Tomorrow will mark one month since the Dallas Marathon but it already feels like it was a long time ago. Partly that's because of the holidays but it's also because I shifted focus pretty quickly to my next big event and put the marathon in the rearview.
What's next? Well, March 22 brings the Rock N Roll Half Marathon. It'll be my 3rd year to do this race and it's my favorite half. Good course, well-run event. If all goes to plan I'll earn a new PR there. But it's also a training race ahead of something bigger. I also won a free registration to the CapTexTri in Austin on May 25 so that will be my second international distance triathlon. That too will be a fun event and nice to race in familiar surroundings. But it's not my A race either, it'll be a training race.
My big event for this year is the Victoria, BC 70.3 Half Ironman. 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run. Almost twice as far as my longest tri to date and will be my longest endurance event ever (except labor, which is its own category of endurance event!). How did we get here? It's been years in the making.
I remember years ago when my friend Meredith talked about training with Team in Training for a half ironman. Back then I had never done an endurance event and it sounded so intimidating. But it planted a seed. Maybe someday. A few years later I did my first triathlon, a super sprint in 2008. I had such poor running form I got a stress fracture running to train for it. (Yes, you can get a stress fracture running less than 15 miles a week, apparently. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise though as it forced me to learn proper form.)
I remember at one point writing out the race distances of various tris on post-its and sticking them up at my desk. I'd look at them and think it through. At that point I was more of a cyclist so I imagined my limiting factor would be the run.
After Daniel was born in summer 2010 I decided I wanted to try my first half marathon. If I could make it through 37 hours of unmedicated labor, how hard could it be to put one foot in front of the other for a few hours? But my goal was a year too ambitious as I adjusted to life with a newborn, so it wasn't till fall 2011 I began training for the Dallas White Rock Half Marathon. That fall at age 33 I became a runner and even before I crossed that finish line I knew this wasn't a one-off but the first of many. 6 more halfs followed in the next 6 months, along with 2 sprint tris, then as I got deeper into my pregnancy with Rebecca, I took some time off but looked ahead to bigger goals in coming years.
My goal for 2013 was to complete my first marathon and I did. In June 2014 I did my first international distance triathlon at the Playtri Festival in downtown Las Colinas, practically in my backyard. My race day didn't go particularly well, to be honest, due in no small part to the heat. Still, it led me to believe I could take the next step to the half ironman distance.
I've never done a destination event-Austin doesn't really count to me since I grew up there and my parents still live there. But none of the 70.3 events in Texas grabbed my interest. And I've always loved western Canada. Initially I was looking to the Calgary 70.3 in late July but then I saw the Victoria event-new to the Ironman series but a 20 year old event. The mid-June date was ideal for several reasons-cooler temps on race day, I avoid training in the heat of summer here, and I can take a few weeks off afterward and still have a solid base to head into marathon season.
I also liked what I read about the course. A one-loop lake swim that's wetsuit-eligible but not freezing, a 2-loop bike course, and best of all, a shaded run course through the woods around the lake. Compared to the miserable run I experienced in my tri last summer with no scenery and no reprieve from the heat, this sounded perfect. I'd been to Victoria once on a family vacation when I was younger and thought it would be fun to go back. Kevin and the kids will come but so will my parents and an aunt and uncle. It'll be fun to explore the city with them and have a big cheering section on race day.
So finally, after weeks of thinking about it, on my 36th birthday I registered for my first half ironman. One of the races I'd looked at on a post-it years ago was going to become reality. I hadn't felt such butterflies submitting my registration for an event since that White Rock Half in 2011. I was going to take the next step and become a Half Ironman finisher.
June 14 feels so far away yet also so close. 5 months from tonight, I'll go to bed in a Victoria hotel after laying out all my race gear. I'll rise early the next morning, dress, have breakfast, and head out to the race site. As the race start approaches I'll put my wetsuit on. Before the race starts I'll hear O Canada sung by a singer and many of my fellow racers. When it's my wave's turn, I'll hop into some cold chest-deep water and, when the gun goes off, begin to swim. After the longest race distance I'll have ever swum (though not much further than the .9 mile international distance), I'll run out of the water, take off the wetsuit, and head out for a few hours on the bike. I'll probably see family members as I head out on the 2nd loop but mostly, it'll just be me and a hilly bike course by the ocean. 2 loops later I'll run into transition, re-rack my bike, switch to running shoes, and only 13.1 miles will stand between me and my goal of finishing my first half ironman.
Finally, many hours after I first hopped in that water, 7 months after signing up, almost 10 years after the seed was first planted, and after hundreds of hours and miles of training, the moment I've visualized many times already will come. I'll finish my second loop of the run course and I'll take the fork that leads to the finisher chute. I'll see my family cheering, see the excitement on my kids' faces as I make them proud, hear the announcer call my name. And then I'll cross the finish line and forever join the ranks of the half ironman finishers. I'll get my finisher's medal, celebrate with family and then, somehow, drag my tired, sore body out of bed early the next morning to fly back home.
It's still 5 months away but I've got plenty to do between now and then to get myself to race shape. Having just finished marathon training I've got a great running training base to build on, but I haven't done much biking and swimming in awhile. So it is that after not darkening the doorstep of my gym for months, I'm back several days a week to ride the stationary bikes or do spin class (it's too cold to ride outside, and I don't feel like setting up the trainer yet) and swim. Right now I'm just looking to do base-building for the swim and bike and prepare for the RNR Half in running. I'll always consider myself a runner first and foremost but tris bring a nice change of pace and while I'll always prefer exercising outside to a gym, it's nice to have some variety in my schedule instead of just running, running, running.
1.2 mile swim. 56 mile bike. 13.1 mile run. A goal that seemed so far away years ago on a post-it. Now just 5 short months away. I'm excited and a little terrified all at once. But I know I can do it, and can't wait for race day to arrive. This year I get to do a half ironman!
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