Hot, Humid,.... did I say hot?

Before the race Marianne and I bumped into our friend and training partner Terri. I used to train with her in Tucson and we hadn't seen each other in 4 years. She is a profesional triathlete and travels around racing quite a bit now. It was fun rehashing old times with her.

So about the race. I knew from looking at past results that I'd have to finish pretty close to 4 1/2 hours to have a shot at qualifying for Kona. I'd gone that time before in another race but this course was tougher. I don't remember ever feeling heat and humidity like that during the full IM race. The swim went perfectly in the most crystal clear water I think I've ever raced in. I had a strong start and didn't get tangled up too bad with the other 1000 or so people racing. The bike course is on the same road as the IM race so I knew what to expect from that. Coming off the bike I was about 7 minutes behind my goal time so it was all going to come down to whether I had a good run that day or not. The first mile went fine and my hopes were rising when my quadriceps started cramping at the top of a hill, which surprised me because I had never experienced it in that situation before. Maybe an electrolyte imbalance? I walked a bit until they loosened up then got back into my rhythm, but I couldn't maintain my pace for more then a few miles before they started to seize up again. So instead of a 1:30 half marathon I ended up with a 1:43 which put the kabosh on my placing top 3 in my age group. So no joy this year. Here are the final results. I'm way down there in 72 place.

I'm already scheming about how I will come back and dominate my age group in this race next year. I also have IM New Zealand in March and possibly IM Australia in November on my calender for next year. My name did come up at the awards for a Half IM championship slot which is this new thing they've started the last few years. But who wants to fly all the way to Florida in December for a half IM when you live in Hawaii?