Fortunately, a unique travel experience and my first 70.3 podium (2nd place) made all the travel worthwhile.
The nitty gritty of the race itself can be summed up pretty quickly–shocker of a swim (not in a good way), solid bike, solid run. I’ve been working pretty hard on the swim the last few months, and had started to gain a bit of confidence. Maybe too much. Within 50 meters of the start, I had been dropped like a hot potato. And, I do mean hot–the water was easily 85 degrees, and my goggles were steaming up like the car windows of two high schoolers on prom night.
It took a few strokes for the reality to set in that I was going this one alone. After a split second of panic, I decided that I absolutely did not travel 30 hours to blow it in the first minute of a race. I focused on turning the arms over and starting counting down the buoys.
Exiting the water, I couldn’t resist a quick glance at my watch, and immediately wished I hadn’t. Yikes!! What was I doing, bathing out there?! A fresh wave of panic-induced adrenaline washed over me, and I flew through transition and out onto the bike course as fast as my legs would carry me. The first half of lap 1 of the 3 loop course was spent mashing the pedals as if there was no tomorrow. I soon realized that if I tried to keep this up, there just might be no tomorrow–or at least no kind of respectable run–and settled into a slightly less than all out effort for the rest of the bike.
Around mile 25, I started catching some of the other pros, which helped with the motivation factor. As I racked my bike, I heard the race announcer say that I was in 3rd position, but I knew that there were at least two very strong runners not far behind me.
I took off scared–both of the girls behind me and of the heat / humidity, but ultimately just had to focus on my own run. 3 miles in, I managed to pass one girl, but Aussie ITU-er Rachel Paxton (super cool chick that we’ll be seeing more of, no doubt!) wasn’t letting me gain a second on her. I finished in 2nd place, knowing I’d done what I could out there and proud of my performance. It was also a perfect tune up for IM FL, which is coming up fast!!
Dear Katya,
Congrats on your podium finish. I was there too doing my first ever half ironman and managed to complete it in a slow 7hr plus.
My wife was there to cheer me. As she read through the race program booklet, she saw your name. Now she’s making u her idol, as she thinks that u have a perfect body of an athlete.