Gulf Coast Half Ironman
Long day today. Long, hot day today. Raced Gulf Coast Half Ironman today. Sitting here at 10:20 loving the fact that the day is over. Had a great race. Beat my time from last year by almost 20 minutes. 5:22 final time. 11th in my age group. Guess what place they give awards for? Yep, 10. Those of you who know me well know my affinity for hardware and how much this irks me! :)
Up at 4:45. Head to transition. Set up my stuff. My transition spot rocks. Better than the pros....so lucky. No worries about where to go, can I find this when I am running like a chicken with my head cut off into T1 and T1? Back up to the room...down a bagel with almond butter (the breakfast of champions.) Go over my heart rates limits for the ride and run (only to totally ignore them later.) Head down to the water to get ready for my swim wave.
Have a very good swim for me....35 mins. 4 minutes better than last year. All this WITH a jellyfish sting TO THE FACE!!! with 950 yards to go. (Actually sounds worse than it was...didn’t really hurt too much. Just glad my mouth was closed since the little bugger got me right across the kisser.) Run out of the water, see Mike. Head off on the bike. Feel pretty good....kind of boring. So flat. Nowhere to rest/coast at all. Done in 2:50....head out onto the run. Now, I am not sure what the temp was, but it must have been 90 or 900 or maybe more. :) So hot. Tough, tough run. My walks through the water stops kept getting longer and slower. See Mike at mile 9, he’s heading out on his run....we slap hands and continue along our run in HELL. Run 1:52....so glad to be done. Toughest race I’ve ever done. HR was 150 on the bike and 170 (!) on the run. Way above what Kindzia suggested. Kind of scared about the full IM now...this was really tough. I felt BAD on the run. Mile 9 on was pretty much just trying to survive.
Felt pretty sick this afternoon...had to bail on a BBQ with Mike’s relay partner...David. Hope it was fun.
Just got back in from the awards dinner....had fun with Michelle and Eddie. Congrats to MIchelle and Jill who both rocked their races.
Thanks for all the help/great coaching, Kindzia. Can we please take it easy this week????
Heading to bed in a min. Too busy stuffing my fat face full of Fritoes right now to sleep. :)
Saturday, May 12, 2007