race updates

It seems that I have been mysteriously missing from this blog for a while now. Since my last update I completed the Go! St. Louis Half Marathon and the TriZou triathlon.

The half marathon was in April and went better than expected. I didn't have much time to train with the bad weather and my work schedule so I wasn't looking forward to it too much. But it ended up being a nice warm day with no rain (which this year is a miracle with all we've had). I believe that I finished somewhere around 2:47, but don't quote me on that. My only complaint was that pretty much the whole thing from mile 6 on was up hill. From mile 6-8 was an insane hill called "Holy Hill." I don't know who decided to call it that because it was just one straight hill for two miles, the worst part being that you could see the top the whole time, but it was just so far away. At mile 12 there was another tiny hill which kind of crushed your spirit because you were so close yet you still had one more hill. Right after that hill you turned a corner and could see the finish which was horribly deceiving because you still had one mile to go. But all in all it was a great experience. I don't know how many half marathons are in my future but it was fun.

The expo over in Chaifetz arena

Thought this was a good one

The start/finish on race morning

The TriZou on the other hand was not as great. Yet again I had little time to train because of weather and work schedules. I ended up finishing in the same time I did last year which to me was very disappointing because I thought that I did great. My swim was understandable kind of slow, which I'm ok with because swimming has always been my weakest discipline. But my bike on the other hand was horrendous. It was probably partially because I only trained outside once before the race (there's only so much hill simulation you can do on an indoor trainer). And there are a lot of hills. The other reason being that I burned myself out on the bike last year and I didn't want the same to happen this year, but apparently I underestimated how hard I could go by quite a bit. The run was my one shining discipline. I guess all the running I had been doing recently carried over, even though I had only run a few times since the half marathon. My run was about 27 minutes which for me is blazing fast. But all in all, I love the trizou and will probably still try and make it back next year.