I'm an Ironman... well half of one... well, almost.

Last saturday was the UTAH HALF. It is a half Ironman distance triathlon. 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and a 13.1 mile run. I stayed at Cassie's the night before and still had to get up so I could leave by 5am. I got there, got marked up and got all my things ready in the transition area.

Apparently people weren't getting there fast enough so we were delayed a few minutes. Then, when we went to the water for the start (in Utah lake), it was so windy and the water was so choppy, they couldn't place one of the bouys for the swim. After a few more delays, they decided that we only had a small window to do the swim before a storm so they cut the 2nd lap off our open water swim. Bummer. That was supposed to be a strong leg for me.

The swim went ok. I felt strong, but my goggles fogged up and on the way back the sun was in my eyes so it was really hard to tell where I was going. When I got to the boat ramp to climb out, it was so slick I lost a bit of time trying to stand up. I had to beach myself before I could get up. I finally did and it was off to transition 1 (T1).

The transition went fine, except that my plan was to eat a banana before leaving on the bike. I realized a few miles into the bike that I had only taken one bite. Oh well.

The bike was the leg I dreaded most and I soon found out why. It was super windy and slow-going. I tried to stay strong and feel like I got into a rythm for about an hour and a half. Then, on the way back (it was an out and back course) it started hailing. Ouch that hurt. After a few minutes, the hail turned to rain and I think I got more wet on the bike than the swim. About 30 minutes from the end of the bike it stopped raining and I started realizing how bad my butt hurt. Every little bump seemed so painful. Finally the bike was over and as I approached the transition area I was so excited to get off my butt I thought I'd fall flat on my face. Too bad for this story, I didn't.

I changed my shoes put on my shorts with my energy gels and ate the rest of the banana I forgot to eat during T1. I was off on the run. The sun actually came out from time to time and even though we had a few sprinkles, the weather was great for running. I felt good and completed the half marathon run in an hour and 45 minutes; just what I wanted. I was so excited to have completed this race that I did a summersault over the finish line.

My (official) total time for the day was 5:17:25. I'm pretty sure they messed up my swim and bike times but the overall was accurate. So I am officially almost half an Ironman.

P.S. I was a little overhydrated and had to make 4 more stops that were unplanned. I'll let you guess where but I'll tell you only one was in a bathroom.

For my official results click here.