My first half ironman distance. What a crazy thing- to be able to say that I have completed it and I can tell you now, I’ll never forget it.
To be honest, going into this race I was more nervous than I have been in a long time. I believe that my nerves were coming from the fact that I felt like I didn’t know what I was doing and my confidence level was extremely low. I was very ready to show off the work I have put in, but scared as heck at the same time.
The race went just ok for me. My swim felt completely fine and felt like I could have even gone a little faster. The bike was the biggest surprise of all. I raced way faster than I ever trained on my long rides and the entire time I couldn’t believe it. However, I may have over ridden the bike portion just a little because when it came to the run, I already felt decently empty. The first 3-4 miles of the run I felt like myself. I felt like I was going to be able to do exactly what I wanted to do. Then I started getting into miles 5, 6 and 7 and the real pain began – pain that I couldn’t even imagine. For the rest of the 13.1 miles I ended up going through periods of tears, mental breakdowns and complete doubt. I honestly can’t even tell you what got me through the rest of the race. I guess it was the fact that, “I have come this far, how can I give in now??”
I ended up finishing 3rd over all and I have to say I was pretty satisfied with that. My time was 5:34:00 and that was 26 minutes faster than I planned on going, so I was also happy with that. But something is still bugging me about the whole race in my head. I believe it’s just the face that I felt slightly ill prepared and I want to do it better next time. Next year will be different 🙂 So stay tuned.
Until next post 🙂