O'Hare 5K

For some strange reason, I like airplanes.  Mostly because they are a means to get from one place to another - a conference, a race, or a vacation.  Planes are also interesting because they just don't seem as if they "should" be able to fly, and yet they do.  I heard about an opportunity to run a 5K at ORD today and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to try to race again after the wonderful accident that destroyed my AC joint back in July.  Speaking of that, the rehab is going well, still not 100% recovered, but I'm continuing to make progress.  Not only would it be nice to run again, but I would be able to run on an actual runway.  I laughed 2 weeks ago when I landed at O'Hare coming back from Denver on runway 27R, thinking that the next time I would be on the runway would be today...running. 

The day started off somewhat chilly, probably in the mid 40's.  We drove out to ORD and made our way to the start line and waited.

 The horn went off and we started our adventure to get to the taxiway and runways of OHare.  Quickly after making our way onto O'Hare Field I could see the airplane that we were going to be running around...it was a UA 747.

We continued running and with each step we were getting closer to the runway and the airplane, making sure the heed the warnings on the way.

Finally we were close enough to take some pictures with the aircraft in the background.  Seeing as today's run for me was more about fun and enjoying the day, no one really seemed to be bothered by stopping for a few seconds to take a picture or two.

We continued to run around the aircraft, and made our way out onto runway 27R, the 747 is a massive airplane.

Here is Evan preparing to take off.

 Here we are reaching the numbers identifying the runway as 27R, with the UA 747 in the background and the picture perfect clouds above.

 The run course took us about half way down the runway at which point we turned around and headed back to the airplane and then to the finish line.  Seeing people on the runway instead of airplanes is kind of entertaining.

Here was the course that my GPS marked out for the run.  Take a peak in the upper right hand corner and find the red track for my run.  Maybe the whole race was a gimmick because there was probably only around a mile or so that was actually run "on" the runway.  But nonetheless it was cool and a fun adventure.

More importantly, 3.1 miles later I was reaching the finish line and actually felt pretty good.  My shoulder didn't seem to bother me too much.  My foot which has also been slightly irritated during the rehab process (aggravated injury from back in february of this year) seemed to have held up.  Mostly I was just limited by a complete lack of conditioning and minimal training.  My legs feel tiny and my speed is gone.  But, I made it to the finish line, running, smiling, and happy to have reached what will hopefully be the first of many finish lines following my shoulder injury.

I ran the race in 28:15 for a pace of 8:59....which is one of the slowest paces that I can ever remember running a 5k and 2min/mile slower than the last time that I tested in the middle of the season last year for training purposes.  But the reality is that I haven't done much of anything in the past 3 months and with a return to training I suspect that most of the speed will come back.  After an injury, you have to start somewhere.  After the race we boarded some trolley's which took us back out to the runway.  Of course there was the obligatory picture to prove that I was actually where I said I was running today.  I guess the GPS track would prove it as well, but that could have been "borrowed" from someone else.

A couple up close and personal pictures of the airplane were in order as well.  It is such a beautiful airplane and I'm looking forward to flying on it during my next vacation.

And finally, who could resist being ingested by this massive snow blower.

With that, I'm looking forward to the next race that I am going to sign up to do - the NorthShore Turkey trot on thanksgiving.  I've got another month to get from 3.1 miles up to 6.2 miles  Hopefully I can do so injury free and enjoy a nice (probably colder) run with my sister who is coming into town and Evan before spending the rest of the day with family.

What should have been

Well, it is that time of the year again, the days are getting shorter, the temperature cooling off at night and ultimately it is the end of the triathlon season.  I have tried to reflect on triathlon seasons in the past to learn from my successes, failures, and everything in between.  Unfortunately, what should have been an awesome weekend of racing an Ironman in Madison starting today was derailed 8 weeks ago after a car accident injured my shoulder and ended my season.

I have experienced all sorts of emotions as a result of this injury.  I was quite shocked how quickly I had arrived at the acceptance stage.  I think as soon as I was heading back to the medical tent in an ambulance with an inability to move my arm that it became quite apparent that the season was done.  Clearly frustration has been in there too with the initial lack of ability to do much by myself and finally to where I am now sitting at home thinking of what could have been instead of being up in Madison getting ready for a race.

I think that the best way to describe the season is as one that failed to meet my expectations that was hampered by numerous injuries.  I had come off of a great fall running season with a PR for a half marathon and felling great with my fitness.  Then in late January for some unknown reason my foot started hurting.  3 months of rest later, I finally was able to start running again and ran pain free.  I had a very successful early season with the Eagleman Half Ironman in super HOT temps and continued training towards the Ironman this weekend.  In reality, all cylinders were firing.  I was hitting my workouts, training in the crazy mad heat we were having.  Additionally, even without swimming in the off season as my new training plan had suggested, I was swimming further and faster than I ever have before even with swimming all winter.  Ultimately, none of this would matter much with a separated shoulder due to a crash with an inattentive driver at a sheriff controlled intersection during a race.  And just like that, all of the physical gains that I had made for the season were gone and my hopes of getting back to the starting line in Madison this year were wiped away.

I have lost a lot as result of the injury.  To name a few there was lost time at work, a lost vacation, lost ability to train, lot fitness, and lost the ability to race.

During this time I have had a chance to catch up with stuff related to work and try to reset my brain for what is to come next.  I suppose it would have been easy to hang up my shoes and call it quits.  It might have been easier to never get back on my bike or to go through all of the physical therapy (which isn't even done yet) to try to get mobility back in my shoulder.  And it sure as hell would have been easier to not go back up to Madison this weekend to be surrounded by the Ironman spirit knowing that I should have been out racing with everyone else.  It especially is even harder to imagine not being in the race after looking at the forecast which is predicting an absolutely perfect day for a race.

I was sitting in a lecture a couple of weeks ago and the following quote was on a slide.  It said, "What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens."  I couldn't catch the author of the line but it has resonated with me.  From the time that I was injured I had accepted that my season was done and have said to myself and others that the goal now is quite clear.  See, before I was injured, the goal was to go back to Madison and take care of some unfinished business.  Now, even more so, there is a really strong desire to get back to Madison and not only take care of the unfinished business from what will then be 4 years before but also to prove to myself that despite this injury I will get back to the race.

My uncle, a triathlete himself who has qualified for Kona several times works as a marketing consultant and emphasizes the importance of setting a goal and then making it public.  This is what I am doing today: to anyone listening or reading, I will continue to strengthen my shoulder, learn how to run, ride my bike, and swim again, and get back to the starting line at Madison in 2013.

So to do that, I am committing to the race.  I will be going to Madison this weekend to register for 2013.  Because, not only is the race going to be awesome, but it will be an epic experience with all of the EN'ers on the course.  I am looking forward to going to the Terrace first thing in the morning to watch the swim start.  I have made some signs to cheer on my teammates and plan to hang out on one of the hills, take pictures, and cheer on my teammates.  Eventually, I'll make it back to the run and take some pictures there as well.  I'll post some pictures and my perspective next week.

Despite the physical challenges associated with the season, and the fact that I will likely need to take a good amount of time rebuilding my base, I will be able to take everything I have learned during the year forward to next year.  I have finally found a training regimen that I like.  Despite the difficult intervals, and my initial uncertainty of not swimming or doing really much of anything long during the winter months, I could see that the dividends were paying off in the summer and that I really didn't suffer from spending hours of endless time mindlessly getting in junk miles.  I learned more about my body, how it reacts to physical stress and when it needs breaks.  Nutrition was better, and hopefully with another year of practice and experimentation I will be even more poised to conquer the challenges I faced during the last Ironman.  While I would have loved to have been able to put this knowledge into race day execution, I will carry it forward and use it as a foundation to get even smarter.

The one silver lining of the entire injury (if there is a good part of an injury) was that the timing was good.  While it ended this current season, I was still able to get across the finish line of one race, start another, and get some great training completed in between.  Hopefully, the physical therapy will also be sufficiently done to a point when I can transition back to training and getting set for next season.

I have learned so much from the team.  Your insight, answers to questions, and general congeniality have all been fantastic.  In a sick sort of way, I am looking forward to the winter, with the bike on the trainer, the intervals on the treadmill and getting used to spending more time in that dark place which is my cave to rebuild, strengthen, and become a hungry little monster just waiting to perform on race day.

The race in 2013 is on September 8th.   It will be 5 years after my first Ironman in 2008.  I can't wait to be in the race and reflect on everything that will have transpired during that time and recognize that this injury while a major set-back for the season, is just another bump in the road called life.

Racine 5.4 Race Report

5.4 Race report...but wait, I thought that racine is a half ironman...what happened to the other 64.9 miles? I went into the Racine 70.3 planning on a strong execution and to have fun at the race which was my first half ironman experience 5 years ago.  However, the day didn't quite end up exactly as planned.

I drove up on saturday, checked in, racked bike, and then headed over to dinner to meet some of my teammates from Endurance Nation.  We went to an italian restaurant in Kenosha called Mangia which was great.  We had a good time discussing all things triathlon, talked out our race strategies for the next day.  We laughed, enjoyed the dinner and generally we were all looking forward to Sunday's race.

I slept pretty well on Saturday night and work up feeling refreshed and ready to go on Sunday morning.  After drinking a bottle of Infinit (275 calories) I packed up my bags, left the hotel, and drove to the race site to get everything set up.

Upon arrival, the transition area was already buzzing, and race preparations were in full swing.  The sun was rising over Lake Michigan with a reported water temp of 69 degrees. 

After getting my gear all set, I met up with the members of Endurance Nation again and we took our team photo and had a chance to meet some of the other people that were not at dinner.  Great group of people and I was looking forward to seeing all of the EN Jersey's on the run and bike to help motivate me throughout the day.

After leaving transition I headed out to the swim start, meandering my way there knowing that my wave was going to start 64 minutes after the pro wave started.

The weather was perfect, the sun was out, there was just a slight wind from the north/northwest and I got my wetsuit on and moved on down towards the start line.  I positioned myself in the second row, slightly away from the bouy line.  I wanted to try something a little different this race.  I figured I would position myself just above my ability, try to catch some feet, and stay out of some of the chaos that is the rear of the start.  I had also watched several of the heats prior and it looked as if there was a lot of walking at the start, I wanted to get in the water and go.

My strategy seemed to work.  I was moving along, had enough water to myself and didn't have too much contact.  Most importantly I found feet to follow nearly the entire race.  I had to alternate and find new feet every now and then, but ultimately I spent a good amount of time drafting and felt very, very comfortable.

I exited the swim in 34:08 for nearly a 40 second improvement compared to my last 1.2 mile effort in a race.  

Looking at the Garmin map I did a pretty good job of swimming in a straight line. There was a little curve at the end, I got stuck on some errantly directed feet but quickly redirected and found the sighting I needed to get to the exit.  The water got pretty shallow a good distance out and just seemed too shallow to swim and was tough to run.  I worked on getting out of the water and taking off my wetsuit top.

The run to transition was a little long but not nearly as brutal as I thought it was going to be based on scouting out the transition area the night before.  Nice surprise was to see some wetsuit strippers near the entrance to transition.  Unexpected and absolutely great to have them. Total time 5:17 which I'll take given the long run-in.  Sure I could have been more efficient but at the end of the day for this race, it wouldn't have mattered.

Alright, part I done, feeling good, ready for the bike.  I head out of transition, bike is geared appropriately for the climb out.  I have absolutely no idea why I am looking off to the left, maybe I just wanted to look at my normal left shoulder one more time... (BTW, I love how my Rudy Wingspan helmet matches the jersey...)

Anyway, I hop on my bike and I just spin past people who are struggling to get up the first hill.  It looked like at least one of them was going to fall over for sure.  I had put my bike into the small ring up front and biggest gear on the cassette to be prepared to climb out of transition.

So off I go to begin the bike.  I try to spend the first couple of miles settling into a heart rate and power output given my HR had slightly spiked from the run into transition and the quick little burst to get out of the transition area and up the hill.  I settle down, start the watering process and then start to focus on steady power and staying away from the other racers.

I'm cruising along around 20-21 mph, on 4 mile road getting ready to make a right turn onto charles st.  I had just passed a group of 5-6 riders who were bunched up together and I was looking for clean roads.  As I approached the intersection I looked forward, saw officers had the traffic stopped, and looked back and saw the group I had just passed.  I moved to the left side of the lane (still within yellow line) to allow myself to avoid a tight curve and maintain speed out of the curve.  I checked ahead one more time and still recall seeing clear road at the intersection.

As entered the intersection to make the turn to the right, a large SUV type vehicle was entering the intersection from the opposite direction and was seemingly heading and accelerating into the lane that I was in and in the exact same direction as I was turning. Moving at 20 mph and about 15 feet away from the car, I knew that there was only going to be one outcome to this scenario. I slammed on my brakes, yelled some very colorful words and made a direct impact with the left side of my bike/body into the right side of his car.  By the time we collided the car and my bike were headed in the same direction.  I tried some defensive mechanisms that I had learned with regards to collisions with other riders....but unfortunately cars have a lot more mass than riders.  I leaned into the car to try to keep my center of gravity over the bike and kept my hands on the brakes to bleed off more speed.

I recall the impact into the car, I remember staying upright after the initial impact and then fell forward and to the left taking the full impact of the ground on my left shoulder and rolled onto my back.  During these acrobatic maneuvers I somehow became unclipped from my pedals and didn't hit my head.  Immediately there was pain to my left shoulder.  The garmin file is pretty interesting.  I think looking at the speed is the most fascinating:

Apparently hitting a car and then the ground causes speed to drop instantaneously.  

I also wanted to see what happened to my HR at the time of impact so I zoomed in on that part of the file:

• At the time of the impact - just after the vertical red line as power is precipitously dropping and speed drops to zero as well, my HR actually increased
• The small dip in my HR to the far right, and falling nearly down to to 50 was when the pain was getting really bad and I felt as if I might pass out.  Pretty cool to see a vaso-vagal physiologic response to pain in action...not so cool to occur as a result of a crash.

Somewhat in a state of shock that I had just been hit by a car on the race course I did a quick survey to see how badly I was injured.  Didn't hit head - check, no neck pain - check, chest, abdomen, pelvis - check, moving extremities / no weakness - check.  I got myself up from the ground, the officers controlling traffic at the intersection were at my side within seconds and I walked over to the side of the road. I was able to range my left shoulder but it was really starting to hurt and any movement was not helping.  I came pretty close to passing out a couple of times due to the pain, but held it together, lied down on the grass to recuperate a little.  I tried to see if I could gather enough energy/ decrease the pain to keep going but it wasn't going to happen.  Luckily, there was a race person there very quickly who was smart enough to tell me that my day was done and he pulled my chip.  I knew something was wrong with my left shoulder, in fact I looked down before the swelling started and made the diagnosis pretty quickly, I just didn't want my day to be over.

I heard at least one EN person yell out to see if I was ok.  I have no idea who you are - so thank you!

Here you can see the accident site.  It is just crazy to me to see my tracking just stop.  The mess on the right was me wandering around, sitting down, lying down, and getting help from EMS upon their arrival.  The other car came from the road on the left and made a left turn right into my path.

The ambulance brought me back to the medical tend where I had the dubious distinction of being the first patient from the race for the day.  This was my first interaction with a medical team at a race and they were all fantastic, caring, and so incredibly helpful.  They provided excellent care, helped get me iced up, offered a phone to call family, cleaned up my wounds and kept me company while worked to get up the courage to get up and walk around.

Eventually I got everything all packed up, one of the medical tent volunteers got all of my gear from transition and I was able to head on home and back to my hospital where my colleagues provided excellent care.  There is just something ironic about the juxtaposition of these two wrist bands:

My swelling had increased even with the ice and the X-rays done confirmed my suspicion on the course, I had separated my AC joint.

Several days after the initial injury I am still working on the recovery process.  Range of motion is limited, pain is still present, and the swelling is still there.  Ice, trying to rest, and minimizing activity are all starting to help the healing process.

I have had many thoughts since the accident.  People have always said that there are two types of cyclists - those who have crashed, and those who will.  I guess I am now in the former.  There is no doubt that I am frustrated about not being able to finish the race.  After exiting the swim and knowing how my training was going along I had great hopes for the race.  But even more disappointing, I have had to accept the fact that the rest of my triathlon season is most likely done for 2012.  This means no IM MOO training camp with the team, no more long rides or runs and ultimately, no more goal A race of IM Wisconsin in September. 

Ultimately I still am a bit surprised that with all of the riding that I do on the congested streets of Chicago and the lakefront trail that the first really bad crash that I have is during a sanctioned triathlon at a protected intersection in broad daylight.  I guess I am lucky that the "only" major injury that I sustained is a separated shoulder.  Sure, I had a bunch of scrapes and bruises, but working in a specialty that sees the results of traumatic bicycle and car accidents on a daily basis I know just how much more horrific the outcome of an accident like this could have been.  Eventually, with enough rehab and retraining I should be able to make it back to the sport.  I also have no idea about damage the bike might have sustained.  The front tire blew during the crash and the brake levers are bent, but the bike is going into the shop before I get on it again for a complete safety evaluation and replacement of damaged parts.

Until then I am going to get on recovery with the same dedication and determination that I have had towards training.  Rehab will take some of the time that I cannot spend training and that I cannot work due to my injury.  The funny thing is that I had been feeling a lot of frustration at not being able to figure out how to plan my 2013 season....looks like the return to Madison will just have to wait until 2013.

One other thing.  I always train with a road ID, never leave home without it.  However, it is an ankle version and I have never raced with one thinking that all of the info that might be needed is associated with the race number and is accessible to the medical people during the race.  As an EM physician and a racer who has been involved in a bad crash in a race, I will NEVER race again without a road ID.  Luckily I didn't pass out I was able to answer all of the medical questions that the paramedics and medical staff had.  Before I race another triathlon  I'll be getting the wrist version so it can go with me on the swim, stay out of the way on the bike and be with me on the run.  Time can make all of the difference and if something really bad were to happen on the course I would not want there to be a delay in my care or contacting family. 

Thanks again to everyone's well wishes and texts after the race.  Looking forward to recovering and getting back into the game.

Eagleman 2012

I have been looking forward to this race for sometime.  My 60 yr old uncle and I have been trying to find a yearly triathlon and this year we both decided to travel to Maryland for the adventure.  I figured the terrain would be a good match for my usual training in Chicago – flat intermittent swirling winds and a nice open water swim.  Originally, had planned on the race as an early season A race, but that plan was modified after a foot injury in early February that kept me from funning for 3 months.  So exactly one month ago, on May 10^th, I went on my first run after giving myself a chance to heal.  The first run, even though only a mile, was quite a bit of a struggle to remind my body how to run again.  I then increased the mileage over the past 4 weeks to a long run of 10.5 miles without pain and figured I was a go for the race.  

I packed up my bike and travelled out to Baltimore on Thursday and due to a flight cancellation ended up flying to Dulles instead and getting picked up there instead.  

 

Friday was a nice easy 15 min swim, a 30 min very easy ride to make sure the bike was riding smoothly after I put it back together, and a short 20 min jog.  

We drove down to the site on Saturday morning, registered, walked around the expo, and then racked our bikes.

Short version:

Great race, well executed, hit my expected goals on a really hot day, felt pretty decent after the race and not too sore the following day

Swim 34:42 pace 1:47/100m

T1 3:07

Bike 2:44:08 pace 20.48 mph

T2 3:59

Run 2:10:53 pace 9:57 min/mile

Overall 5:36:27

After the early morning breakfast of a bottle of infinit and a bagel, we left the hotel and headed over to transition for an absolutely beautiful morning the sun rising over the calm Choptank river with a reported temperature of 75.6 degrees making the swim wetsuit legal.  

 

I met up with my teammates from Endurance Nation in transition before the race started. 

During the hour of waiting for the swim to start I had a cliff bar and a bottle of Gatorade.  After waiting around for an hour for my wave to start I put on my sleeveless wetsuit and got in the water.  It felt fantastic.  I brackish water was something new for me, luckily it wasn’t too salty, I don’t know how I would have done with that.

Swim

I started halfway between the two start bouys, and in the second row.  The gun went off and I started swimming.  I wanted to stay away from the initial chaos of the bouy line, but figured that I would start to migrate over in that direction.  I found some feet in the process and drafted for a little.  Kept the turns wide to avoid as much contact as I could.  See my wave was the 30-34 males and the clydesdales.  I was going to lose that battle if one occurred.  The overall contact wasn’t too bad.  Apart from one guy catching my watch and hitting every button in the process it wasn’t a problem. 

Apparently there are jellyfish in the Choptank river.  I saw one as I was swimming and just missed punching it and probably getting stung.  Good times.  (I took this picture the night before)

I got out of the water in 34:42 and felt great.  One of my fastest swim times for what I assume is a correctly marked 1.2 mile course.

T1 was fine, I don’t really know what took long,

Bike

My bike strategy was to ride at 180 watts for the entire race which would have been an IF of 0.8.  I also knew that on this flat course I should be able to ride 20-21 mph without dying.  From a race rehearsal several weeks prior when I was pushing an IF of 0.85, my run afterwards suffered a little.

The course was as flat as a pancake.  There were three “hills” on the course that I can remember, all of which were bridges with about a 1-2 foot incline.  Luckily not too much wind to contend with during the course of the bike.  The hardest part was staying aero for the entire time and barely changing gears.

I started out for the first 30 minutes with watts in the 150-170 range, just trying to settle into a pace.  Even with that I was flying along at 20+ mph. After 30 minutes I picked up the watts to try to get to the 180 range.  I recalibrated my quarq several times on the ride, it just seemed like I was a little lower than on usual training rides.  But I listened to the numbers, kept my HR just under 140 the entire time, and felt good.

Nutrition was 2 bottles of infinit for 550 calories, probably filled aerobottle around 4 times.  No other nutrition.  Hit all of the aid stations for water, successful bottle grabs, filled aerobottle and used the rest to cool off.  Worked well.  I noticed that my jersey was starting to get salty around mile 40.  Couldn’t figure out if this was me sweating (usually never see on my jersey during a ride) or if it was the salt from the river finally starting to dry.

Saw a lot of road kill on the ride, 2 skunks, a snake, a crab, and something unidentifiable.  Luckily not me.

Got back to T2 feeling ok.  My left hamstring was started to get tight, not quite sure why.  Overall bike time of 2:44:08 for 20.48 mph.  Might not be my fastest half time, but probably one of the smartest rides.   I was hoping that I could have a good bike and a good run, and not a great bike per usual and implode on the run.

Summary of data from the ride:

Duration: 2:43:11  Dist 56.149

Work 1517 kJ

VI 1.02

IF 0.706

Avg Power 155

Avg Cad 78

Avg Speed 20.5 mph
Avg HR 137

My interpretation of this data

My power was a bit lower than I was hoping.  That said, I still held a pretty good pace.  My VI was nearly 1 so at least I was riding steady the whole time.

T2 was 3:59.  Popped 2 salt tabs, which I think would end up helping on the run.  I might have to develop a better strategy for salt in the hot races.  Some of this time was filling up water bottle.  I think I might have also laid out in a lawn chair for a minute or so - no not really, just can't figure out what I did for so long

Run

My execution strategy on the surface was rather simple, try and run as much as possible, don’t walk if there wasn’t an aid station and do my best to stay hydrated.  In the days up to the race I watched as the predicted temps continued to climb up to a predicted high in the low 90’s.  One of the things that I have learned in running several half marathons in the year prior was that I needed to have water and Gatorade accessible throughout the entire run and not just at the aid stations.  When training and in previous races I have used the Amphipod belt which has worked great.  For this race however, I had no idea how to keep the bottles cool for the hours that would elapse between leaving transition and finally returning after the bike.  So at the expo I went out and bought myself a hand held bottle from Nathan.

It provided several great advantages.   I had constant access to Gatorade the entire run.  I filled with Gatorade and ice at each aid station and it kept my hand cool which probably helped my overall temp.  When the fluid started to get too warm I just dumped out and started over again.  Overall, fantastic addition to my race strategy, and I don’t think I could have made it through the race without it.

I knew that the run had the potential to completely derail my entire race plans for the day. The combination of the heat and still building my base was going to be troublesome.  Based on recent run pacing and vdot from prior to my injury, I figured I should run around 9-9:30 min miles to get through the race and not blow up.  Based on the additional heat, refueling at aid stations, cooling off etc, I added another 30 sec per mile for a goal of 9:30-10:00 min/mile until mile 10.  At mile 10 depending on pacing I was either going to open go for broke or hold onto the pacing strategy.  I tried to up the pace, wasn’t feeling it, so held on to the pacing.  I figure this was due in large part to a lack of base.  As I hit about 0.5 miles left the engines started to fire again and I was able to get a last little kick to get me home.

My splits were relatively decent, 9:43 min/mile for the first half, 10:13 min/mile for the second half.  I was really working on keeping cool during the second half, and middle of mile 11 had to walk a little more than expected. 

Once I was able to get back to transition I checked the weather.   It was indeed a little warm at the finish.

We got to meet Craig Alexander who was very gracious with his time and took many pictures with the age-group athletes.

After the race I got to spend some time with my uncle who also raced and this year while we were awaiting the award ceremony.

After a 3 month hiatus, coming back to run a really hot half marathon made my day.  While not a PR, definitely a major victory in my book.  This time is about 25 minutes faster than my last 70.3 in Florida 2 years ago when the heat completely destroyed my run.    My goal was somewhere around 5:30.  Adding to that the 92 degree weather I am very happy.

Got back Baltimore, repacked my bike in its case and headed off to the airport.  This makes 4 flights total this year with these bags and zero baggage fees.  This case is great, it makes travel to races much more affordable.  It takes a little time to put bike back together, but overall, definitely worth the investment.

With that, it is a week trip for work, the running shoes are coming along incase I get the urge to run, then it is time to drop into the full on ironman plan in preparation for IM Wisconsin in Sept.