I am a Half Ironman

Yesterday I completed my first Half Ironman distance Triathlon event. It was called the Harryman Half Triathlon because it took place in New York's Harriman state park. What this race entailed was swimming 1.2 miles, biking 56 miles, then running 13.1 miles. I completed the race in 6 hours and 27 minutes, and had a great time doing it! The race was in South Fields, NY, which is just north of New York City. Since the race was in a state park, we decided to make the race weekend doubly fun by camping for two nights at Beaver Pond campsite which was about 5 minutes from the race site. It was nice to spend time surrounded by nature, we've been living in the D.C. area for almost two years now! All three components of the race were surrounded by gorgeous nature scenery. When we entered the state park we were instantly glad we had decided to make a camping trip out of it. I will make a another blog post about the camping after this post -- which will be about my Triathlon race. I still don't have the 'official' results from the race, but these are the times based on what the timers showed when I finished each segment.

Swimming:

I finished the 1.2 mile swim in 43 minutes. This is pretty much right on par with what I have been doing in training. The water was 62 degrees (pretty cold) but with a wetsuit it was no problem. In fact, the weather was so nice that the lake actually felt much better than my last Triathlon where the lake's temperature was 68 degrees but raining, dark, and cloudy. The swimming was much more enjoyable in this nice weather, I could see where I was going easier and was able to stay oriented.








Biking:

I finished the 56 mile bike ride somewhere around 3 hours and 30 minutes. This is an average of 16 miles an hour, which is actually a little slow for me. The reason why is because the bike course was grueling. It was a truly difficult race course. It consisted of a 14 mile loop, which you had to do 4 times (56 miles total). What made the course so difficult is that it was all hills. You were either going up or down pretty much the entire time. There was one hill that was extremely steep and had a hairpin U turn that I was not prepared for the first time around and I had to ride off the road into the grass a little bit. To illustrate how steep the hill was, I was going just a fraction under 38 mph down the hill one time; then you had to really dig deep going up the hill for a couple miles. There were a couple people who maybe weren't prepared enough for the race that I saw walking up the hill with their bikes. I can normally average over 18 mph on long rides (centuries). This was a tough course, no doubt about it.
















Running:

So after destroying my quads worse in 56 miles than I normally do in a 100 or even 112 mile bike ride (not to mention I swam over a mile before this as well), I had to get off my bike and run a half-marathon (13.1 miles). Michelle says I did the 13.1 miles in about 2 hours and 15 minutes. At about 10 miles I got tired of looking at my GPS watch (which was showing my exact speed and distance at every moment) and turned it off. My legs had never been so sore. My knees were killing me. But I decided when I started running that I wasn't going to stop running no matter what. And I didn't ever stop, although by the end some people might have called my attempt at 'running' more like 'speed walking.' I never stopped 'running' though.








After I crossed the finish line after 6:27 minutes, they gave me my finisher's medal and Michelle was right there waiting to congratulate me and give me a hug and a kiss. I am grateful that Michelle even wanted to stand near me after how much I had just sweated/been in a lake/poured water all over me while running 13 miles/still had bug spray and sunblock on if it hadn't melted off. Michelle was such a great fan. She cheered for me and took pictures and video at every part of the race, including every time I went around the bike loop. I looked forward to seeing her as I made it to the top of the grueling hill.

All in all, it was a good race. As an added bonus I somehow got second place in the collegiate category. They took my picture with the first place collegiate racer and said they would mail me my prize. To be perfectly honest though, there may have only been two collegiate entrants because they normally announced a first, second, and third place winner in each category and for this category they only announced a first and second (me). The location of the race was beautiful, you couldn't ask for anything more scenic. The biking and running courses were the best that the organizers could create I think, but they were truly difficult courses. I am sure this will all work out to my advantage though training-wise as I am preparing for my long-term goal of doing a full Ironman distance event.