Napa 1/2 Iron Triathlon
Skip and Diana's first official 1/2 Ironman distance triathlon! Woohoo!

















Don't we look happy before the start?

At a few minutes after 8am, we began the swim in Lake Berryessa. 1.2 miles that ended up being a bit less. Skip was out in 22 minutes and I was out in under 30 (but took a detour to get my sandals before going over the pad). Our times are why we know it was less than 1.2 miles although we would be thrilled if it was accurate.

On to the bike course which was accurate. Lots of hills on this course, not much flat. It starts out with an out and back on the road which later becomes the run course. This portion is long rollers and a good way to warm up (or burn out if you are not careful). We then progressed out to highway 128 and worked our way down the lake. The backside of the bike had some pretty rough road but the countryside was beautiful. I was debating with myself during the ride as to whether I would prefer rough road with very few cars or smooth road with traffic. I'm still not sure what the answer is, but we had both on this 56 mile ride.

We had another out and back on Pope road and I was able to see that Skip had about 1/2 hour lead on me. I got to see Diana there too before turning back towards the lake. The meanest thing about this course is that there are 2 formidable hills in the last couple of miles. They are a bit of a surprise because you know that you are higher than the lake and need to return to the lake soon, but you still climb!!!

As I turned into transition I went right into a HUGE pothole. By the time I saw it there was no way to avoid it so in I went. I figured if I got a flat from it, I would walk the 1/2 mile in to transition but my trusty Orbea did not let me down and we continued in without issue.

The 13.1 mile run was pretty difficult with all hills and no shade. I adjusted my usual strategy of 30 second walk at mile markers to drink, to 30 steps during the long uphills. It seemed to work well as I made the 1/2 way point in 59 minutes. The course is 2 out and backs so I got to see Skip and Diana on this portion as well. I was very happy to do the second loop in the same time and finish the run under 2 hours. Skip beat me overall by about 5 minutes... I just needed a few more miles to catch him! Diana was 20 minutes under her time goal!!! Overall, another great training day!

Tierra Bella Century

Another beautiful (but cold) day in California and another century (100mile) ride under our belts. This ride is through Gilroy and Morgan Hill, covering both sides of the valley.

We began our day at Gavilan Jr. College and the first surprise was that instead of picking from wearing my vest or jacket I decided to wear both! It was cold! In fact, even though the jacket eventually came off, the leg warmers never did.

We began the ride through rollers on the west side of the valley, then crossed over to the east side and cruised into the aid station at mile 34 feeling pretty good. From there until the next stop however was quite a challenge.

We worked our way over to Thomas Grade (just the name is scary) and started to go UP. We had 3,000 ft of gain in 8 miles. Whew, it was work. At one point I asked Skip how much longer he thought we were going to climb and he said, "well, since we are going 5mph and we probably have about 5 miles to go, I'd say about 1 hour." I told him that he was a ray of sunshine!

When we got to the TOP of Henry Coe park it was very cold. They even had a fire pit going that many people were crowded around. It was beautiful up there however and the view was fantastic.

The decent was a bit scary due to the narrow 1 lane road, lots of cyclist, and hairpin turns. Once we reached the bottom it felt like we should be done, but we were only at mile 60!

We did a bit more climbing after that, but nothing so aggressive. Skip got a flat just before the last rest stop and it took both of us to get the tire off (I guess we were tired).

Once we got back to the valley, we headed north into a brutal headwind. For about 10 miles I was in my lowest gear, in my aerobars, on flat road, only going about 8mph!! NOT NICE. What was nice was getting across the valley and heading south on Santa Theresa Blvd back to the college.

All in all it was a good training ride, but not very fast. We certainly got our money's worth and earned the nice dinner we had with my sister Carol and her husband Mike afterwards. Not sure about signing up again next year.....

(Thank you Dave Stark for the photos!)