You are going to need shoes if you are going to run a half marathon

Wow! What a day! My first half iron distance race!
The day started with Deb and I meeting up with Rob Thirlwell at Stony Plain and heading out to the the start of the swim course at Hubbles Lake.  As we arrived at the lake, there were a lot of people arriving and Deb asked, "What would people have in those plastic bags?"  I said those are for the second transition and they would have their run....  I forgot my running shoes. OMG!

We parked and checked with the organizers and it was OK if Deb went home and picked up my running stuff and brought it to the second transition zone for me. She saved the day!
OK I need a check list.
It was all set to go and I left my running bag sitting at home. (it is the white plastic bag that I showed in my previous entry).
I need to do a check list and use it.





The swim started,  I kept to the outside of the course and that allowed me to make sure I had swimmers on my right hand side. I was able to stay pretty straight and felt good in the water. Not that fast, but I was feeling comfortable.  After 49 minutes and 18 seconds I ran across the beach and into transition 1.




They had a volunteer there to help me off with my wetsuit. I sat down and he pull it off the suit with one mighty swoosh. I was up and running to find my bike in a maze of 650 bikes. The harsh reality is that 562 of the bikes had already left and were on the way to the finish line. I slipped on my bike shoes, helmet and ran to the red line where I could hop on the bike.

I passed Deb as I climbed the hill from the lake, she was headed home to get my runners. I figured she had about three hours to get home and back, otherwise I would be showing up at the next transition and my race would be in jeopardy.

As I made the turn onto HWY 16 I was surprised that as I started to ride I was passing a whole bunch of people. Hmm.  OK, I was being very careful not to draft as there was a motor bike marshal watching for drafting and as I was passing I would be sure to pass in the allowed 15 second window. There was a pretty strong head wind as I headed West towards the turn around point 45 kms away.

 I saw Deb at the side of the road as I turned the last corner, I was heading for T2. Feeling pretty good, but not pushing too hard, I finished the bike in 3:03:48.   When I arrived, I had my run bag waiting for me. Whew!

My run went pretty good as I was able to keep a steady pace going.  Along the run course there were a lot of team mates that kept shouting out encouraging comments. We would call out to each other as we passed and would cheer on each others efforts.

As I headed toward the finish line I saw Deb waiting for me and when I crossed at 5:54:10 a lot of my team mates were there,  cheers and high fives followed. It was a great feeling.

My final stats:
390th place out of 646
44 of 82 in my M50-59 group.
562 in the swim
397 in the bike
301 in the run

Swim, bike, run,  love it!


Now to do double that... I think I'll make a check list.