Trip to Cali for Vineman Ironman

When I met Andrew during our freshman year at Penn State, he had just joined the tri club and signed up for his first triathlon. He fell in love with the spirit of triathlons at Penn State, became president of the tri club, and made lifelong tri friends. Since then, I have cheered him on at dozens of races across the country and have been his #1 fan.

Ironman in Kona - 2009

This year, Andrew decided to sign up for his second ironman race, Vineman Ironman, and take his training to the next level. For the first time in his life, he started really paying attention to what he eats, eliminating processed foods and carbs from his diet and losing 25 lbs. He was constantly reading and researching how to make the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and 26.2 mile swim his best race yet. After all the preparation, we couldn't believe that it was already the end of July and time to go to San Francisco as we headed to the airport on Wednesday night.

Andrew was a mix of emotions as we left Philadelphia - over the past few weeks we had a lot of tiny mishaps happen that had him feeling very anxious. Last week as he prepared to send his bike to San Fran, his bike seat was seized into place and he had to take it to a bike shop for help. They ended up needing to break the bike and put it back together with a new seat, sending it a day later than anticipated. According to the FedEx tracking, the bike was not expected to arrive in time for the race, no bueno. Two days after the bike seat fiasco, as he rode his commuter bike to dinner, a group of young kids pushed him, sending him flying over his handle bars. Luckily, he only had a few scrapes and a bumped knee, but his spirits were a little down and it was my job to keep him positive until race day.

Early morning in Mountain View

We flew into SFO and stayed with Andrews’s best friend from PSU tri club, Marc, and his wife, Kim, on Wednesday and Thursday night. They recently moved to Mountain View for Kim to start a job at Google and Marc Joined a startup tech company. We were up early on Thursday morning and ate a ridiculously big breakfast on Main Street mountain view. It was day 1 and I already realized that I wasn't doing an Ironman so I couldn't try to eat like one!

After breakfast Marc drove us to Google to meet Kim and get a tour of the campus. Kim had interned at Google six years ago and said it has changed a lot since then but the campus is still amazing. We really enjoyed the android operating system sculpture garden and the Google museum. However, we were very impressed by the free cafeteria that Google is known for - it is even cooler in real life!

The weather in Mountain View is really perfect, especially when you compare it to the super-hot and humid summer we have had in Philadelphia. Every morning I was up early for a run on their local running/bike trail and I barely sweat in the low humidity! After my run on Friday morning, the chaos of leaving for the race set in. My phone suddenly stopped working so Andrew and I had to run to a Verizon and pick up a new phone and contract (sorry if you tried to contact me, it's been a bit wonky as it transfers my service over!). While we did that, Kim and Marc had to run around to different bike stores to find a part for Marc's bike that broke the night before. It was a wild morning but we were beyond relieved because Andrews’s bike arrived on time. We finally loaded up the car and drove to Windsor, CA for race check in.

We found an Airbnb in Guerneville, CA, which was walking distance from the swim start. It was a great location but when we checked in on Friday night, we were greeted by a very "eccentric" couple. The one dude was in a wife beater and his underwear, while the other was wearing crazy pj bottoms and rain boots to check us in and give us the house tour. The couple lived above our rented unit so I was terrified going to bed that night. Maybe I'm not cut out for Airbnb life...

one lane road, lined with Redwoods, up to our Airbnb

Luckily, we survived our first night in the "Sunset Manor" Airbnb (so murder mystery, right?) and were up super early to watch the boys start the swim on Saturday morning. We walked down into town, stopping for coffee at a local shop, and found the boys at the swim start. The air temperature was 65 degrees which felt freezing to us east coasters but the water temperature was 72 so the boys could wear their wetsuits.

The boys were in the first swim wave and finished at the lead of the pack at 59 min (Andrew) and 1 hour and 7 min (Marc). We cheered them on as they got out of the water and jumped onto their bikes. Since we wouldn't see them for the next 5 to 6 hours as they biked 112 miles, we headed back to the house to shower and eat some breakfast. It was a relaxed morning for us!

We planned to see the boys six times on the three loop marathon run, so we bought posters at Walmart and made signs to make them laugh. We settled on some grass in a shaded area to watch the boys come in from the bike, which we were very lucky to have found.

Unfortunately, when I finally saw Andrew coming in from the bike he yelled at me, "I just rode my bike 120 miles," which is 8 miles longer than he was supposed to ride. He took two wrong turns and rode too far so he was furious when he started the run. I ran alongside him a bit, told him to calm down and take his time as he settled into a very long run.

I held up my sign as I saw Andrew coming in after loop 1 at about 8.5 miles. My sign said "yart sale" because Andrew and I saw a similar misspelled sign on a trip to Cali a few years ago and still joke about it. It is the silliest little joke between us but it worked! I got Andrew to laugh and he looked better as we saw him head out for the second loop.

It was a long day with an extra 20 minutes of biking for Andrew but he finished with a very respectable 10:31 time. He was bummed about the biking mishap but he felt like he did everything he could to prepare for the race. I was very proud of my Ironman as we took finisher pictures together!

Marc finished the race at 11:18, another awesome time! This was Marc's first race and Andrew met him at the finish line for a big hug and congratulations. These boys have been racing together for over 9 years so it was fun to see them complete such a great accomplishment together!

Kim and I bought champagne and wine and the four of us headed back to Guerneville for pizza and celebrations. We were all exhausted (Tri wifeing is hard!) and we were in bed shortly after the champagne kicked in.

View on our drive back to Guerneville

On Sunday morning we left the creepy Sunset Manor and headed to the Korbel vineyards for a tasting and tour of the champagne cellars. The boys were moving slow but they were happy to tag along and eat and drink. The tri was over so it was time to do what the girls wanted to do!

After Korbel, we made a final stop at Lynmar Estates, which was recommended to us by a local college student studying viticulture at a nearby Sonoma college (what a major!). The estate was absolutely stunning - beautiful views of the vineyard, a really well done tasting area, and gorgeous gardens. We did a Chardonnay and Pinot Noir tasting and shared a cheese plate, which was simply heaven. I have a new appreciation for the Sonoma vineyards and will definitely be back to Lynmar!

Driving back to Mountain View, we took the route via San Francisco and stopped by the Golden Gate Bridge to take pictures. It was a beautiful day with clear views of the city and a great way to end our trip! As always, we look forward to our next trip to California!