Timberman - Half Iron - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The swim felt great to me. I was able to find a good pace and stay with it. I thought the sighting was very hard however. The sun was totally in our faces. At one point I was heading out across the lake! I also got mixed into a huge group of people and got kicked a few times. I swallowed a lot of water too. I thought the water felt nice and I LOved my new sleeveless wetsuit. It allowed me to use my shoulders better wtihout getting fatigued.

Maybe push it a little more? I also need to work on my sighting skills.

I guess this was pretty slow. I made an effort to take my time to make sure my feet felt good before such a long ride. I really sat down and cleaned my feet with powder! Next time I'll be quicker. I didn't need to grab the arm warmers. I knew it 1 minute out there. IT was so cold in the a.m. though! I had to tie them around my handlebars!!!

Move along faster!

guess I did this backwards...course was Hilly at beginning and end with fairly flat stuff in between.

I was very conservative.I was told not to go too hard in order to save the run. I have no idea if I coudl have gone harder and still had a good run. i did hold back and maybe I'd go a bit harder next time. It felt good though. I was completely thrilled with my split. THis was really good for me. It was way faster than my training rides.

I had a headache so I had to fumble with some excederin...this was annoying. I did ok though.

Have shoes a bit tigher so I'd be mroe ready to just "tie" and not adjust.

This felt great. I did have to stop at first portapotty and also again to fix shoe but after that I was good to go. I had to do some self-talk to keep a slow pace at beginning because I didn't want to crash. I held it pretty steady. I saw my husband as we came through the park to go around for 2nd loop. That was a nice push. I ran with some guy for a while and we pushed each other along. I had a blast wtih all the people goign in every direction. I thought that was so cool. I was so proud of the 1000s of people out there with me who were workign so hard and accomplishing so much. That made it all worth it! All these tough athletes who worked so hard for this common goal. I was inspired by my fellow athletes. I saw Desiree go by and thoguth that was incredible. I just watched her kick butt at Kona on TV last week! There she was, in my race. I was star struck. Lap two got real. My feet killed, my chins were tight, my quads were tightening and getting heavy. Ouch. I hurt.I was tired. I was so Psyched!!! the 70.3 was almost done. Wow. Emotion started trickling into me. I got to 10 and was ready. All along I had planned on kicking it with 5 to go but that wasnt' goign to happen. I had to wait. I got to 10 and gave it a bit but mostly waited for that last long down hill. When I saw the 12 mile marker I had teh HUGEST smile on my face. I know spectators saw that because suddenly people were using the name on my tag and yellign for me. I was so pumped. I finished with a 7:03 mile adn tears in my eyes. Mark and Andy were at the finish and I had my hands in the air with pride. This was huge for me. I felt very proud. 7 months ago Saturday was my shoudler sugery for my torn rotator cuff. We didn't know if I'd get back into fighting shape soon enough or ever for that matter. But...here I was. I did hte Half Ironman and boy did it feel good. I hyperventilated for a few minutes....truly. I felt asthmatic...couldn't catch my breath. I was alone ( Mark wasn't down at the chute yet) adn I wondered where the medical tent was.I was getting super cold too. I was still happy, and crying, but still no breath.. Hmmm, what's going on? Well, I eventually settled down, breathed, saw Mary finish and then Mark was there with a warm hug and a sweatshirt! :) Great day.

Not much. I finished strong and savored the moment. I loved it.

Happy Hugs with Mary, Mark and Andy. Walked around, got warm, got pizza, oreos and a bagel. WAs I really eating Another bagel with peanut butter?? Oh well..I needed it. My stomach was suddenly in shock with all the real food. After a morning filled with gel it wasn't so sure pizza was the best thing.


Confidence on the bike...


Great race!! lots of fun. tons of volunteers. I NEver had a moment of need on teh run. There was water adn all the other stuff Everywhere!!! GREAT job to Keith Jordan. it was fabulous. I might have qualified for Clearwater with teh rolldown but I had already decided not to take a spot. I am doing the chicago marathon and cant' ask for more travel etc from my family. Maybe next year?