Vineman blog part 3

The bike portion was definitely daunting. Having missed the bike preview I didn't know what was in store for me. I did know there was a flat straight portion for the first couple miles until the first turn which was tight & steep. Then we traveled through a back alley type side street until we got on the rolling hills through vineyard & forest.
Everyone said this course was amazing & it was very pretty. It was comparable to the routes we trained on here in San Diego. I did not pass anyone on the bike portion. I was not hammering as hard as I did on my recent shorter rides but I also wasn't going beach cruiser speed either. I had borrowed my friends Lisa's watch for my race. I set one timer for the bike to go off every 15 minutes. When the timer went off I took a sip of water & every two beeps I took salt or ate a bite of bonk breaker. The first aid station I tossed one bottle & the passed out arrowhead sport top disposable bottles. I didn't get very far before mine was dangling out of my bottle cage. The stupid thing did not fit! Somehow I managed to get it to stay after stopping twice. The next portion of the ride seemed to go so fast. There was an unfortunate mishap at this bottle drop for me-when I attempted to flip my bottle into the netted area it did not go the way I intended. It flew up & over my head behind me nearly hitting one or more cyclists behind me!!! The chick it just missed was pissed & I imagine still telling the story of the idiot girl who flung her water bottle at her.
I stopped at the aide station & and used the bathroom. I saw a gal from San Diego I recognized said hello , she was an official. I asked what the mileage was...when she said 1/2 way I was blown away & HAPPY!
After my potty visit this guy says "you are doing great I saw you a ways back, keep it up". I love triathlons for this reason some people are so nice & encouraging (I do realize he obviously DID NOT see my bottle toss)...
I got back on the bike course & I would say it pretty quickly got tougher. I had the same problem with the water bottle popping out. I started to really feel the mileage tacking on. I knew there would be one more aid station and then the dreaded chalk hill (there was one or two hefty hills before it I found out). At the final aid station I stopped and put some pain rub on my knees that were starting to dislike the rolling hills. Then I grabbed a banana from a volunteer. OOPS! There was pain rub on my hand which then got on the banana which then got all over my mouth! EWWWWW. It didn't even feel like the pain rub worked on my knees! Once I was on that last leg I had 2 things on my mind getting up chalk hill & the fact that I was getting tired with a half marathon ahead of me. Somewhere along that last stretch I was rising through another vineyard & reflecting on how amazing this was. Then I realized my brother had to get sick & lose his life for me to be here. I thought about how he had wanted us to all go wine tasting which we did in his memory. I thought about the 70miles I was racing which happened to be our combined years his life cut short @ 35 & me turning 35 this year. I have so much, I have grown & changed so much. His life was stolen right now when he could of had so many more adventures like me. I lost it tears full blown ugly cry face weeping. I was all pissed I said F*#K CANCER! (a few times-sorry but it's true). I had this grimace of angry through the ugly face & was just hammering through the tears. I'm not sure how many miles that latest but it was a while of my grieving the loss of my brother again & carried me through the finish of the bike leg at a part where I imagine I could of started to get discouraged & tired.
Coming in from the bike was fun! There was a ton of spectators! I walked in the bike transition. I was all about taking my time. It was definitely HOT & I was in no hurry to start my 1/2 marathon...to be continued