#im703raleigh

[tricraftbeer]

Celebrating a finish I'm proud of with my best girl, my parents , chicken and waffles, and a NC watermelon beer! #im703raleigh #beer #baby #triathlon (at Beasley's Chicken + Honey)

[lukekeeler]

This has been the hardest medal I have ever had to earn with not only completing the #IRONMAN itself, but with all the training that went into preparing for it! I will wear this medal with pride because I completed my first half #IRONMAN, 70.3 miles in 7 hours & 15 mins! My time for the 1.2 mile swim was 53:06. My time for the 56 mile bike ride was 3:42:26 & my time for the 13.1 mile run was 2:48:19! I achieved my goal of completing my first IRONMAN race & I am happy that I did it! 🏆🏊🚵🚴🏃🏆 I am still trying to decide if I will ever do the half or full IRONMAN again. I know that I will continue to compete in shorter #triathlon races though! Friends have told me that it becomes addictive & I think that it does because I definitely want to train harder & improve my time for the next time I decide to do it! I will need to improve my stamina for the running section of the race as my legs almost gave out after the first two events! I know I need to have more energy & endurance to do it again with a reduced time so that just means I will need to train harder! #AnythingIsPossible #IM703Raleigh (at IRONMAN 70.3 Raleigh)

[themoonandsky]

Ironman Raleigh 70.3 Bike Aid Station #2 up and running!

[heatherlynnphoto-blog]

Iron Man Rob

This guy ran 13.1 miles in full gear. Ironman Rob, as he is called has completed 15 Ironman distance and 7 Half Ironman distance triathlons in full firefighter gear (weight 50 lbs). He participates in each event to help raise awareness and show people that they are able to do more than they think if they are willing to take the first step.

photo: © Heather Lewis

[clubjuggler]

I need to find the right settings so this will work for a 17 hour ironman and won't get down so low like it did in today's 7 hour half iron. Also, about 2.5 hours into the bike it lost all sensor connectivity (power got lost just a few minutes into the bike!). #nothappy #garmin #920xt #triathlon #im703raleigh #raleigh70point3

[runsmilerepeat]

For everyone that raced this weekend! #runfam 🙌🏼 #RnRSD #edinburghhalfmarathon #edinburghmarathon #im703raleigh #MECtoronto #RunForWomen

[jondparks]

It's quite hot outside today and I'm wearing this great shirt to remind me of that awesome day back in June for #im703raleigh! #irondad #triathlon

[thejerkstorecalled]

2014 Ironman 70.3 Raleigh

Raleigh 70.3 - Half Ironman Triathlon Date of Race: 06/01/2014 Total Race Time = 5h 27m 43s Overall Place = 411/1967 Age Group = female 30-34 Age Group Place = 6/92 Pre-race:  

My expectations for myself were low leading up to Raleigh. I would have liked more time to ramp up after my really brief recovery from Boston since I took off March and most of April from anything that really resembled a long ride. I was also looking to log some long sessions in the saddle looking ahead to Roth. That being the case, my schedule had a lot more volume than the typical taper and I tallied 185 miles leading into and going through the Memorial day weekend a week out from race day. I didn't mind the volume so much since taper and recovery typically leave me feeling more stale and sluggish than fresh and spry, and I'd also had some really strong run workouts in the middle of all that cycling, but I was concerned about the red eye flight that I took back from the west coast at the beginning of race week. I didn't feel good about being in a sleep deficit that close to a HIM effort. With the addition of Augusta on my schedule, coach G and I had decided that Raleigh would be more of a B+/A- kind of race for me. Topher, Oyler, Susie and myself packed up and hit the road after work - around 6:30 - on Friday. This will probably go down as one of the more spirited road trips I've joined: four triathletes, four tri bikes, a 60-lb dog and a three-legged cat, all packed inside of a rented church van.                                                                    

We stopped at Topher's parent's home in South Carolina for a home-cooked dinner Friday night, with the same grand treatment for breakfast on Saturday, before heading the rest of the way to Raleigh. I will say that I'd vastly underestimated the amount of stopping needed when you're road-tripping with four adults who are loading up on carbs and fluids, we drove straight to the expo for check-in and didn't get there until around 2:30 or 3. The rest of Saturday moved pretty quickly since we had to set up transition needs and check in bikes before grabbing an early dinner and getting ready for race day. I was possibly a bit too stubborn in my refusal to wake up before 4am for a race that wasn't a full, I surely needed an extra 30 minutes on race morning. I was completely discombobulated. I ate breakfast (a banana and two packets of instant oatmeal with honey and chia seeds) on the ride to T2/shuttles and forgot the extra food I usually eat, plus any provisions for caffeine. Susie was kind enough to share her Red Bull with me while we were waiting for our swim starts, the fact that I had to hit up somebody else for a Red Bull is a testament to how unprepared and unorganized I was on race morning. Warm-up:

This was non-existent unless waiting inline for the portolets counts. Swim:

I was surprised how relaxed I was about the race, especially the swim. I think a lot of that came from knowing that - aside from possibly a relay team - there would be no guys swimming with me, nobody to come up behind me and grab my legs. Sorry fellas, but you're really aggressive in the water, and for future reference, I'd much rather you punch me in the face than pull my legs under. I felt like I was sort of keeping up with my wave and found some ladies to draft off for stints here and there, it wasn't a bad swim, especially after rounding the first turn buoy. I got out of the water and was hoping for a minute or two faster, but I decided my swim time was something I could live with. Swim Time: 37m:51s T1:

T1 was a hot mess for me, the wet suit strippers were fantastic and super patient, as I was not quite prepared for them, and for the remainder of T1, I might as well have been baking a cake, what the heck took so long?! T1 Time: 3m:29s Bike:

I got on my bike and my breathing felt pretty labored right off the bat, since my glutes were also burning I assumed it was probably because the bike course starts off on an incline albeit subtle. Generally, I wasn't feeling good on the bike at all and was also nervous about mechanicals. I had tire issues when setting up T1 and got one of the mechanics to help straighten it out, I'd also had some issues with my cleats earlier in the week that Matt at Podium was awesome enough to sort out for me. Plus I had my chain in the back of my mind since a few weeks before the race, it got so tangled on a long ride that I had to get a friend to come rescue me and then Podium had to take off my cranks and gears to get my chain untangled. Truth be told, I do not have a good record here, in three of my five races of 70.3 or longer, I found myself off my bike either from a crash or a chain issue. This race is one of those three. Of course when I got off to fix it, all my nutrition fell off my bike, but since I knew I'd need the calories for the rest of the race, I had to pick up my food off the road. Yes, I ate it, it tasted like chicken. Not really, it still tasted like peanut butter crackers. I was just getting rolling again when Jessie caught me, we pretty much rode together the rest of the windy, hilly, horrible bike ride and I'm so, so grateful she was there to keep me moving because I was definitely ready to quit. I felt like I was having a super crappy race since I knew this was going to be my slowest HIM bike ride ever, and it certainly was.

Bike Time: 3h:06m:34s T2:

I lost Jessie at the end of the bike, so I tried to make T2 as speedy as possible even though I had an awful spot in transition, right next to run out. I threw my bike on the rack pretty haphazardly and grabbed everything (visor, race belt, ziplock w/ sunscreen, salt and gels) as I was headed out to just sort it out while I was on the move. T2 Time: 1m:42s Run:

I saw Jessie just ahead of me and she took off pretty fast, I was working to try and catch her! I did, she made sure I stayed in the race that day, that's for sure! At that point, I'd decided to focus on my C goal for the race, which was still within reach. Since I'd had strong runs going into the race, I decided it would also be fun to see if I could snag a HIM run PR, which would ensure my C goal as well, since this course was less hilly than the other Ironman run courses I'd done, which is not to say the Raleigh run course was flat! Probably somewhere around mile two I saw Dave Gill and passed him (not really, because he was on his second loop and I on my first), which was another motivator in and of itself. I kept up my pace to make sure he didn't catch me back, and I was literally looking over my shoulder the entire rest of that loop, so thanks Dave for keeping my tail in gear! At the turn for the second loop I saw that I was on pace for a HIM run PR and could reach C goal if I kept at it, so I did even though the turn around seemed a lot further out this time! I knew when I was about 1.5-2 miles from the finish that I'd make it and somehow the run seemed easier at that point.

Run Time: 1h:38m:07s Post Race: I did make my C goal and PR'd the HIM run by two minutes, but I still didn't really know how the race went. Then I saw that I was 6th in my AG and I really, really was shocked because I thought I was having an unbelievably putrid race. In the Ironman events I did last year, I never came out of the water in the first half of my AG, but as it turns out, I finished the Raleigh swim in the top third of my AG. For that I thank the awesome coaches at the ATC swims as well as my amazing lane mates, I almost never miss these swims when I'm in town! And as surly as I was about my bike issues, I evidently passed enough girls on the bike to move up to 20 out of 90+. I would have been a lot more psyched on the run had I know this, and also that the other girls ahead of me hadn't put very much distance on me, I caught nine of them in the first 5k of the run. My big takeaway from this race is to keep pushing no matter what, how dumb would that have been for me to give up when I wanted to on the bike course?! And if I could see the future, I would have spent less time in T1 trying to solve for world peace so that I could've had a shot at an AG podium (:47 out of fourth, dang!), which funnily enough I had just told George a week or two prior that would be a longer term goal for down the road. It might also help to have some more confidence I suppose! Post-race, I put on some dry (read: less smelly) clothes and grabbed some pizza and coke and watched the ATC rockstars collect their AG Awards and WC slots before heading back to Atlanta with the crew and making good on my promise to take down some Bo Berry biscuits. What would you do differently: I like to be - or at least feel - prepared, I'd arrive earlier before the race so that I had time to feel more settled. Driving back and getting home at 2am wasn't as hard on me and feeling rushed the entire 24 hours leading up to the race. I'd also have a better transition plan. I decided to put on compression socks in T1 with wet legs and feet, I probably would have just swam with the socks on a la Bethany since I don't really get blisters in the shoes I've been racing in for 13.1 and shorter. I also should have worked on getting my wetsuit off much sooner after trudging out of the water. I'd rate this race a 4. For a point-to-point course with challenging logistics, this race was actually done really well. I liked the swim, although it felt a tad long and slow, the course set up and water was friendly. The bike course was tough, relentless hills and wind and some dangerous traffic in places, I didn't think the traffic was very well controlled which is why I'm not giving this a 5. I liked the run course a lot because I'm used to doing hillier ones and I didn't think it felt all that hot (the wind from the bike course kept things cooler than expected on the run course!), plus I loved the downtown finish, there was a lot of energy at the finish and through most of the run course.

[slowtwitchracing]

An awesome race at an awesome venue. Well done #im703raleigh . The volunteers and race organizers did a fantastic job.

[tricraftbeer]

Pre-race Saturday was a blur! Pumping and bike-building in the bathroom so baby could sleep, drinking local beer at two restaurants, paying someone else to drop off my bike at T1, not sleeping for three days prior, finding a beer place where I can swipe a bracelet and pour my own pint...just an endless list of totally race-related stuff. #im703raleigh #raceweekend (at Raleigh Beer Garden)

[fasterberta]

#orbea #allblackeverything #im703raleigh #raleigh70point3 #assingear (at jetBlue Hangar)

[tricraftbeer]

Getting "pumped" to race #im703raleigh #ha #momswhotri #breastfeeding #warmup (at Jordan Lake)

[tricraftbeer]

Miles to go before we sleep #babiesandairports #im703raleigh #glorybell (at Boston Logan International Airport)

[heatherlynnphoto-blog]

Feel The Rainbow

Colorful runner at Iron Man Raleigh.

photo: © Heather Lewis

[heatherlynnphoto-blog]

Wonder Woman

Caught Wonder Woman out running the Iron Man Raleigh.

photo: © Heather Lewis

[heatherlynnphoto-blog]

Pretty in Pink

Pink wave, waiting to enter the water at Iron Man Raleigh.

photo: © Heather Lewis