hillier than I was used to. Had some good climbs and some good descents. The course was very beautiful and I did admire the scenery as I rode by. Nutrition and fluid intake was on. Although I was getting sick of my energy bar and didn't quite finish it as I was starting to feel a little "iffy". I did have gel and sports drink too...so it all worked out. Got off the bike with a little less than a 3 hour bike split...around 19 mph, which I was happy with, considering the course profile and the effort I was putting forth - I tried to ride somewhat conservatively so I didn't completely explode on the run. So I made it into transition sitting at around 3:30 cumulative time.

THE RUN - I went out on the run which started with a nice little hill right out of the park. Seems like every time the run starts with a hill. Oh well... So the run was a double out and back of about 3.3 miles on the same road as the beginning of the bike course. The run was not all together as bad as it could have been. Took some gatorade and water at the aid stations, as well as hits from the gel flask I was carrying. I used the downhills to my advantage and did what I could on the uphills. That is to say that I ran on the hills til my heartrate hit about 170 and then walked til it went back down - again, I did that to avoid blowing up...blowing up is bad. I was doing well until about a mile before I hit the aid station at about 9.5 miles. I was getting very thirsty... So naturally when I hit the aid station I grabbed an entire bottle of water in addition to some gatorade. I probably took in a bit too much fluid at this aid station when in reality I shouldn't have taken any more than I had been before. I felt a little full the last 3 miles...oops...so I made sure to take only gatorade from then on and only use the water to cool off and wet my mouth when I felt thirsty. My half marathon split was around 2:20...which is not all together terrible actually - around a 10:45 pace, which I was happy with considering the hills - damn hills...

Crossed the finish line around a 5:50... I guess the only thing I would have done differently is not grabbed all that water around 10 miles and shoved it down my throat. It might have saved me a few minutes and enabled me to run a little more effectively the last 3 miles... But all in all I was happy with the race and it was a great experience.

A special thank you very much to my dad who traveled and watched me. Couldnt have done it without you dad... Thanks!!