Half-Iron Distance - Done

So we had a beautiful day on Amelia Island for the Atlantic Coast Triathlon. It was a little breezy and warmed up to about 85, but overall, the conditions were pleasant. I finished the race and set my personal best bar pretty low for my next race at this distance. My total time was 6:58. It broke down like this - approximately...
Swim 1.2 miles = 40 minutes
Bike 56 miles = 3:07 (18 mph average)
Run 13 miles = 2:51 (13 min/mile average)
Transition time = 18 minutes (I took my time there with stretching to try and keep my back limber)

My race was going pretty close to my targeted time goals until I hit the ten mile point on the run. This was around 6 hours into the race and I was averaging about 10:30 per mile. Though I had cramping quads throughout the first ten miles, at that point my calves and hamstrings started cramping and I almost fell a couple of times. If I walked, they would not cramp, so I would walk a ways and then try to start running again. No luck. The cramps were just waiting for me to try and run some more and every time I tried, they came back with a vengeance. So I resigned myself to walking the last 3 miles. It was frustrating, but I got to the end and then did a limpy wooden soldier jog the last 50 yards to the timing mat just under 7 hours. So my race that started at 7:20 am, finished around 2:20 pm. What a day.

At no time did I worry that I wouldn't finish. But, at times, I did remind myself that I was doing this for fun and on the few occasions that I was feeling beat, I thought about Team Winter and the fundraising for prostate cancer research through Athletes For a Cure. It was easy to stay motivated.

I was happy to be done and looking forward to a cold beer. The whole family went to grab an early dinner at Beef O'Brady's so I could get a burger and beer and watch Navy beat Air Force again!

My goal for my next half-iron distance race is to finish under 6 hours. I will need to train with more mileage on the run and bike, but I am confident I can make it happen. But, before I do another one of these, I will do my first official half-marathon and I am now considering doing a full marathon which is something I thought I would never do. But after racing for seven hours, I feel like a 4:30 marathon would be not so bad. I guess it is all relative.

Tri it, you might like it. It is addicting.