Race Report: Donner Lake Half Aquabike

I once declared that I would never ever do this race! Lesson: never say never! As a scaredy cat when it comes to downhill, I have always been intimidated by the long, twisty descent on this course. As I've gained more descending skills over many years, I've decided to give this race a chance. Plus the Half Aquabike would be a good lead up to Lake Tahoe 70.3 as well as a good opportunity to see how I perform at high elevation.

Swim (0:46:27)
The 1.2-mile swim is a counter-clockwise, triangular course at Donner Lake. Donner Lake was named after the Donner Party, a group of pioneers who set out for California, but unfortunately became trapped by an early, heavy snowfall. After their food supplies were depleted, some of them resorted to cannibalism to survive. By the time rescuers reached the lake high in the mountains, there were only 48 survivors out of the 87 members of the party.

If the story didn't give you chills, you could safely assume that the lake was cold! Although many would tell you that Donner Lake is warmer than Lake Tahoe because the latter is much bigger and deeper. However, on this race day, the water was cold enough that many racers heeded the advice to wait until the absolute last minute before warming up in the water.

According to the Internet (because anything on the Internet must be true, right?), swimming at high elevation is actually tougher than running at altitude, so I started the swim super easy. After the first buoy, I tried to up my effort level without hyperventilating, but I was only able to increase my effort slightly from super easy to easy. Halfway through, I felt my body temperature dropped significantly and my arms got weaker and weaker. I couldn't even warm up by swimming faster as much as I tried. It was an impossible balance between pushing harder effort and fighting altitude symptoms.

T1 (0:03:55)
My love for excelling at transitions was dampened by the demoralizing swim. When I first started triathlon and didn't know how to swim, I used to claim that the silver lining is being able to easily spot my bike, coincidentally named the "Silver Lining". As my swimming improved over the years, it got harder and harder to find my bike. Coming out of this swim, I was demoralized to see that there was only one bike left on the rack. I sat down to compose myself and somehow still managed to do the transition in less than four minutes.

Bike (4:09:25)

The Aquabike bike course is the same 56-mile course as the Half. Out of transition, we turned left onto Donner Pass Road. This is the only turn on the whole course. We stayed on the Donner Pass Road / Old Highway 40 until the end. The car at the intersection seemed impatient, and for a split second, I thought it was going to disregard the traffic controller. Car vs bicycle: car always win, so I braked, losing at least half a second ;-)

I started the climb up to the top of Donner Pass. About 1,125 feet of elevation in the first 4 miles. This section of the course is closed to traffic, so it was nice and quiet. I played around with my effort level until I found one that seems to be the "right" one given the elevation. It was so much easier to push bigger watts at low cadence. This may be counter-intuitive, but that was how the body reacted to altitude. I caught a few people on the climb. As we passed Sugar Bowl and Donner Ski Ranch, the course flattened out from giant mountain to small rolling hills. We continued past Kingvale and towards Cisco Grove, turned around towards Sugar Bowl and Donner Ski Ranch, and then repeated this out-and-back section again before returning to the finish at Donner Lake.

The last 4 miles was the road that we came up in the first 4 miles. The athletes' guide described this section as "a curvy and speedy descent down Scenic Old Highway 40 where we remind you to use extreme caution." "You will be required to perform a foot down stop at the bottom of the descent... for a minimum of 3 seconds. The reason for the foot down stop is a safety issue. Should the foot down not be enforced, we would be cleaning up cyclists' carnage as they attempted (unsuccessfully) to make the 130 degree turn back into the transition are at 45 mph." Yes, you heard it here: Triathlon is an extreme sport requiring extreme caution!

This descent was the very reason that held me back from entering this race in the past. In hindsight, I loved the course and wished I had done this race earlier and every year! However, I don't think my descending skills would've been sufficient for this course before, and I wouldn't recommend it if you're not comfortable riding down steep, mountainous roads.

T2 (0:03:21)
Rolling into transition, I dropped off my bike back on the rack, thinking that I was done for the day. I wandered over to the water stop and casually asked where to return my timing chip. Unbeknownst to me, I had to run out the transition and into the finish chute for my time to count for the Aquabike.

Total (4:59:47) 

Thank goodness I didn't have to run a half marathon afterwards. I could barely stood upright while waiting for my 1st AG trophy. There was only one person in my AG, but that's minor detail! :-)

Race Report: Vineman 70.3

Vineman is a course that I know like the back of my hand. From the first year that I started triathlon, I did the Vineman Half Aquabike, and then progressed to the Vineman 70.3 the following year. A few years later, I did the Vineman Full Aquabike as a prep race towards IM Canada that year. Not to mention the countless number of times we went up north from SF to train on the course. Yet each year the race director required us to attend the mandatory pre-race meeting, which was truly mandatory unlike other races that may say it's mandatory but it's really not. In this case, we couldn't check in until we received a hand stamp after attending the meeting. I don't usually fall asleep in public, but after the long drive, I apologize for any snoring that you may have heard coming from the top of the bleacher!

Pre-Race Logistics
I love racing Vineman, but I could do without the two-transition logistics. After the long drive, pre-race meeting, and packet pick-up, first we transferred our run gear into the T2 bag provided and dropped it off on the other side of the school. Next we checked in to our hotel and went out for an early dinner. Then back in our hotel room, we sorted out all our gears. Finally, before we could go to sleep, we had to drop off one of the cars at the T2/Finish for post-race logistics.

Swim (0:43:21)
Shannon and I arrived at the start way earlier than we needed to because Julia's wave started about an hour before ours. I'm a "Just In Time" type, so I was actually lost on what to do with extra time. After setting up, I wandered around and pretended to do some warm up. I'm also not a "Warm Up" type. I figure the first few miles out of the 70.3 miles is the warm up. I was so disoriented from all the extra time that I almost missed my wave start.

Maybe it's because of the narrow river, I always find the swim start at Vineman super aggressive. In the past races, I have stayed closer to the shore on the way out which supposedly has less current to fight against on the upstream, and then swam along the buoys on the way back to takes advantage of the current on the downstream. This time, I ended up swimming along the buoys both ways. I think it worked out better because it was easier to swim in a straight line. Moreover, there was less spots where the river was too shallow that would break the flow and force to stand up. Depending on whether you prefer to run in water than swim, then you could choose to walk as much as possible given the low level of water due to drought.

The swim exit was lined with spectators for us to soak in some cheers before the long, quiet bike ride on narrow country roads.

T1 (0:03:33)
By the time I got to my row, Shannon being the faster swimmer of us two had already left. To help her speed up her transition time, I had promised to pull her towel off her if I saw her in transition, so she had made sure to clear transition as quick as possible. I was hoping to crush the T1 in under 3 minutes (note: I take great pride in my transition time). I did my best to minimize gears as athletes are responsible for putting everything into T1 bag due to the two transitions, but I struggled a bit with putting on my sun sleeves with cold, shivering fingers.

Bike (3:09:28)
Mile 0: The first 50m of the bike is always a little comical. There's a small hill at the mount line, and some would have difficulty getting on the bike while some would run up the hill and then hop on, causing those who got on the bike earlier to weave around or stop abruptly. My tactic is the safer but not necessarily slower method of run up the hill and ride.

Mile 0 - 5: It's easy to go out too fast because the road from the start to Sunset is flat. I set out on a comfortable pace and tucked in instead of pushing hard to gain speed by reducing air resistance. I'm always on high alert at the beginning of the bike because some racers would go past recklessly or some drivers, likely spectators, would buzzed by too close trying to catch up to their racers. At the end of this stretch, some quick shifting would be required. We would make a sharp right turn with a hidden downhill, curve left around the block, and another right turn this time with a hidden uphill.

Mile 5 - 8: From Sunset to Wholer, I called this the first feed zone in order to take in enough fluid with nutrition whenever I can while sticking the plan of riding at an uncomfortably-comfortable pace.

Mile 8 - 17: We crossed a little bridge, and then from Wholer to Kinley, the road went up and down, up and down, and up and down some more. Knowing the course well, I could anticipate which is the best gear to be in for each hill.

Mile 17 - 25.5: The section from Kinley to Canyon is often precarious with angry trucks with trailers buzzing by too close for comfort. Race day was no different as the course was not closed to traffic. Once we turned onto Canyon, it got better.

Mile 25.5 - 28.5: On Canyon, we were greeted with an uphill. For some odd reasons, I love this hill. I always pass other riders with ease without putting in any extra effort. I think maybe it's because my power/weight ratio is just perfect for this incline. What goes up must comes down, and down we go to the end of Canyon turning onto Geyserville.

Mile 28.5 - 39: After fueling up at the Geyserville aid station, it's time to kick it up a notch in effort. I call this next phase: comfortably-uncomfortable, aka race pace, but still conserving a bit in anticipation of tackling Chalk Hill. It's similar to uncomfortably-comfortable in name, but completely different when it comes to RPE.

Mile 39 - 44: From Chalk Hill Road to the top of Chalk Hill, this is where I always lose focus during training rides. Thinking it's because I'm low on fuel, I decided to take in an extra nutrition to boost my energy. It kinda worked, but still felt a bit sluggish going up the hill.

Mile 44 - 56: Finally, we were all done with the hills, and it's time to take it home at a good strong pace.

T2 (0:04:15)
I had completely blocked out the fact that the transition required dismounting at the parking lot and running with our bikes around two buildings into transition on the other side of the school. Not only was it challenging to run in bike cleats, the path was not wide enough to pass causing stop-and-go traffic hazards.

If there was another timing mat at the end of the path before the transition field, I bet my real transition time would have been under a minute. I chose to wear a hydration system for this race, and other than changing shoes, I just grabbed the hydration pack. My visor, race bib and sunscreen were all attached to the pack, so I could put them on as I ran out the run exit.

Run (2:17:33)
I was happy to off the bike and on the run. The run start was lined with spectators and I enjoyed spotting as many people as I know and giving as many high-fives as possible. I was hoping that by the time the crowd thinned, I would have found my running legs, except it took almost 5 miles before the legs came alive.

At first, I was wishing that I didn't have the hydration pack on me, but I knew I was benefiting from taking regular sips almost every minute. For the next 5 miles, my pack was already much lighter and I was working through the crowds. And once I saw there was only 5k left, I switched to Coke at each of the aid station and was pumped and ready to bring it home!


Total (6:18:10)
This was almost an hour PR from the last time I raced Vineman 70.3. I actually learned to swim after all these years, knew what pace to push it on the bike, and finished the run strong. What a difference consistent training makes!

Post-Race Logistics
Tired legs weren't the worst part. The post-race logistics was always the nightmare. After gathering all our friends, we had to drive or shuttle 16 miles to pick up the car at the start, drive 16 miles back to the finish to pick up our bikes and gears. The whole process took so long that we were hungry hAngry again before we even had a chance to return to the hotel. Thank goodness we found Jaded Toad, a barbecue joint, eager and ready to feed triathletes!