My First Half Ironman: Augusta 70.3 Race Report

Well I did it - some how I manged to survive my first 70.3 Half Ironman...although it's taken me about nearly five weeks to fully process the entire event and begin to convince myself that I'd ever want to do it again :)

Here's the shortened version-

1. Swimming anxiety as expected but finished in 34:18

2. Bonked on the bike but finished in 3:57:15

3. Had a mental breakdown in T2 for at least 5:00

4. Continued to smile the entire race

5. Limped through the run but finished my first HIM in 7:25:16

6. Raised nearly $2,500 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

and for those of you interested the more detailed version below...

Swim Start - 

The Swim (0:34:18)-

In case you had any doubts, 1.2 miles of swimming is a long way! It doesn't matter that there's a current on your side.. you hope to be done in like 5 minutes only to realize you have quite a bit to go in the water! When we took off from the dock I felt great... I started swimming along just fine and counting my strokes...1, 2, 3, breathe and repeat. Unfortunately at one point I let myself think too much and I started pondering the gators in the Savannah River which automatically sent me into a panic! What if one of those things comes and eats me...will anyone even notice?! This resorted to me flipping onto my back a few times to try and calm myself down.


T1 (0:05:44)-

The Bike (3:57:15) - The longest bike ride of my life (well not literally but it sure did feel like it!)

T2 (0:07:32) - One thing that you wouldn't never know from the pictures is what happened once I got into transition. I was honestly so relieved to be done with the bike/mentally exhausted/physically drained that I just plopped down on my mat and started sobbing. I honestly wasn't quite sure at the time why I was crying, but the thought of going on to run this half marathon didn't calm me down. I knew though that not finishing was simply not an option. After a few more minutes of crying, my pity party was over. I put on my ankle brace, slipped on my shoes and headed over to the sunscreen tent. Eventually I was out on the road and no one even knew about my little meltdown since I had gone in and come out of transition smiling. 

The Run (2:40:27) -Well this was painful! The only thing I could think of was how soon can I find Adam to get some Advil. My sprained ankle was in so much pain but I was determined to finish this race.

The Finish (7:25:16) -