Waves to the left of me, waves to the right of me

As I write this blog both Jeff and I are sitting on the sofa, legs up, belly full of food, in our PJs and ready for bed....is 6:00 p.m. too early to go to bed?

 

As far as I am concerned after what I did today at Sylvan Lake in the Half Iron I can go to bed whenever I like..  What a day it was, full of surprises.

 

Surprise #1 - Barb and Cindy, two running buddies were there doing their first Olympic Tri. 

 

Ladies I am so proud of you both I hope you enjoyed your first tri experience.  Barb made me laugh thou, I ask her how it went and her answer was "That was the grossest thing I have every done". 

 

Surprise #2 - my stepson Jake and his girlfriend, Beth, came to watch Jeff and I do our tris and Shelley and Ralph (who also did the Olympic tri) stayed to watch me finish (thanks everyone).

 

I did this race last year, it was my first half iron, and seemed to take me forever my overall time last year was 8:01 and this year, I was bound and determined to kick some ass and beat my time.  AND I DID!

 

The Swim

 

Swim started at 8:00 a.m. and the water was really choppy.  I had never swum in water like this before, it was really tough.  When I swam forward 6 strokes the waves put me back 2 strokes and the first 500 meters of the swim I took in most of the lake and burped my way thru the 2nd 500 meters of the swim.  Thankfully I had a kayaker near me the whole time cause I was panicking as I could not swim like I regularly do.  Finally I got the first 1K done.  Then realized I had do it all over again.

 

I have to tell you, the swim was so tiring and so discouraging I was almost ready to get into one of the boats that some of the others swimmers had gotten into and quit the race obtaining my first DNF.

 

But, if I could do the first kilometer then surely I could another...the 2nd kilometer wasn't so bad (LOL), I was assigned a kayaker to take care of me (Rick) he was wonderful.  He never left my side for 1K and keep telling me over and over again how great I was and that I had this.  So with his words of encouragement I put my head down and just got it done.

 

2K swim took be about 56 minutes, I did not care it was over.  But looking back on it now it was great training to swim in choppy water like today cause you won't always get calm water in Ironman.

 

T1

 

I took my time in T1, ensuring I ate, got everything I needed for the bike and just slowed down.  I know I was there for at least 5 minutes but after the swim I needed to just chill and get my head space into the bike portion of the race.

 

The Bike

 

All I can say about the bike is I KICKED ASS.  It was fantastic, same route as last year, very hilly and this time a headwind.  I ensured I ate and drank on a regular basis, powered up the hills and went speedy on the flats.  This year I passed everyone I could... oh what a feeling!

 

Time on my bike was approximately 3 hours 39 minutes.

 

T2

 

Not sure what my time was for this Transition but like T1 I took my time.  Then I was off running.

 

The Run

 

Today was my dads birthday and I promised him a 2:30 half time.  I had to work hard to get this for him - as I don't know my actual time for each portion of this event I believe I accomplished this!  Happy Birthday Dad

 

It was funny, on the run I just kept going.  Sure once in a while I stopped as my legs were tired but I didn't stop for long as I had seen the clock at the finish line and on my 3rd loop on the run it read 6:33.  I only had 5K more to run and as tired as I was there was no way on God's Green Earth I was going to stop running, I knew if I kept going I could finish in 7 hours 15 minutes.   So I said to my cheering section as passed them on my last run lap "I am going to see you in 45 minutes cause then I'll finish in 7 hours and 15 minutes."

 

Off  I went and the next thing you know I was crossing the finish line and I crossed it in.......

 

 7:11

 

Actual swim/T1/Bike/T2 and Run times to follow cause I am off to bed...at 7:14 p.m.