At some point on the last loop of the bike, as I was flying along at 22mph with the wind behind me and less than 10 miles to go I thought to myself - this ain't so bad... maybe I will do another ironman someday. By mile 13 of the run that idea had completely evaporated!
I'm done!
But I finished on a high. I guess I am pretty good with predictions after all. Back in early summer I set a goal of 11:22. That was recently revised to sub-12 given my lack of swim and bike training. And no matter how well I thought I could run I knew it wouldn't be enough to make up for it. Well, what do you know... I end up having a faster swim and bike than expected, and a slower run than I'd hoped... and finished in 11:20:51!
BUT, the story of the day is Pam's. Her first IM, and having recovered from a pulled calf muscle in July at Voyageur which left her unable to run or bike for weeks... she finished in 10:37!!! Phenomenal. She got 6th in our age group and was so close to the top times but only 3 qualify for Hawaii and everyone took their spot so no roll downs. But no question she'll get there if she decides to try to go for it someday.
All the girls did really well and we had a fun time hanging out over the past few days. Helped by the glorious sunshine and 80 degree temps! And it was awesome having my Mum there to share the experience. She saw me a few times on the bike and run and I chatted to her for a minute at T2. And we got a finish line photo which was cool.
Back to the Minnesota winter this evening. And the detailed report to come later...
4 comments:
WAY TO GO!
I couldn't track you yesterday, so I'm just glad to see you actually participated. "Lavin" was MIA when I tried on the website.
Looking forward to the report!
That was awesome!!
I checked on you yesterday, and saw you had a great swim and bike. But then it had the 3rd QTR of the run posted and it looked like you were really slowing down. Then you went ahead and hammered out the last QTR of the run at 8:00/mile pace. WOW!!!
And then to beat your dream goal of 11:22 was so impressive!
I am in awe of your performance...
John
P.S.
For those that had trouble with the live tracking: you needed to choose the '2009' event and then it worked to find this years' athletes.
Your are a goddess or success... I followed the splits occassionally throughout the day! Wow, nice bike time and that last qtr for the run... Some have a hard time doing that without everything before...
Great job!
Hi Helen!!
I followed all of you guys all day long - what a great race for everyone. Pam was a machINE!!!
AZ (the inaugural year) was my first IM, so it will always hold a special place in my heart. I loved the course in part because you could see your friends all day. Back then it was in the spring, but it was so windy that the portapotties were blowing over, so I see they moved it. But it sounds like it was still windy even so!
Glad you achieved your goal.
xoxox
Jenny
Post a Comment