Racing for Recovery - Half Ironman Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

This was a nice swim. It was COLD out tho. I was warmer inthe water. Always the first 50 meters or so of a race when I am struggling getting around people I am thinking WTF am I doing? this is stupid. I just told myself to get my breathing under control and I got around a bunch of people and found my own space and I was OK. After the first straight away I started passing some of the men who had gone off in the 2 waves before me. I LOVE passing the guys :) I know I'm evil. Made the turn and saw Janice and Tommy's Wife Robbie on the beach and I waved to them from the water. It was really nice to have someone cheering for me. Second lap I just kept trying to pick people off. Wasn't sure how hard to push it as I didn't want to start the bike out of breath. I figured I'd be between 35-40 minutes. They measured the swim in meters (2000) for some reason so it was slight longer than 1.2 miles but whatever.

Learn to push a little harder in the water. Overall I'm happy with the swim

I split T1 into two parts. First part was getting from water to trasition area 1:28 then entering to exiting transition was 1:50. I mostly walked to the T area as I didn't want to start the bike winded. I have trouble getting the bloody wetsuit off every time.

Learn to run faster? I'm not sure what to do about the wetsuit. Used plenty of body glide. That stuff is a crock I swear. It never seems to help me. I practially took a bath in it and my suit still got stuck and my arms still chaffed.

WOOHOO I LOVE the bike :) FINALLY I have a good bike in a race!! The distance is off my bike comupter...slightly long. Goal time per coach was 3:10-3:20...came in 3:09 :) First leg was biking heaven!!! I don't think I dropped below 18. Then we made a turn but the road was horrible. I knew this part was just a little over a mile and the wind was a bit worse but I just thought I can handle this for a mile no sweat. Then turned BOOM Headwind UGH. For about 13 miles straight into it. I definately handled the wind 100% better than at Miami man. It probably wasn't quite as strong but it was close. There were a couple girls in my age group and we kept passing each other back and forth. Made the turn at the bottle drop and had a nice tailwind again...back in biking heaven. I tried to take advantage as much as I could because I knew the last 14 miles would be straight back into the headwind. Dropped 2 of the 3 girls in my age group hovering for good.

The third one was really nice and we chatted a bit. She said she had done the race last year and there was NO WIND at all and the conditions were much tougher this year. Having looked at last years results this put my mind at ease a bit. She said last year she did the bike in 2:28 and this year she finished well behind me and I was at 3:09. I dropped her :) and just kept my head down and did the best I could into the wind. I kept saying Hail Marys to make the wind go away....didn't work. I think I said a novena tho. I did 19.7 miles the first hour and 37.8 in the first 2 hours. Then there was that whole wind thing

I did well with hydration and nutrition mostly because I was COLD. I had goosebumps the first 1.5 hours on the bike.

When I came into transition there were Janice, My aunt uncle, cousin and Robbie. It was so nice to have people there cheering for me!!!

Bring long sleeves!!!. I am happy with the bike. I did oh so much better with the wind than I did at Miami man and blew away my Miami man bike time :)

Took my bike socks off and changed into a fresh pair of socks. Grabbed my running water bottle and my blister protection pads and a gel.

Nothing

My run angel Janice (foolproof) and the worlds best jockstrap met me at the exit to T2 and ran the 1/2 mary with me :) How cool is that!!! She had my mom on her cell phone so I said hi and then we were off. Ran the first milein 9:53!!!! I have NO idea where that came from. My legs were feeling really good off the bike but I had a bad side stitch I was having trouble. Fell into a 8:2 run walk trying to get rid og the side stitch. Was gone by mile 3. I wish I could have run more of that section when my legs were feeling good but you gotta roll with the punches. I was making a concerted effort not to get caught up in my run time. Mostly I was trying to stay in the moment and take it one step at a time. My onle goal for the run was to do my best and have my run time be less than my bike time. Done and done.

Janice was great. She was running after all ther racers spraying everyone with sunscreen and thanking all the voluteers :) Its all I can do to wave at them. My left leg was bleeding from getting rubbed raw on the bike so I stopped to use one of my blister pads on it. Worked great.

I just kept picking away at it. I got a little hot about mile 6ish but at the turn around I filled my bottle with gatorade and ICE. That helped a lot. About mile 8 My hammys were kind of crampy. Just kept plodding along and doing the best I could. I really felt decent til about the last 1.5 miles and my legs were kind of like "OK we have had enough" Ran thru the shoot strong to the cheers of my family :) Janice says I ran about 85% of the run portion

I did the best I could. I have only run that far one other time in my whole life. Last year at this time I could not even go to the mall because I could not walk that far without being in serious pain so I have come a long way. I just need more time on my feet running

Not much. Sat and talked to my family Tommy and Robbie for a while. Janice cleaned up my transition for me :) Went back to the hotel showered and we went to get some food. Then we went to the hot tub which was fabulous and then I had to box up Roo with a little help from Janice :) Those bike boxes are a PAIN


Lack of time on my feet running. I'm picking away at it. Could have been a little more aggressive on the swim


This was a great samll race. Perfect for my first HIM. Everyone was really nice. We had a lot of fun cheering for people on the run course. I would definately go back and do it again. There were tons of well manned aid stations and volunteers directing traffic.

The times above are off my watch. They are with in seconds of the actual times based on what I saw on the results sheet at the end of the race.

A Special Special Thanks to Janice (foolproof) for being the best jackstrap ever and being my run angel. It was so great of her to fly all the way to Ohio to do this for me and I appreciate it more than I can say. Not too many people would run 13.1 miles for the first time in their life with someone but she did that for me. I am very fortunate to have such a good friend. We did have loads of fun and the shopping was great too :)

Things to take away from this race. Clouds are your friends they cover the sun :) Stay in the moment. This worked really well for me. Listen to my body and do the best that I can. My nutrition was spot on I think. I do better in cooler weather...not really a revelation but it definately helped me. I have improved in wind...a lot. My endurance is improved over Miami man.