South Carolina Half Ironman!

This weekend's race went really well! It was the perfect prep that I needed physically and mentally to prepare me for Worlds!

Saturday was kind of a hectic day as usual. I woke up early to get my pre-race brick in and because I needed to be sure to fill my car up with gas before heading out of town, I spent a decent amount of my brick time waiting in the gas line. So I didn't spend as much time doing my pre-race warmup as I was supposed to have done because I was trying to book it to Cooper's baseball game! But I made it just in time!

The game was filled with drama as Cooper was having some difficulties. A story I'll fill you in with later, but I left with a bit of a broken heart as my little man went home and I was off to South Carolina.

The drive wasn't so bad. A few small moments of panic of not being able to find gels and then I couldn't find the hotel. So I went and got registered and checked in only to find the place I'd had a reservation at and it was NOT ok. I swear I'm no snob! I knew going in that it wasn't going to be the best place because my lazy self waited until the last minute to find a hotel room. But this place was BAD! Old, musty, bad crowd. I just couldn't do it. Thank goodness there was a cancellation at the Days Inn, so I was able to get a room over there! I got settled, organized, and focused on the race!

Sunday morning wasn't nearly as cold as I thought it was going to be. I woke up earlier than I had set my alarm for because I never sleep well the night before a race. I felt pretty calm, cool, and collective about the whole thing, which was good. I went into this race for the purpose of testing my race strategies and learning from them, so I wasn't putting too much pressure on myself, which was good! As soon as I got into transition, Danni came over and introduced herself! She's a really sweet girl from blog land, and it was so nice meeting her. I also ran into one of my team mates, Steve who I didn't know was racing. And I got to say hello to Wes before the start as well!

The swim was really good! I swam a 35 in Hawaii in the ocean without a wetsuit, so I was hoping to do faster than that at this race considering it was a lake, wetsuit swim. I went off in wave 5 with all the women 39 and under, and though I went for it right at the gun in an effort to latch on to the back of the lead pack, I just couldn't get connected to them! So I ended up swimming pretty much the whole time by myself. It was weird almost. I kept thinking I was off course or something, but I swam straight from bouy to bouy, so I think there may have been just a lot of room out there or something. I ended up swimming a 33:33, which I was very happy with. I know better than to think I can swim super fast, and honestly in comparison to others, I wasn't one of the slower swimmers. So I feel like that is continuing to get a little better and better each time!

As I mentioned before, I've really focused on transitions this year, as last year my transitions were always slow. I had seen the transition times from year's past and felt like I should be able to do at least sub 2min on each. I came out of T1 with a 1:32. Again, really happy with that!

Going into the bike, I had a lot to think about. I'd not seen the course, but had heard a lot about it. I had heard that the first 20 miles were kind of hilly and then it was more rolling after that. I also knew that the roads were supposed to be kind of bad in certain locations. Kind of chewed up gravel with pot holes and such. I actually know a guy that wrecked 2 years ago and had to have surgery on his collar bone, so wasn't expecting this to be a super fast bike. Based off of previous times, I was hoping for a 2:40-2:45. I actually was feeling great for the first 20 miles! Yeah, I thought it was a little hilly, but legs were just kind of bouncing up the hills and all was well! After the 20 miles of hills though, came the crappy roads, and I felt like I couldn't really get my pace up that much with those types of roads. Plus, my back started killing me at this point, but I was just ignoring it. I could tell that I was on pace for the 2:40 split, so I kept pushing it a little. I came off of the bike thinking I'd hit the 2:40-2:41 range. I knew I had slowed down coming into transition some and I'd spent a little time getting my feet out of my shoes and my watch off of my bike. So when I saw my final bike split result of 2:43:04, I was a little disappointed. But, I felt I did pretty well, so I'm ok with that.

Coming into the run, I was feeling really good! I knew it was a little rolling, and I didn't want to set my sights too high, so Jen and I had figured 1:50-1:51ish. She told me to take the first mile really easy, and then get my speed up to like 8:30 splits for the first 1/2 of it. I was running what I felt like was really easy and realized I was running too fast of course, but I didn't feel like I was running too hard at all, so I just went off of effort. It was a out and back loop x 2. It got pretty warm out there on the run. But not horrible. It was mostly bad in this one particular 2 mile section that you were just out on the pavement directly in the sun. And we did that part 4 x, so that was a little daunting, but I managed. By mile 4, my splits were getting slower. The fatigue started to set in and my stomach was feeling really full. I kept sipping on fluids through the aid stations only because I knew I needed it, but not because I really wanted it. I refused to let myself walk. I only slowed to a walk for a few seconds to get my sips in through the aid stations. I was really proud of that, because on most races, I end up walking a little bit. But not this time!

I went into the race hoping to come out with a sub 5:15. By mile 10, I knew that a sub 5:10 was possible if I picked it up a bit and stayed with it. In every race I've ever done, the most of a kick I've ever been able to do is like 1/2 mile. So for me to take those last 3 and get moving again, was something I was really happy with myself for doing. I REALLY wanted that sub 5:10, and I wasn't going to give it away right at the end!!

I finished with a 5:09:04. My run ended up being 1:49:42, so justs under my 1:50 goal! I thought if I got in under 5:15 that would be good for top 10. Unfortunately, there were a lot of fast girls there yesterday, and I ended up finishing 11th overall. I missed the top 10 by one stinking second! Me and this woman were sprinting it out up this big hill at the end, and she took me by that one second right at the line! Shucks!! I'm always SOOOO close, but oh well! :) I did finish first in my age group though, and PR'd my 70.3 distance by 17:50. So overall, a very good day!

Congratulations to Danni and Kevin on their first Half Ironmans! And to Wes on a 9 min pr as well!