the Utah 1/2 Ironman

 For the past 2 months it seems like my life has revolved around getting ready for 1 day....

August 25th and the Utah Half Ironman!!!!

When my friends first told me about this race I thought they were crazy!!! Half marathons are hard enough, but to do one on top of swimming and biking sounded ridiculous!  But as I trained with Alicia and Jenny, I got completely sucked in and am so glad that I did.

I was by far most worried about the swim.  1.2 miles is a long way and if I started panicking like I have in my other races I was not sure that I could tough it out for that long.  It took place in the Provo Boat Harbor which was nice because the water was calm.  It ended up going fine and I was able to finish in about 45 minutes.  The best part of the swim is getting out of the water!

The biking is always my favorite part.  I feel that any time lost floundering in the swim can luckily be made up on the bike.  The course was 56 miles total, 28 miles around Utah Lake and then 28 miles back.  It was basically flat for 90% of the time which was really nice.  It took me 2 hours and 47 minutes and I was so sad when it came to an end about 11:30, because I had a hot 13 miles ahead of me.....

The run was brutal! It was hot, hot, hot and you are not aloud to use Ipods or any headphones, so it was just me and the sound of my breathing for 2 hours and 15 minutes :-(  The one good thing about the run was the aide stations, at every mile they had plenty of cold drinks (including coke, which actually really helped) and there were also mist tents and kids with hoses.  At about mile 8 I hit a serious wall and wasn't sure if I could finish.... I was so hungry!  But some how I battled through and finished in a grand total of 5 hours and 52 minutes. 

My boys, Scott and my dad were all at the finish line.  Dakota immediately wanted my metal and then to go home :-) I wasn't expecting Scott to be at the finish and was so excited to see him.  He was such a trooper with all of my training. I am so happy that I did this race and am even happier to go back to doing sprint triathlons that take about one fifth the time!!!

My worst racing nightmare happened to my cute friend Alicia.... her timing chip was pulled off by another girl during the swim!!! So she had to do the entire race knowing that she would never know her time or how she did.  But I just have to document that she went flying by me and everyone on the bike and for sure had one of the best bike split times out of all the women!  Go Alicia!