kenj triathletes in training - IM and HIM focused - Closed (Page 61)

Originally posted by Meulen Good luck out there Ken! and HAVE FUN!!

Originally posted by kenj

Thanks Brian!! I appreciate the support.

Bib number is 2588 if anyone is watching!

Originally posted by bdenehy I'm up at the witching hour on Halloween to play the fastest finger contest. I think it's kind of cruel to open registration at this time. What kind of triathlete is up at midnight on a weekday? Registered for next year's SOS triathlon. It's nice to have next year's plan set, but now I really have to work on the swimming. This is the mult-leg race where I managed to get passed 4 times by the same people in the 4 swims this year...

Originally posted by kenj

Thanks Brian!! I appreciate the support.

Bib number is 2588 if anyone is watching!

Originally posted by gadgetlaw

I just wanted to thank everyone for the help and good wishes! I finished my race in 13:25 which I was super excited about. I will post more details in the next few days. Off to limp to bed now!!

Karen

Originally posted by ramiedd

13:14 at the end of the day and I could not be happier. More details later.

Originally posted by RunningJoke

I am a half ironman!! (Which half? I'm not sure).

It was a ROUGH WEEK. My friend/training partner who talked me into signing up for this thing sent me a message Sunday night. Her husband had been involved in bad car accident and was in the hospital. He was OK, but had lots of broken bones. She was out of the race.

After visiting in the hospital and making sure he was really all right (does that make me less of an a$$hole?) I let myself feel disappointed about the race. It wasn't just moral support from my friend I didn't want to go without, it was a 12 hour drive we were making to Austin--each way. I just didn't see doing it safely on my own.

So I didn't look at my bike. I didn't run. I didn't swim. I just let it go.

And then Thursday night, after her husband was settled at the rehab hospital and she realized she had a couple other family members to take care of kids, my friend said she might be able to go after all.

WHOOOO-HOOOO!

So we went! And we had the most ideal conditions possible. Everything just went very well. The swim was great. I swam a little wide of the buoys to avoid the congestion, but I was relaxed almost the whole time. The bike course was a lot more crowded than I am used to, but it was OK. I realized at about 30 miles I was having such a good time, I probably needed to buckle down and work a bit harder. Definite negative split. I was ready to get off the bike at mile 56, and happy to start running. I have never experienced crowd support like we had on that run. The run course is 3 loops, and each time you get back to the beginning the signs and the cheers were just awesome. I had a huge grin on my face the whole time. Even after I took the first loop a little too fast and had quite a bit of IT band pain for the next 2 loops, I didn't care.

What an experience. I'm not sure I'll sign up for another 70.3 next year, or even another year. And I have NO desire to do a full ironman. The time committment for training was really significant for me, and I don't enjoy the training nearly as much as the racing (ah, sprint races, I can do them every weekend). Also, I now realize how horrible it can be to put in all the training and be sidelined at the last second by something out of your control. But I cannot tell you how happy I am to have done it this time, and I probably wouldn't have without the encouragement and help from you all! So thank you very, very much.

Originally posted by kenj

Thanks all, I'll do up a formal race report when I get home but overall pleased to get a PR on the course and for the distance. The swim went ok considering the water conditions. I do not like the new swim start as I think it makes the contact worse. The bike conditions were ideal for a good race, what little wind there was produced a headwind for the first 1/3 so it was better to deal with early. I am very happy with the 5:30 bike split considering between 3 portapotty breaks plus special needs I am guessing I could have approached 5:22 or so. The run started off ok, but GI issues surfaced on the 2nd loop. So I lost some time walking there, may 40 minutes if I had to guess, but who knows. Something else might have popped up if it wasn't the GI issues. Thanks for the support and I am glad that every member of this group had a great season. Thanks to my friend Judi (Queenzipp) for updating my time and you all wish her well in her inaugeral marathon in Richmond in 2 weeks!!!