I'm not sure if it counts.

But, I did indeed PR yesterday. By 26 minutes.

I'm just saying it might not count because the only other half I've done was Wildflower, and everyone knows that course is stupid hard. And so maybe, in relative terms, I actually did better at Wildflower.

I don't know.

Regardless, yesterday's course was no cakewalk. I guess 70.3 miles will never be easy, but the route was also actually kind of difficult.

First off, the camping was a blast. I set up my own tent (!) and met some people camping nearby and just had a great time. Beforehand, I had been doubting the decision to not just stay in a hotel, but I'm infinitely glad I stayed at the campground. It was a skiing lodge area, so there were plenty of amenities (no, not 'real' camping), but it still felt adventurous.

And onto the race...

The swim actually went pretty well. I didn't go all that fast, but I maintained the pace at which I've been training (2:00/100 meters), so I'm pretty happy with that. After all, it is harder to navigate through open water than follow a little black line in the pool. I had the blinding-sun-in-eyes problem for one of the three stretches, but otherwise the swim was basically uneventful. I managed to actually draft off of people at times, which made me proud. It really does make a big difference...

I was using a new wet-suit (because I lost my TNT one at Wildflower), and this one had no sleeves. I was nervous about the whole using something new on race day thing, but it (luckily) ended up being great. I got the warmth and buoyancy from the suit without the shoulders being constricted. Plus, the suit was on sale because it was one they had used to rent out once before. So, I got a once-used suit for half off. Not bad, eh?

Twenty minutes before the race was supposed to start, I discovered a flat tire (how do tires go flat overnight? anyone?), and had to quickly run into the Mavic tent, where they were awesome and helped immediately. I knew it was okay, but the whole thing just kind of made me more-than-usual-nervous about the bike maintenance while I was riding. Of course, other than one dropped chain, everything was fine. My stupid head going around in circles about whether or not I would flat again was more trouble than anything else...

The bike course was hard. I think they under-bill it on the website. They say it has some challenging hills, but they fail to mention that the extra-hard hills are during the last 10m. And, there was never a course elevation profile posted, unless I just couldn't find it. A cruel, cruel trick. So, since the course was an out and back, and the hills were at the beginning (then it was flat for the middle section), there were obviously hills again at the end. Those last 8m? Torture. 7mph, snail up the seeming-mountains, torture.

(To be fair, Travis did warn me about the bike course, but I choose to ignore his advice. I'm full of smarts as usual, eh?)

So of course I was happy to get going on the run. I don't really mind running in a triathlon. Sure, my legs are tired, but overall, they're just so happy to be done with the pedaling, that they'll run wherever I tell them to. Not that it was easy, mind you. I ran a 2:19, and I should be able to finish in closer to 2 hours. But, I was still okay with the run, because I did actually run the vast majority of the course. I walked through some aid stations (there were 17! on the course), and up one hill, but other than that I was running, even if not very fast.

The race was very well organized. I guess that's because it was an official 70.3 race. You get what you pay for, eh? They treated it like an IM, with a special needs bag and lots of food at the run aid stations. When they talked about it at the pre-race meeting, I thought it was a bit excessive, but during the race I realized it was good, especially for people doing their first half.

My only complaint is that the course wasn't all that pretty. Maybe I've just been spoiled by riding through Vermont and France and California, but New Hampshire is a beautiful place too; it seems like they could have found a better route than a bunch of highways...

On the other hand, the lake where we swam was beautiful, and the run wasn't bad at all. Of course, by the time you're running, you don't care much about the view, but there were definitely some nice ones out there.

So, overall, I was happy with the race, and I'm SO glad I did it.

And here we go...Welcome back to endurance racing, Curly Su. I realized I haven't done an endurance tri since France last year. A marathon, sure...but it's obviously just not the same.

So of course, I have a bunch of new goals. I want to cut some significant time. I just barely broke 7 hours (6:54:07), and I would like to get that down to closer to 6 hours. I think if I work hard enough (and pick a relatively easy race), I can even break 6. I can cut at least 5 minutes off of my swim without much effort. And then, the bike should obviously be MUCH faster...with some real work, I hope to be able to cut more than a half hour off of my 3:46 bike time. And then if I can run a 2:00 half instead of a 2:20, I'll have the 6 hour goal. I should be able to do it. I just have to actually train, and train with some speed instead of just winging it like I do with way too much lately.

I won't be satisfied until I know I've done my best (even if semi-failure does lead to disappointment, i.e. my LA Marathon), so I might as well give it my all now instead of just talking about it for the rest of my life.

And, this race also gave me a new IM goal. I want to break 14:00. Of course, just completing an IM is huge, but I've done that already, and it's about time to get to the next level. I know now that I CAN just 'do' a Half IM; but that's not what it's about. (And not advisable considering that my whole body feels like one big bruise this morning.)

Instead, It's about pushing yourself and knowing that you just did something you never thought possible. So that's what I'm going to do.

Ready? I am.