Race Season

     Our race season is finally over.  Our last big race was the Miami Man Half Iron Duathlon.  The race consisted of a 1 mile run followed by a 56 mile bike and a 13.1 mile run.  We spent many weekends biking and running including doing our first century bike ride.

     We chose to fly to Miami so that meant we had to ship our bikes.  Our local bike shop M&M Cyclery where we bought our bikes packed them up and shipped them to a shop in Florida for us.  A few days before the race there was only one bike confirmed as delivered to the shop. After several phone calls with the shop and FedEx it was found that the bike was delivered but the driver forgot to get a signature.

     Two days before the race we headed to the bike shop and test drove our reassembled bikes.  Only one minor adjustment needed to be done to my bike.  On the day before the race we headed to the expo and retrieved our bikes from the dealer there.  We got them set up in transition and covered the chains because rain was expected.

     The morning of the race we had hard rain several times during our drive to the race start.  Fortunately it let up by the time we got there.  We got everything set up in transition and then did our warm-up.  Then it was finally race time.  We watched a few waves of the swimmers start and then it was our turn.  The first mile went well, my husband and I ran together.  Took me a bit of time in transition, I was nervous to go out on the bike.  It was drizzling off and on at this time and the roads were still wet.

     I started a little slow just to get a feel for how the bike was going to handle the wet conditions.  I was glad we had driven the course the day before so I had some idea as what to expect.  The road was pretty smooth and very little elevation change.  The rain stopped but then the wind started to pick up and we had a head wind for the last leg back to transition.  That was a challenge.

     By the time the run started it was hot and sunny.  I started running the first loop but by 4 miles I was run/walking.  The second loop I just fast walked the whole way even passing some people that were running.

     My husband beat me and took first in his age group.  I took second in my age group.  Except for some sunburn and raw spots I am feeling pretty good.  I really have to thank everyone at TFP, The Fitness Pursuit, for all their support but especially Lauri Robinson out trainer.

     It was a long training season but all in all I think it went well and we are both thinking of doing more.  Just have to figure out how it will work out with the family.  I don't want to spend too much time away for the kids and grandson.