Patrick's Vineman 2016 Race Report

One thing I want to get out of the way first. Last year, Winnie's and my run times were only one second apart. I've tortured her mercilessly about it all year. She'd say we had the same time and I'd make a point to say "well.... I ran a second faster." Well this year, her run time beat mine handily. By several minutes in fact. So this year the trophy goes to her.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program: Round 2 in Patrick v. Vineman. This battle was just as bloody (metaphorically) as the first.

Lazlo Hollyfeld: How'd you do?
Chris Knight: How'd I do? I passed! But I failed! Yeah!
Lazlo: Well, then I'm happy and sad for you.

Real Genius, 1985

Swim

I expected the swim to take longer than last year. I've been neglecting my swimming lately for a host of weak reasons: work, too tired, wanted to focus on other legs. But I dove in and gave it a go, trying to swim efficiently and save energy for the rest of the race.

Last year's time: 31:40
This year's time:  31:49

A nine second difference? Not bad, not bad at all.

Bike

I expected the bike to take longer too. I've also been neglecting my bike in favor of working on my run. Nonetheless, the bike felt ok. My legs were tired from exertion, but not cramping up. I felt pretty good coming off the bike.

Last year's time: 2:54:19
This year's time:  2:54:21

A two second difference? Two?! Well, I'm nothing if not consistent.

An aside: At one point I was cycling up a hill and got stuck behind a car, which was stuck behind another racer who was in the middle of the lane of this two lane road. Ride to the right, people! The car moved a little left so I started coming up alongside it on the right when the rider up front dodged a camelbak bottle in the road. The driver of the car didn't see it and drove right over it as I passed, exploding the bottle's contents - which by its stickiness I can only assume was Gatorade - all over me. Not the shower nor the hydration I was craving at the time.

T2

Special entry here as a warning to others: Body Glide will liquify in the sun. I opened mine to do a last minute application and instead dumped the melted BG all over everything, including inside my aero helmet. So I have to scrape that out now (it's since solidified. Fun).

Run

I was going to rock this. I hired a run coach and totally changed my run form. I've been doing trail running training. I was not only expecting to cut time off my run, I was going to cut one, maybe even two minutes off my run pace. Last year I ran a 2:25:14; that's an 11:30 mile. Well that's an 11:23 run/walk mile. I KNOW I can do a 9:30 mile for a half-marathon and it wouldn't even be that tough.

I drove the course the night before and dismissed my stretch. It was just too hilly to do a sub 2:00, even fresh. But I could still go for knocking a minute, maaayyybe two off my mile pace. So how'd it go?

Last year's time: 2:29:14
This year's time:  2:25:17

Not even a full four minutes faster. An 11:05 minute mile. But that's not surprising how I felt coming out of transition 2. I don't know what it was, but about a mile into the run I just lost all motivation. My legs were heavy, I had a stitch in my side, and my quads were cramping up. I was miserable. So I allowed myself to walk. At the time I thought "I'll just walk for a couple seconds and then run the rest of the race." And that was probably my undoing. I allowed myself to fail and for the rest of the 13.1 miles, I horse-traded with myself. "Run to that cone and then I'll let you walk up the hill to the next one." Over and over. Just like last year. It got to some points where my Garmin thought I had stopped moving altogether and auto-paused. Towards the end of the run I had to rely on my clock to guesstimate what time I would finish with.

Coming into the end, I was checking my watch and saw it was approaching 2:34PM very quickly. If I beat that, I would have a sub 6:00. I saw Alice closing in on the finish and although I wanted to run in with her, I knew I needed to sprint instead to make the cut off. Ignoring the cramps in my quads, the rippling cramps (that's a new one!) in my calves, I sprinted towards the end. "You can't pass me!" she said... as I passed her. "Sorry!" I called back, not bothering to see if she was following me in.

Luckily I finished with a 5:58:31. I beat my goal for this year and my reach for last year. But to be honest, I couldn't enjoy the "victory." I don't know what it is - whether I'm just not cut out for half or greater distances or there's something unique about Vineman's course that breaks me mentally, but I just didn't enjoy the race. That's what I meant with the movie quote at the beginning. I passed, but I failed; and that's why I'm done with it. It's a beautiful course and Latisha's family is there so we can visit, but I'm done trying to beat the course. It's beaten me.

Race Report: Winja's Ironman 70.3 Vineman (July 10, 2016)

Well. It's been 2 days, and I'm NOT sore! For the first time, I feel like my training has finally paid off. 

One year ago TODAY, I did my first half-ironman. Sunday marked the third half-ironman I've done in the span of a year, and in short, I'm VERY proud of myself. It's hard to really acknowledge how much time and effort goes into training because you never feel like it's enough, but when you cross the finish line, a huge weight lifts off your shoulders, and you feel good. Really good.

I'm still riding that endorphin high now.

This was my second time doing Vineman - it's a hilly course that starts in Guerneville and ends in Windsor.

THE PREP:

Things were a little different this year in that we were told to drop off our bikes and our run gear the day before - with T2 17 miles away from T1, we had to plan accordingly to get everything dropped off by the 4pm cutoff time at both locations and check in for the race itself. 

I did, however, get to cram time in to meet Nanette from Women for Tri, a fellow ambassador who did a great job holding down the fort and meeting some of the women who represented 39% of the race population at Vineman 70.3! The goal is to empower more women to do triathlons, so you'll see a lot more Women for Tri plugs from me as the year progresses. 

THE RACE:

(Disclaimer: Two weeks ago, Bryant and I rode to San Diego from LA, and I pulled a muscle in my right leg. It had been bugging me since then, so I had fears that I wasn't going to finish and that I was probably going to be in pain.)

We got to transition around 5 in the morning - everything was dark and calm, which made for a very peaceful transition set up.

Another thing new thing about the race this year was that everyone had to be out of transition by 6:15 am. On top of that, we were no longer allowed to pass our stuff off to our support crew - it would be considered "outside assistance", and we were told that we would be blue-carded and disqualified from the race if we did.

We all went back to our transition areas to try and figure out what we would do without the help of our friends. Half of my stuff went back into my transition bag and was handed to Alice's brother before the race. All of the items that I wanted after the race was over was placed into my morning bag, which included my phone. Before I gave it up, however, we pulled most of the DTT team together and took a picture!

You'll notice that the #WheresPatrick hashtag comes into play here. He left his phone on silent and missed his opportunity! We'll photoshop him in later.

THE SWIM:

The pros took off exactly at 6:25 - both Crowie and Andy Potts were racing, so it was great watching them come out of the water and pulling their bikes out of transition. My wave (obviously less important) took off at 7:22am. The water was a cool 71 degrees compared to the air temperature of 58. Half of the swim course is meant to be swum against the current, so I swam on the outside of the river to get a little less of the brunt, and closer to the markers on the way back to get an extra push from the natural flow of the river. Shallow points in the river meant athletes getting up out of the water to walk the swim, which astounds me every time. I'm against it, but I do know that Patrick walks it every year. Maybe he'll elaborate a little more on it in his race report.

Despite feeling good after the swim, it looks like my time was a few minutes slower than last year - 3 minutes slower. I'll blame it on the current.

THE BIKE:

Transition was much more organized this year - carpeted for all of the athletes so that they wouldn't struggle with the muddy ground as they pulled their wetsuits off. Since there was no handoff, I took off on my bike without worrying about looking for someone to pass my wetsuit off to - I jammed it into my bike bag and ran up the little hill before mounting my bike (another change they made to the race this year - probably because so many people fell off their bikes last year trying to get up the hill).

The bike course seemed a lot shorter than it did the last time I rode it. Alice said she practiced a lot more on hills - I chose to do the distance. This year alone, I did 3 centuries as part of my training for the full, so the normally daunting 56 miles only seemed like a 30-mile ride, which was a nice way of looking at it. Mile 44 is always the kicker: Chalk Hill. My back was on fire by the time I hit mile 30, so I found myself getting up out of the saddle quite a bit. I think I'm due for another bike fit. This back pain isn't getting any better, so I'll need to lessen the pain everywhere else if possible.

Lots of rolling hills, lots of people that I passed with flat tires, lots of unpaved roads, more cars, more SAG support, and less crowd-cheering. Beautiful sights, though. Probably 50+ vineyards that we rode past.

Bike time was very similar to last year, but this year! This year we got to ride a little further into the transition area before dismounting, which was nice. Last year we had to run a quarter of a mile in our bike shoes. Not cool.

THE RUN:

The run was hard. You know that feeling when you're finished with a workout, you're exhausted, want to go home, and then you realize that it's 7 in the morning and you and have to go to work right after? That's how I felt when it came time for the run. I was putting my shoes on in transition and asked myself why the run was 13 miles and not 1. Or none. None would have been nice.

But, c'est la vie.

I put on my hat, sprayed some more sun block on, and rolled out of T2. Rolling hills. So many rolling hills. The first few miles are shady, but then all the trees disappear and you're running along an airport property with NO TREES. I was a little smarter this year - I ran with a cup of ice. At every aid station, I asked for more ice, and I made sure that I was always hydrated. I actually think I may have over-hydrated, but when you're running in the heat, less is definitely not more.

My overall run time dropped by about 7 minutes, which made up for a lot of the time I had lost in the swim and the transitions!

I will say I had no energy left by the time I hit mile 12. I wanted to sing a song in my head but couldn't think of anything, so I counted. From 1 to 100, and then back down again. I saw the finish line as I turned into Windsor High School, but I continued to jog it in. I had nothing left. I'm hoping that by the time I hit my next half (October), it will be cake - the full is in November!

POST RACE:

The most important part is that I finished. I've been called a sandbagger before because I'm always telling people that I don't think I'll be able to finish races. I think my expectations are so much higher than they should be, so I verbally communicate a lower expectation so that in the event that I actually don't finish I'm not as depressed.

I checked my time and I was a whole 5 minutes faster than my time from last year! I know there is room for improvement in the swim (I should have swum a lot more) and the bike (I should have worked on a lot more hills) - the run was good but I know that with more practice the time will go down steadily. I'm looking forward to my next race!

Results here.

Goal, Reach, Stretch (or "how I approach races")

With Vineman 2016 less than two weeks away *gulp* here's my pre-race report (of sorts).

Before every race I lay out three objectives for myself: a goal, a reach, and a stretch. I'm nowhere near competitive so "podium" is automatically off the table for any of them.  Let's not be ridiculous.

A "goal" is something reasonable and attainable. If I make my goal, I am satisfied with the race.

A "reach" is something that is on the cusp of attainable. You have to put in some effort to get that thing off the shelf - you can reach it - but you're not jumping off the ground to get it. If I make my reach, I'm happy about the race. If I don't, well, I'm less than enthused but as long as I made my goal and had fun, eh, it's ok.

A "stretch" is something that is really uncomfortable to achieve, but is still within the realm of possibility. If I make my stretch, I'm ecstatic about the race. But it's also something I don't mind not hitting.

Vineman 2015
Last year for Vineman, my first - and still only - 70.3, my goal was "finish." I put in the work, I felt comfortable with each of the legs separately, but I had never done them all together. I was concerned about overheating, my run was always my weakest leg, and it was - based on my start time - going to be at the hottest part of the day (from 1 to 3 pm). So taking all that into consideration, my goal was "finish." And I achieved that goal. I mean, afterward I told my girlfriend never to let me attempt something so stupid like that again, but I still achieved it.

My reach was a sub-6:00 time. I knew the swim would take me 30 - 35 minutes. I thought the bike could take me about 3 hours. It was aggressive, but my bike felt strong. And my run should take me - assuming I could hold a 10 minute mile (which I had done in practices) - about 2:11. Depending on transitions, I would be riiiiiight on the cusp of 6 hours. Well, my swim was a 31 and change. Pretty good. T1 was almost 3 minutes. Not bad. My bike was a 2:54. I was very happy with that BUT, I had lost two minutes to my chain popping off. Grrrr. T2 was 5 minutes. We had to run a good 1/4 mile extra just to get to T2. Not ideal, but not horrible. But then there's the run. Full disclosure, I was not ready for the course. Sure I had held a 10 minute mile during training... on a mostly flat loop. Vineman's run course is hilly AF. The first mile was fine and flat, but then you see this hill looming in front of you. And that's ok once you get to the top, but then you see a downhill which leads to another uphill and it broke me. I went from "reach" to "goal" real fast and I just had to grind out the remaining, but never ending, ups and downs. As I was approaching the last two or three miles, I knew I was close to 6:00, but I just didn't care. My run was a 2:29:14 and I finished with a 6:03:22. Man, dropping that chain still haunts me; I might have gutted it out if I knew in that last 5k I didn't have to shave a full minute off my mile pace.

My stretch was a 5:50 time. If everything had gone the best that it could, I might maybe possibly have gotten this. A sub 3-hour bike was part of this, and I achieved that, so I was pretty satisfied with that portion. But for the stretch as a whole, no such luck.

Vineman 2016
So this year, my goal is "beat last year's time." That's really my goal every time I do a race a second or third time. This should be pretty attainable. I know I can do all the legs, and I know I can do them all together. But I was probably in better shape last year, albeit had no idea what I was getting myself into. So goal is 6:03:21.

My reach is a 5:50. I think my swim might be a little slower (35?) and my bike is a little weaker (3:00?) this year. BUT, my run is much stronger. I changed my form, found shoes I love (Altra Torins #zerolimits), and Winnie and I held a 9:39 for a fun run half marathon pretty easily a couple weeks ago on a not-so-flat course. Plus, I've been doing a lot of trail running so hills don't break my spirit like they used to. I think my stronger run will hopefully make up for my maybe weaker other legs. If the others go the way I describe above and we assume 8 minutes for transitions, and if I can pull off a 2:07 half marathon, then I can hit that 5:50. It'll be a reach, but that's the point.

My stretch - well, I don't want to say it. It's one of those things where if you put it out into the universe, it might not happen, but it involves beating a 5:50. :) I'll update this after the race.

Help Winnie Help CHLA!

Triathlons have been a big part of my life since I signed up for my first one 2 years ago in May. I'm so excited to be doing the race that started it all - the Nautica Malibu Triathlon! - with Team Disney again for the third time!

Please help me reach my goal of $1,500 to support pediatric cancer research!

See my donation page below and let me know if you have any questions :)

Donate Here

Pro tip

Sometimes, you just gotta blow your nose. Here's how to properly snot rocket.

Snot rocketing on your long rides is encouraged.

Snot rocketing on your trainer in your living room, I learned, is frowned upon.

From LA to LB, through OC to SD! 107+ Miles, Complete!

Have you ever had a weekend that was nearly perfect? That was this weekend for me. But before I can elaborate on my weekend, I first need to go over the last few weeks.

I've been sick - really sick - for the last month and a half. It started with a harmless cough. At IM Oceanside 70.3, I had cough drops in my mouth during the swim, bike, and run. I blamed the subsequent sickness I had on the half-ironman itself (I get sick after just about every race), but the cough became so persistent that I felt like my lungs were about to come out of my mouth every time I opened it. I had a nose that wouldn't stop running and ears that were plugged for a good week.

I went through three rounds of antibiotics - Each time, it felt like my cough was getting worse. My coworkers would tell me to go home or ask me if I was okay every time I started hacking. Clearly I was in no shape to work out...

So I slowed down significantly - I went from training 9+ hours a week to 2 (if I was lucky). I stayed out of the pool: my lungs couldn't handle it! and I couldn't run as much - I'd start wheezing after a mile. But the marvels of modern medicine kicked in, and this weekend, I finally started to feel more like myself! IT WAS SO NICE.

So, on to the more important things: The story of how we biked to San Diego!

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Last year, when Selena/Lisa/I did our first metric century, Bree and Jared and Trey and John joined the 100-mile club riding from LA to San Diego. When the opportunity came to join them, I couldn't help but pounce on it - LA to SD! Two of my favourite cities in one trip? I'll take it! :)

We met up bright and early Saturday morning - so bright and so early that the sun wasn't even out yet. From Union Station, we biked over to the blue line and took the metro rail to Long Beach.

From Long Beach, we picked up Trey before we started the long journey - Through Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, to Dana Point! John met us up in DP - 

The weather was perfect. It was chilly but not cold, windy but not overbearing. We went at a relaxing pace and always managed to stay close enough to keep tabs on one another. 

Dana Point turned into San Clemente, which: Lo and behold! led to a photo op in front of the Edison International Power Plant. Jared laughed at me when he realized that I stopped, but come on! Naked Gun made these things famous. 

The coolest part (as usual) was biking through Camp Pendleton. I am always constantly surprised to find that there is a such a huge base essentially in our backyard. It's beautiful, secluded, and probably the only place I will ever need to apply in order to ride through. 

We stopped for lunch by Oceanside/Carlsbad at a place called Angelo's Burgers - which, as it turns out, is a chain with very very good lettuce. I think we were all dying of hunger by the time we stopped, so in our delusion, the lettuce became a selling point. I'm sure we talked about it for a good five minutes. We even wrote a glowing yelp review as we ate our food: 

"Lettuce, crispy. 10/10 would come here again."

The key word here is "delusion". 

Nonetheless, it was nice to get a break after 60+ miles of riding. Full of burritos and burgers, we started up again. 

La Costa, Leucadia, Encinitas, Del Mar, La Jolla!

And then the monster. 95 Miles in, John thought it would be funny to take us to Torrey Pines: a gigantic mountain and the only route to get us where we needed to go. 

Not that bad of a climb - 1.5 miles and an elevation of about 500 feet - I thought it was going to be worse than it really was. But it was beautiful!

It was funny, because the ride (for the most part) was relatively flat with a few rolling hills. We were going down a hill when I saw Torrey Pines ahead of us, and I think my eyes doubled in size. We took the long and gradual path versus the steep and narrow one, though I think next time I may try my hand at the steep path. It can't be that bad, can it?

Somehow we ended up at UCSD - I don't know how people get from one point to the other - the campus is so huge I got tired as we biked through it!

We kept riding - Mission Bay, Pacific Beach - It wasn't until we stopped at the Santa Fe Depot and Bree walked into Stone Brewery that I realized we had finished. 107.7 miles. We were 4.3 off from a full iron distance bike ride! I felt great. I didn't cramp up (though my back did start hurting around mile 90), and we had time to enjoy an IPA with John before he caught his train home. 

What a fun ride and a fun trip!

As I always say - it didn't happen unless Strava said it did. With that said:

And how did we celebrate? Food at The Crack Shack, but more importantly, ICE CREAM (ok, Gelato) -

• | 05.13.2016 | • #everydayisicecreamday

A photo posted by winja. (@_winja) on May 14, 2016 at 8:28pm PDT

Good times. We took the Amtrak back home - I ate half a 14oz bag of Skittles (Think 5 - 6 big handfuls) and was still able to sleep the rest of the way home. To many more centuries!

Race Report: Winja's Ironman 70.3 Oceanside (April 2, 2016)

So... let me get a few things out of the way before I start.

1. I love the ocean. I have always loved the ocean. When I was younger, I truly believed that if I didn't prune from being in the water too long, I'd find a way to live in the ocean for the rest of my life. I guess the whole eating and breathing underwater thing would be an issue too, but as a child, who thinks of those things?!
2. I am a runner. I've been running on and off for the last 15 years. If you asked me to run a marathon tomorrow, I'd hesitate a little, but I'd probably end up doing it. 
3. I did not train as much as I should have. I really should have trained more. 

Oceanside was my second 70.3. Unlike Vineman last year, I knew what I was getting myself into. I knew the amount of work that it would take to do the half, and I knew how I'd feel transitioning into each event. 

Also unlike Vineman last year - I didn't train as much. The winter season was really hard for me. I kept getting sick (my immune system has always been weak), and I never wanted to go to the pool because it was always so cold! With that said, however, I did work out a lot, and I did put in a lot of effort: I did my first full century ride, I ran a half marathon the day after (!), and I even did the LA Marathon! Technically I should have been prepared. But I also didn't brick my training, and those swims! I should have swum more. 

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Now, onto Oceanside. 

PRE RACE PREP

This was a race that Selena, Lisa, and I all agreed to sign up for. It was going to be our A-race for the year (before I haphazardly decided that I wanted to do a full), and we were so excited for it! The thing I love most about these women is their drive and how they are always motivating me to be my best. I would not have wanted to go into this race any other way. 

I drove down to Oceanside Friday morning (I actually forgot that the race was on a Saturday and not on a Sunday, which really threw me off) - Athlete check-in was seamless, and many of the volunteers were from Camp Pendleton. They were all so sweet and encouraging. "Good Luck"s all around!

The swag was great too - Oceanside's official 70.3 shirt was a grey tech shirt, and we were given a coupon to head over to the IM Merch tent to pick up our bags. 

Transition and the finish line were about a mile apart, so we had to drop off our bikes at transition the day before. I thought about leaving my gear there, but as no one else was doing that, I said bye to my bike and went to CalTri's team dinner instead. 

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RACE DAY

Those who know me well know that I am early to just about everything. EVERYTHING. I hate pushing things to the last minute because then I can't prep! It's also one of the main reasons why I overpack. I always want to have a plan B and plan C in case plan A backfires. 

I woke up around 3 am, checked out of my hotel at 4, and walked the .8 miles to transition at 4:30. Transition opened at 4:45, so I had plenty of time to assess the area, set up my stuff, and get my leg and arm marked for the race. 

At 6:30, we were pushed out of transition into a holding area, and slowly we filed into a chute to wait for our turn to get into the water. I was freezing. Outside, it was 52 degrees. Luckily, the water was 10 degrees warmer at 62. You could hear the sighs of relief as we all filed in. We swam over to the starting line, and at 7:17, we were off!

The swim was slow for me. I felt comfortable the whole time, and in retrospect I should have tried a little harder. Sighting was easy, but as soon as we turned, the sun was in my eyes. Tinted goggles are the best invention ever. There was a little chop at the turn as well, but for the most part, the water was calm. 

As we ran out of the water, I could tell that the swim was a little longer than it should have been (only by a little bit, according to my watch). We had to run up the same chute we were shuttled out of earlier, and back intro transition. 

The bike was good but challenging. I've done 2,000ft climbs before, but I don't think I was anticipating going up the side of a mountain at mile 35. I watched as grown men got off their bikes and walked up. As Selena says, "If you can bike it, I won't let you walk it" - so I didn't. My back was aching by the time I hit mile 25. I constantly had to get up off the saddle to stretch. On one of the smaller hills, I cross-chained and my chain fell off. Not good. I freaked out a little, thinking my chain had broken, but it was a quick fix and I managed to get going in less than a minute. 

There were a few points that were different about this course - the no pass zones - once on a bike trail and the other on a 25 mph speed limit going downhill. Safety precautions supposedly because of a death in IMCali's first ever race, so completely understood, but some of the athletes were very rude about it and called out remarks about cyclists being too slow, etc. Not cool. The headwinds on the way back made for a slower ride into transition. 

With that said: the ride was amazing. We got to go into Camp Pendleton! Marines were on just about every corner, and though many were stoic, others cheered and told us we were doing a great job. It was interesting to get a different look at how a city like that operated, and I loved the idea of riding in a place that most people aren't able to.

Transition from the bike to the run was fine. I was a little slower because I wanted to ensure that I applied enough sunblock. I guess it didn't help, because I'm now peeling - my face, my back - it's great.

The run consisted of 2 roughly-6.5mile loops. The first loop was longer than the second due to construction, which is why the finish line was a mile away from transition. I had a cramp in my left leg miles 1 - 6. It was difficult to even put my leg on the ground. It also turns out that my first mile was incredibly faster than it should have been.

Either way - I'm thankful for the relatively flat run course. There were about 4 medium sized hills, which many walked up. Seeing those hills from far away were kind of demoralizing, but I made it over them! Another interesting point was running back toward the finish line and seeing the masses of people, only to run back out to start your second loop and seeing nothing but runners. I remember the way I felt at mile 11 of my last 70.3 - it was so hard to get to the end. With the run this time, I took it easy: the sun was beating down on us and there was no shade whatsoever. 

The last half mile could not have gone any better. One of the things I love to do during my races is read all the signs: "You're only half crazy!" "Beer and Pizza at the end" "Smile if you just laid one" - they're great. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a sign that said "Gooooo Winja703! Bathroom 1 mile -->" and I thought I was hallucinating. I thought, "Wow! Someone else has my nickname... and my hashtag.. wait a minute" - IT WAS PATRICK! 

A sight for sore eyes, really. It's hard to go to a race by yourself without having your support team. My sister - up until this past race - had been my go to: My schlepper of transition bags, my cheer squad - my "Eye of the Tiger" prep-singer. This is the only time I'll say it: Patrick, I'm glad you were there. 

Okay, now that the sappiness is out of the way: I FINISHED! I was a lot slower than my first half, which goes to show that training goes a long way - I will definitely be amping it up in preparation for Vineman. 

Also, special thanks to Alice and friends for making their way to Oceanside to see me after I finished! 

Last and especially not least, I want to express my elation regarding the two other pieces of my Team Shiiicago pie: both Selena and Lisa were finishers as well!

Kudos to these ladies - we are truly a triple threat, and I'm so glad I have them to motivate me and push me the way they always do. So much love for them!

With my first race of the season out of the way, the only route to go is up. I can now say I'm a 2x70.3 athlete!

How does one celebrate an amazing feat? Disneyland. 

Yes. I drove to Disneyland right after my half. No regrets. 

Results here.