Race Report

It has almost been a week since racing Lone Star. Time goes very quickly, as I recover and try to get ready for Easter. Galveston island is still suffering from hurricane Ike that tore the city apart last year. Most buildings have some kind of visible damage, and the beaches are covered with debris. But they hosted the best triathlon I have been to in years. It helps that I got a huge PR and felt the best I ever have.

I lined up race morning on the front of the swim. My goal was to go out hard the first 500m or so and then settle into a nice pace. The wind was picking up and the water was choppy but I felt like I was flying through the water. I came out of the water in 3rd, and 3 min faster than last year. This is a slow swim with the currents and tide but I felt fresh!

On to the bike, rolling out to the Seawall my legs(namely my glutes) felt tight and slow. I used the little up hill to stand and stretch and then settled into my aerobars for the next 2 1/2 hours. The winds were picking up and my nutrition was messed up. My husband forgot to pack the CarboPro, so I had to figure out how to get an extra 180 calories into my body without my stomach revolting. It was tough at times to find the right gear, sometimes pushing too hard or spinning too easy. Going into this race I was not sure of my swim or bike fitness but I knew my running was coming along nicely. So my goal was not to trash myself on the bike but to have a great run. Coming into transition I felt awesome! Better than ever and knew I was ready to pop off a great run split.

The first mile is always a test to see if the stomach is handling the nutrition and how the legs feel and I felt great! My first mile was 7:47 and this was easy! Then the next thing you know I felt a sharp stinging pain in my foot as if I had just stepped on a cactus needle. Something went into my foot, or I just cracked a bone. It hurt but quiting would have hurt more. So I ran and I ran hard. My foot was going between hurting so bad I did not think I could take another step to not hurting at all. The run was four loops and seeing the crowd and my husband cheering me on every 3.4 miles was the best feeling. As I finished the last loop I knew I could do it. My goal was to run sub 8 min miles and I finished in 1:43! This is my fastest half-ironman run split to date. I placed 4th in my age group with a final time of 5:05!

My foot is getting better by the day. It could have been a tiny shard of glass in there I'm not sure. Thank you to all of my friends and family who believed in me and have supported me through the years! Good luck to all my friends running Boston next week, go kick butt! Cheers!!!!