07:42:20 TOTAL TIME
00:48:02 SWIM Time
1 00:07:4203:18:22 BIKE Time
2 00:02:5903:25:16 RUN Time
Let me just say it was a learning experience. it's one thing to swim distance, bike, and run separately. Hard to do by themselves? yeah, for sure. but to bolt them all together and run the whole thing is something else...so my first half iron distance is in the books. i don't wanna see my bike for at least a month! (but don't tell it that) i noticed the importance of having a good bike fit after about the first 20 miles or so. and i need one badly!the swim went off much better than i thought it would.
i feel that it was due to the pre-swim i did on the saturday. took all of the nervousness out of the picture completely. the gun went off and away i went. pretty-much without a hitch! i was supposed to start at 06:54 a.m. however, i ended up going off at 07:14, which goofed up MY PLAN!!! but, i suspected i would take appx. 45 min. to complete the swim. it took 48 instead. no biggie.t-1 out of the swim was a comedy act. seven min. to do a transition? i think i took a nap while i was in there. eh, whatever.the bike was good as well. no problems on the bike. the new aero bars worked out well. never got out of the big ring once! pretty happy about that actually. avg. speed was 16.9 miles per hour. didn't have any flats or mechanical of any type.
i wanted to be off the bike by 11:30 and i was. so i am happy about that too.T-2 was just under three min. better.the run? holy cow man! i never knew that 13 miles was that darn far! OMG! so, by the time i got to the run, i was feeling the heat of the day pretty good. as it turned out, it was a record high of 97 degrees that day! but in tribute to the guys who put on the race, every aid station had plenty of water, gu and gatoraide. amen brothers!i ran the first loop of a 2 loop run. by the time i hit the second loop, i was wasted!
i got to see the TriPimp on both of the loops, which was really nice. it's always great to see the g.f. out on the course! definitely a morale booster to say the least. my IT Band on my right knee was killing my by the start of the bike. (Snif!)now for several of my mistakes!i did not get enough sleep in the three days prior to the race.
i did the race on less than four hours of sleep. i did not eat properly prior to the race either. oh and i went out and got trashed without eating very much after the race too!yeah, yeah, yeah....i know what you are thinking. what are you stupid? did you not have a coach? did you not listen to him? were you drunk?the short answer...none of the above.i made some mistakes. i made some doozies.
but i finished the darn thing. i am happy. i have completed my first half iron. the race was a good learning experience. my next one will be in june of 2008. i will shave time! now, all i gotta do is get ready for my first marathon in january!
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