Sawyer Family est. 8.8.10: If your 1/2 iron does that make you aluminum?

August 14th, 2011

I raced my first 1/2 ironman last summer, thats a 0.6 mile swin, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run. I signed up with my good friend Kim Lortan and we were lucky enough to have our wounderful husbands Ian and John, and friends Eric and Sarah Rose there to support us. Ian not only rode the bike course and ran 1/2 the run course with me the week prior to the race to prepare, he also played the role of support crew on race day. Waking up at 4am to get coffee ready and driving up to Lake Steven's for my 6:35am start time. The race was a lot of fun, the water was calm and the weather was great. I finished in 5:47 with a 36:53min swim, 3:01hr bike and 2:04hr run. The course brought you threw town 7 times w/ the bike in and out, and then run being a x2 loop course with town and the crowds in the middle of the loops. Ian was there every time I went by cheering me on and taking pictures!!!

I finished the race not quite as strong as I hoped, placing 14/52 in my age group, this made me realize that training for long distance racing is much different then training for rowing. I hadn't really followed a training plan in preperation for the 1/2 Ironman, I just went out a biked/swam/ran with Ian or Kim whenever possible, trying to get as much distance as I could. Ian and I talked a lot about what needed to change to make my next long distance race more sucessful and we realized I needed to train with more intensity, more short sprint and hill workouts but all in all it was a great experience and I definatly got the Ironman bug. More to come on this!!!