Happy happy - bring on Syracuse.

Mission accomplished :)

44:02

The chip didn't read our official time and missed T2 and the run split, but my Garmin is good enough for me. Didn't run as directed, but the first half was comfortable (7:17, 7:07, 7:08), then I ran the last three miles with a guy stride for stride (7:14, 7:22, 7:14). I consciously pulled back a little the 5th mile as I was afraid of a blow up and wanted to have something left, and am proud I could pick it back up and run sub-7 pace for the last bit into the finish chute.

Also pulled out the 6th fastest female swim of the day (21:46). I really pushed a hard pace from start to finish and hope to bring that attitude to the swim next weekend - it's only 5 more minutes of pain :)

This morning I am SO SO happy to see some return on the hard work I've been putting in (upping the running mileage and swimming a whole lot more) and I am ready to believe in my race day goals. I'm not tying myself down to time-specific goals, as I don't want to get caught up in my success being a 'time', but the plan is to red line the swim, push the bike A LOT harder than I have in the past, and start the run at a comfortably hard pace and descend the effort.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have a date with the hot tub tonight.



OK fine, you want time goals?

27-28 swim
?? bike - new course, who knows.
Want to be sub 3, think 2:45-2:55 is possible, but depends on the wind and not being afraid to attack the hills and bike out of my comfort zone.
1:45-1:50 run. Start at hopefully a comfortable 8:15-8:30 and try to pick it up from there.

So yes, I think that anywhere from 5-5:30 is possible and realistic. But I also gave myself that same range at Eagleman and got so stuck in my time goals I wasn't able to step back and see that I put together a great race in the given conditions for my first 70.3, so like I said, time goals aren't the focus.