Spirit of Racine Half Ironman Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

It had to be short cuz I never swim this fast. Or, the current was that strong. This might explain the extreme case of dizzies I developed during the swim. Thankfully for most of the swim I could touch bottom cuz I had to stand up to chase that motion sickness feeling away. What was neat about this swim was that I was able to say "hey" to Amyjo and Michele while I was out there. I actually caught them, but lost them when the ickies set in.

Maybe put a patch behind my ear so I don't get sea sick:)

Above swim time includes the WALK up the beach to the transition time...THANK GOD! I believe this T time would be 3 minutes longer if the mats would have been right out of the water. I just couldn't get rid of the dizzy feeling, so I took my time taking my suit off and getting my bike gear on. Thought that would be the safe thing to do. Race safe, right:)

Not get dizzy in the water.

So last year I hated the swim. This year I hate the bike. Although I have improved over last year and I beat my goal time of 3.5 hours, I feel I should've done much better on this "flat" course. No climbs to speak of, just rollers, so why do I suck so bad at them? Going to have to do some more hills with those that love them. Seems to work for others.

Train on hills!!! Let my aero bottle fly off so I wouldn't have to stop TWICE to tighten it. Figure out my front deraileur so I wouldn't have to stop to put my chain back on. Use the P-o-Potty before I get on the bike so I don't have to stop to go and then end up having to pull up lake drenched tri shorts. IMPOSSIBLE!!! I swear I could've broken 6 hours if this didn't all happen in the first 15 miles of the bike.

My rack was near the run out. For some reason I decided to walk to my rack. Knew I would need to save every ounce of energy for the run.

Speed things up a little....duh:)

Walked thru the transition, put my visor on and away I went in search of my donkey friends. I was hoping my swim would be comparable to Amyjo and Michele but I knew they would hand me my arse on the bike. Plan was to go find them on the run. Turns out Amyjo had an awesome ride so she was waaay too far ahead to catch. When I saw her the first time I believe she was about 2.5 miles ahead of me on the run. Set my sights for the pink cape worn by my BFF Michele. She passed me on her way to the end of the first loop. Worked hard to catch her so I could run with her. Finally caught her around the zoo. We ran down the hill together and were greeted by and EEEEAAAAWWWSOME donkey corral. So cool to be able to run with her for a while. Excellent photo's taken by Craig too. I was feeling awesome and she told me to go ahead, she wanted to say hey to her family before she started on loop two. With my still "fresh" legs I kept on a movin' and pushed myself up both those hills. I made sure I kept cool during the entire race, dumping water that was so cold over my head every few miles. No sun, but boy was it hot. Tried some Heed, but way too sweet for me. Stuck with the salt tabs and a couple of gels. Had to pee around mile 9. Swore the guy in the loo knew I was out there and wanted to sabatoge my sub 2 half mary. It seemed I was waiting forever. Just about to say forget it when he finally came out. When I finally did get in there it felt like the john was gonna tip over. And trying to pull up soggy wet tri shorts is no fun either. Oh well, it was relief I needed. Feeling dizzy around mile 11 so I helped myself to some oreo's. YUMMY!! Saw the Bauer's out on their EXTRA 4 mile run and Jeanne turned around to run with me. Needed that. Talking with her took my mind off the race and put me in cruise control. Chris came flying up behind us at the zoo and the two of them sent me on to my final finish. Down the hill I went. Clint was walking up the hill to cheer me on to my victory, so nice to see him again. Ahhh, such a sweet sight to see the finish line, knowing that I didn't have to turn around right before it to make another loop. That's just mean by the way. The donkey's were louder than ever, as most of them have finished up their races, so it was sweet to run by and in to the finish. Cool to hear "Welcome back TRIDONKAI Terri Weninger" from the announcer. FIL Fred and SIL Shannon were at the finish waiting for me. Hugs and high fives to be had and then my medal and finishing water. Photog at the end of the chute pulled me aside for a final shot with numbers on my arm.

Nothing. I can't believe I had this in me after all the miles I just biked and swam. I honestly think that seeing all the donks out there, all the high fives, hugs and smooches (from Clint of course) and reading all the inspires chalked along the way kept me going. I was definately proud to be a donkey this day, my friends.

Walked back to the corral to cheer on Michele and other donks/bt'ers that were coming in. So happy to see Michele finish in a much faster time than she anticipated. She totally handed cancer it's walking papers. Not a dry eye at the donkey corral, I tell ya. Changed out of my drenched clothes, made myself a sandwich cuz the bbq looked disgusting and the pizza was gone:(


Stopping to pee.


Excellent race, great volunteers, great venue.