Half Triathlon

It's been a while since I've posted. Partly I've been waiting to make enough progress on a single cross stitch piece to photograph (too much jumping around from project to project). And partly I've been occupied with training for and worrying about a half-ironman race. The race was this past weekend, and I am so happy to have it done! It was gorgeous, and not as hot as I had expected. The swim went well--definitely my best open water swim ever. Inspired by that (and by the caffeine in an energy gel), I went out a little too hard in the bike. The run was tough as a result, and was excruciating at the end. But I managed to make it across the finish line just 4 seconds under my dream goal time of 7 hours! My sister and brother-in-law were there to cheer us on, and it was so great to see friendly faces at the transition and at the finish line.
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swim 42 min
T1 6 min
bike 3 hr 49 min
T2 6 min
run 2 hr 16 min
total: 6 hr 59 min 56 sec
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I'm not sure I ever want to do that again, but we are talking about how to improve our times already, so I suppose it's a done deal . . . I could take a few minutes off the swim, and finish under 40 minutes. I could certainly take 5 minutes off the transitions. The biggest improvement would be in the bike--I bet I could make 3 hrs 30 min instead of 3 hrs 50 if I train harder and get aero bars (or pick an easier course!). And the run might only improve by 5 minutes or so. But that would get me under 6:30. I'm not sure when I'd like to do another. At the moment I'd rather focus on hiking and yoga, and I'd like to do a marathon next year some time.