The Pain!!!

Yep thats right, I knew going into sundays olympic distance race (Nathans) that it was going to hurt if I raced it all out. Seeing that I have been training ONLY for Ironman distance races for 2 solid years now. That means going short + fast = PAIN!!!
I also knew that going in at this distance there was zero chance I would be able to run up to my standards with it taking at least 1-1/2 miles for my achilles to stop hurting every time I run. With this in mind and the fact that we wouldn't be using wetsuits (water temp 82) meant that my swim & my run wouldn't be very good bench marks of where my fitness and hard work is paying off. If you are at all familiar with triathlon that means I only had one other leg to really challenge myself (the bike). I have been really been focusing on my bike leg for about 9 months, and have been really been feeling stronger each week, being able to do climbs that I used to really struggle with. So anyway i was a little disappointed that the bike course was going to be 28miles instead of the standard 24.9 miles that most olympic races are. So I wouldn't be able to compare my previous times, but could campare my speed and my competition. I was very happy to hammer out a 1:07 bike split averaging over 24mph for the entire ride. After comparing this to some of my normal competition, I actually closed some time on them and beat some of the guys that normallt out split me. YEA!!!!!
So I ended up going 2:18:00, 15th overall and 4th in my age group. My swim was wayyyyy slower than normal, but even the very best swimmers where about 2 minutes off their normal swim times so that made me feel a little better, Seems the swim course was about 150 meters long! and my run was so so, but that is ok my eye is on the big day in NOV. where I break 10hrs for the first time in an Ironman!!!!
Great job by my best half Mary. she rocked it as usual coming in as the 4th overall woman, and 1st Age group. Not bad for someone that has bike all of about 50 miles since June!