Eric Wellmeyer

Thanks, Eric!

It was a good race overall.  The swim start was in the water, down river.  The current is extremely weak and you can't even feel it.  We swam up the river on the right side with buoys down the middle.  I had heard the swim was shallow, but didn't think anything of it until my hand scraped the bottom at the turn around (it's an out and back course).  It must only be about three feet deep at most in that area.  Still too deep to stand up and start running;)  My split was just under 29 minutes.  The bike course was mostly small rolling hills with only one climb around mile 42 that really wasn't difficult.  Still, the bike hurt me and although I pushed the entire time, mentally I had given up on my goal of breaking 5 hours. I just couldn't get moving.  I felt the same way at the Tinman.  I didn't rest for the race so I think I was feeling the fatigue.  Getting out of the water early is absolutely no fun when everyone passes you on the bike.   I had started in the second to last wave, so on the bike I spent a lot of time dodging the turtles that wouldn't stay to the right.  My split was 2:48 and an average of 20mph.  I ranked something like 95th in my age group.  Ouch!   There are two transition areas so you have to run in with your bike to T2 and find your running gear.  The racks were labled so it wasn't difficult.   As I began the run, my legs still felt crappy, but when I split a 14:23 at mile two, I began to feel much better;)  The run was also made up of small rollers and luckily for me, the sun didn't come out until about 7 miles into it.  I had no clue of my overall time, and at that point I was just running hard to get a good run split to salvage my race.  I took in Gatorade at odd miles and poured water on head at the even ones.  One of the difficulties with the aid stations was that it was an out and back run.  So you're sharing the stations with people coming the other way.  I had a few near misses.  And it was just luck that there was a guy in my age group in front of me that made me really push the last quarter mile, otherwise I wouldn't have broken 5 hours.  I split a 1:36 on the run which made up for my bike leg.  I ended up in 43rd place for my age group which doesn't sound so good.  This race draws in a very competitive crowd.   I didn't eat anything during the race, though I had packed 8 GU's.  I don't know if that was a mistake or not.

I don't think you'd have a problem breaking 5 hours on this course.  Your bike would more than make up the difference in our swim times.  You could probably get away with doing a longer ride and run once every other week.

I still don't have a new bike yet.  I think my Ironman next month will be its last race, especially if I'm anywhere near a qualifying spot.  To qualify, I'd need about a 10:25 at this race.  My goal is to break 11 hours, as long as the heat isn't too much of a factor.  I've never run a marathon before, so we'll see.  Realistically, 11:30 is a better goal.  But I'm a dreamer.

Unfortunately, I can't get down in that area to train very often.  It's hotter and smoggier up here so I'd rather be there.  There's a chance I'll be moving to Chino Hills anytime in the next year.  We could hook up then.  By the way, I saw in your results that you had run a 5k in something like 27 minutes.  I figured you must have run with someone and I was surprised to see it was Emma.  She is a really good runner!!!  Tell her I said congratulations.

Bill

P.S. Just keep swimming!

Original Message:

Congrats on breaking 5 hrs!!  That is one of my future goals when I have more time to train for longer distance races.  How were your splits?  Did you get a new bike?  I always like hearing race reports or funny quirks out on the course.  Was this the race in the Russian river where you can walk the swim??  I think that maybe one for me in the future!  I really need to swim more... I went to Eastlake and swam 40 laps in about 19 minutes (without flip turns) and felt that I couldn't go any further and my arms were sore the next day.