Skip and Diana's first official 1/2 Ironman distance triathlon! Woohoo!
Don't we look happy before the start?
At a few minutes after 8am, we began the swim in Lake Berryessa. 1.2 miles that ended up being a bit less. Skip was out in 22 minutes and I was out in under 30 (but took a detour to get my sandals before going over the pad). Our times are why we know it was less than 1.2 miles although we would be thrilled if it was accurate.
On to the bike course which was accurate. Lots of hills on this course, not much flat. It starts out with an out and back on the road which later becomes the run course. This portion is long rollers and a good way to warm up (or burn out if you are not careful). We then progressed out to highway 128 and worked our way down the lake. The backside of the bike had some pretty rough road but the countryside was beautiful. I was debating with myself during the ride as to whether I would prefer rough road with very few cars or smooth road with traffic. I'm still not sure what the answer is, but we had both on this 56 mile ride.
We had another out and back on Pope road and I was able to see that Skip had about 1/2 hour lead on me. I got to see Diana there too before turning back towards the lake. The meanest thing about this course is that there are 2 formidable hills in the last couple of miles. They are a bit of a surprise because you know that you are higher than the lake and need to return to the lake soon, but you still climb!!!
As I turned into transition I went right into a HUGE pothole. By the time I saw it there was no way to avoid it so in I went. I figured if I got a flat from it, I would walk the 1/2 mile in to transition but my trusty Orbea did not let me down and we continued in without issue.
The 13.1 mile run was pretty difficult with all hills and no shade. I adjusted my usual strategy of 30 second walk at mile markers to drink, to 30 steps during the long uphills. It seemed to work well as I made the 1/2 way point in 59 minutes. The course is 2 out and backs so I got to see Skip and Diana on this portion as well. I was very happy to do the second loop in the same time and finish the run under 2 hours. Skip beat me overall by about 5 minutes... I just needed a few more miles to catch him! Diana was 20 minutes under her time goal!!! Overall, another great training day!
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