I headed into Vineman with relatively conservative expectations. I had come off of the hypothermia/DNF at BAM slowly and it had wiped out a good chunk of training for this race. I hammered out a couple 20hr weeks and felt good so I remained optimistic. There were many reasons for putting this race on the schedule this season, but probably the biggest was I had not done a half IM in two years and had many demons to battle at this distance. Regardless of the time off I had going into this race, I felt better trained and prepared for this half than I had previously for my other two half IM's under a previous coach. I did have a new level of confidence in myself knowing I had been well trained and Melissa had spent some good time with me working on pacing for this distance.
It was rather cool in the morning but I believed I would be okay with the water temps hovering around 73 degrees. I was cold on the bike, but kept my head in the game and remained patient.
On this course, it is natural to negative split the bike by the nature of the terrain. When I hit 28miles at 1:27, I knew I was going to have a great bike split. But low and behold, a headwind picked up, and I found the second half of the bike was not going as fast as I had hoped targeting a sub 3 hour bike split. I decided at that point to up the watts and get myself in under the 3 hour mark. 2:59:11!!! Yea! As I hit the run, I could not believe how strong I felt on this rolling hill course. I was so grateful for Melissa at this point for getting me prepped so well! I started feeling the distance at around mile 10 but at that point I said "it's only a 5k left"! I sucked it up and kept my feet moving. I hit a 1:53 run which I am happy with for that course. Although, I did keep saying to myself "gosh, if it were flat, I'd be running faster." I had a dear client Bob supporting me throughout the day and I saw him at 1mile left. His encouraging presence helped me pick it up one more notch and I flew into the finish! 5:33:00!! A 45 min PR on a very challenging course! I felt great!
I went to the roll down to support clients that had received spots and I was flabbergasted to receive a slot myself. It was beyond my greatest expectations! Dave, my guardian angel (and Vineman race director) was there to present it to me and his sister was the one who I accepted it from. Needless to say, you can tell by the photo, I was a little overcome by emotion to think I will be racing with the best in the world representing the USA.
On this course, it is natural to negative split the bike by the nature of the terrain. When I hit 28miles at 1:27, I knew I was going to have a great bike split. But low and behold, a headwind picked up, and I found the second half of the bike was not going as fast as I had hoped targeting a sub 3 hour bike split. I decided at that point to up the watts and get myself in under the 3 hour mark. 2:59:11!!! Yea! As I hit the run, I could not believe how strong I felt on this rolling hill course. I was so grateful for Melissa at this point for getting me prepped so well! I started feeling the distance at around mile 10 but at that point I said "it's only a 5k left"! I sucked it up and kept my feet moving. I hit a 1:53 run which I am happy with for that course. Although, I did keep saying to myself "gosh, if it were flat, I'd be running faster." I had a dear client Bob supporting me throughout the day and I saw him at 1mile left. His encouraging presence helped me pick it up one more notch and I flew into the finish! 5:33:00!! A 45 min PR on a very challenging course! I felt great!
I went to the roll down to support clients that had received spots and I was flabbergasted to receive a slot myself. It was beyond my greatest expectations! Dave, my guardian angel (and Vineman race director) was there to present it to me and his sister was the one who I accepted it from. Needless to say, you can tell by the photo, I was a little overcome by emotion to think I will be racing with the best in the world representing the USA.
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