Yeah, I completed it! It was about as painful as I figured it would be. :)
We woke up at 4am on race day and got in line for the parking at about 4:40. The staff told us that the parking lots would fill up around 5am, so we wanted to get a spot so we didn't have to be dependent on a shuttle bus. I was really excited at 4am honestly. But by 5:30, I wanted to go back to sleep. We stayed in the warm truck for awhile though and waited for it to warm up. There wasn't too much to do as our bikes were already in the transition area the night before. But when it got closer to the start we went to the transition area and put air in the tires, and organized the transition area like we wanted. Man, there were soooo many bikes squeezed into such a small area. It was pretty crazy..
In prep, I had only swam 1 mile twice, and the timing of those swims was about an hour. So I finished the 1.2 mile swim in 1:09 which is not too bad. True, I was dead last in my age group in the swim, but it just gives me something to shoot for next time. I am happy that I didn't finish last overall. I spotted the field 9 minutes once the swim was complete, and did better on the bike and run than a few so I am happy. It was fun.. I actually passed a bunch of people on the bike (and got passed by a bunch).. But.. It was a good experience. It was definitely the most climbing that I've done. Some of those hills were amazing.. Take a look at it: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/45882336
We started the race in waves based on age. There were 2 groups in my age group (35 - 39 as there were so many of us). The cutoff for the swim was an hour and 30 minutes after the last wave started (and there were about 4 waves after I started I think), so I wasn't too worried about missing the cutoff, but I was a little. In a normal start though (non-wave start), the cutoff would be 1:10, so I would've beaten it by 1 minute! Whew!
The running was horrible. Right away, it started uphill and that really killed me. I think if it was a flatter course initially, I would've done better. But it was definitely a hard course (for me). The description was "rolling hills" and I didn't really know what to expect, but there were definitely some long climbs on the run. Also, it was 2 loops.. And that SUCKED because once I completed my first 6.6 miles many people were finishing up their race, and I had to keep on going for another lap. But I kept thinking "free beer, free beer".. We received one free beer after the race, so it was great motivation (although 2/3 of the way through the run I thought I could really stop and buy myself beer without any problem). I'm fairly sure I ran more than I walked.. :)
I honestly could've done a little better on the run, but during the last third of the run I joined up with 2 other people who were awesome and we did a group run/walk thing. A couple of times I thought about leaving them, but we were really having too much fun as a group. And I wasn't really going to win or anything.. :)
Right after the race, I really thought I had done my last half ironman, but now.. I don't know.. I could probably do another.. or contemplate trying the full.. We'll see. I really do love biking, and hate to tell my friends I can't bike with them because I need to run. So.. I'm not sure yet what my future plans will be concerning endurance races. I know I will do a couple of small triathlons next year (I own a wetsuit now; I HAVE to use it, right?? :) )
We were really concerned about the weather. My friend kept checking the weather like every half hour and we thought it would definitely rain pretty hard on us. But we lucked out really. It rained somewhat lightly when I was on miles 20 - 23 on the bike. It was an out and back course, and when I came back to that same area the roads were wet, which made some of the turns slower than they normally would've been. But that really was it. On the run, it was a slight drizzle most of my run, but that really helped me overall. If it would've been very hot, I would definitely have suffered a lot more.
The race was organized very well. SO many great volunteers. There were actually 16 water/food stations for the 13.1 mile run. And there were enough for the biking portion as well. It is amazing how much it helps to have complete strangers ringing the cowbells and telling you that you are doing a great job! Really, everytime I heard that I kicked it up a notch and kept on going on... SO thank you to everyone, even though they aren't ever going to read this. :) But remember that in the future.. all of the audience's cheers do help (at least to me).
Thanks again for all of the support!
The End
:)
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