Wow. I know know what it feels like to compete in a world championship half-ironman with about half the training typically deemed necessary. One word. OUCH! But, my swim was a little better thanks to Matt Finigan and the Judge Memorial swim team. I am planning on training them dryland in exchange for swimming lessons all winter. Already, I am improving. Not quite enough for this weekend, but watch out next year, I will be killing the field!!!

So no pics of the bike, but I feel like I did pretty well. Averaged 23 MPH and felt strong. The frustrating thing is that so many people drafted. At least I know I raced an honest race, but it was frustrating to see other people post better results overall because they drafted. Oh well. Soon I'll beat them regardless. Art is helping me big time with the bike and it will be there.

My run was surprising awesome for me. I was hoping to hit somewhere in the hour 30 minute range, but since it was only my second Ironman 70.3 ever, I wasn't sure what to expect. I felt slow, but my posted time was 1:34:54 (7:14 second miles). I am pleased with that, but again I know I will do better.

My overall time was 4 hours and 45 minutes. Kind of funny, I started at 7:15 AM and finished at noon on the dot!

Other good things are I got to spend some time with my friend Angela Snyder who is one of those wonderful souls who helped me get into cycling. I also met up with my friend Ramon Serrano and his cute wife whom I met at St. Croix 70.3 in May. He is the one who took all of the pictures of me posted today. Thanks Ramon! Since my housing fell through the day before my race, I also got to stay with my good friend Philipe and his sister Catherine at their hotel. I love my friends! They and beautiful sunny days make my world go around!