As the title might suggest, I chose to drop out of the Vineman this year.  I had a feeling that I would end up doing this, I even mentioned to Claire in the morning that I would be seeing her after the bike ride.  This is one of those times that I can feel my age.  I remember when I was 19, I went out and ran a marathon after only running 7 miles before hand, but those days are over.  This summer I hadn’t done any training rides over 66 miles, and it showed.  I really hit the wall at that point.  I felt like I could have ridden through it, but I would have suffered miserably for the next 5 or 6 hours, which I did not want to do.  By dropping out, I accomplished my main goal of being able to go to the Bear Republic afterwards and have a black & blue burger and some Racer 5 IPA.  I did end up riding a 100 miles since I turned around at the Dry Creek store and rode home.  Oh yea, the swim went great.  I guess that is still something that I can fake since I had only swum twice all summer.  I am real excited about getting the aerobars off my bike and riding with Claire.  We went out yesterday and rode 43 km and even stopped by Andy’s Market and picked up snacks for enjoying by the pool.  As far as hydration went during the race, I weighed myself when I woke up, and I weighed 12.86 stone, and when I got home afterwards I weighed 12.43 stone.