Syracuse Ironman 70.3 June 19th, 2016
Never having done a Half Ironman, I started training for this race in about February with my sister-in-law and teammate, Kathleen. The night before the race, we camped in my parent's RV right at the race site, the Jamesville Reservoir. With an early morning start, it was a huge advantage to be right at the park for an extra hour of sleep. The start of the swim started a bit rough, as I felt a bit crowded with limbs flying everywhere. For about the first 200 yards I was fighting the urge to panic and grab onto a kayak. I was repeating my "just keep swimming" mantra in my head and finally the swimmers started to spread out a bit. The rest of the 1.2 mile swim was uneventful, and I was relieved to finish a couple of minutes faster than my predicted time. Next came the 56 mile bike, starting with a steady 12 mile climb. The next 30 miles were steady rollers throughout the countryside of Onondaga County. Just as your legs were starting to feel it, they threw one more steady uphill (Skyhigh Rd, aptly named), before the descent back to the park. I was glad when I safely crossed the railroad tracks just outside of the park that I managed to wipe out on a month prior during a training ride. I rolled into transition 5 minutes ahead of my schedule. I started out running well for the first 3 miles, until I hit the first hill. As temperatures reached 94, I knew it wasn't going to be a great running day. I accepted that I was going to be walking up the hills and running the rest of it. I couldn't have been more thankful to the best fan at the course, standing on top of the hill with a nice cold garden hose. I finished with a total time of 6:47:24. I was hoping to be faster, but I was more than happy to have finished!
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| Kara finishing 70.3! |
