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A couple of weeks ago I raced the inaugural Ironman 70.3 in Providence.  I made a last minute decision to sign up for this race, and it definitely was not an "A" race for me.  However, I still was hoping to finish close to 4:30 after surviving a brutally hot Eagleman. 

Swim was very good.  I love ocean swims, and I felt comfortable the whole time.  Very happy with a low :27 time. 

Bike was good also.  It was a point to point ride, with an elevation gain so that was looming in my mind the whole time.  There were a couple challenging climbs, but it was nice to have some high speed descents.  All in all I can't complain averaging a little over 22mph. 

When I started the run, I knew that if I could run a 1:30 half marathon, I would break 4:30.  Stupid me thought it would be a good idea to save 5 seconds and not put socks on...so I hit the road and knocked down a 6:29 first mile.  At the aid stations they had plenty of water and cold sponges, which was awesome...until my shoes got soaked!  After mile 2 I could feel a blister forming.  I ended up slowing the pace to 7:20's for a couple of miles, but it only got worse.  On the second loop of the run, I was gimping along with some blood starting to come through my shoe.  It turned into a dissapointing 1:41 walk/run for a final time of 4:43. 

For the next 2 weeks following this race, I was sort of angry at triathlons.  I had been having a pretty awesome race season, and this race put things back in to perspective and did not make me happy.  On July 27 I had another race planned (so check the next blog to see how things turned out there) but I was not looking forward to training any more.  However, I made it through those 2 weeks and got some decent training in.