Personal 70.3 June 5th, 2010

I will be slowly trying to add things to this as I get through my old email and photos. The following was my recap my personal Boise 70.3 in June. I followed the same course and Michelle was my race director and mobile aid station, which I really appreciated.
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Hi all,

I was planning to do the Boise Ironman this year but could not afford all the gear. Friday I decided I was just going to do it with the stuff I had and see how it went..............

I made it!

The 1.2-mile swim took 1 hour 4 minutes. 54-degree water with a short sleeve short leg wetsuit was not a wise idea but I made it. My friend who is doing the real race said if you show up with a wetsuit like that, you are disqualified because they do not want you to freeze to death. Go figure…

During the transition to bike, I just shivered for what seemed like forever.

The 56-mile bike ride took 4 hours 29 minutes. I was using a 15-year-old Specialized Stumpjumper mountain bike so my time was quite a bit slower than if I had been using a road bike designed for this type of thing. I was still happy with my time.

On the transition to the run, my legs were jelly and it took a few minutes to get my rhythm.

Then as I get into a groove on the run, I passed a women’s running event, which looked to be geared towards getting people motivated to exercise and get in shape. There were people lining the running path cheering these women on. Then on my mile 3, someone had a sign on side that said 'A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step'. That has been one of my mottos since I started all this and to see these ladies taking that first step that I did not that long ago choked me up so bad I thought I was going to hyperventilate and pass out. When people tell me they wish they could run like I do, I tell them THEY CAN! When I started in September last year, I could not beat my five year old with no shoes to the corner.

Anyway, I got it together and kept on running. Michelle was by my side on her bike for the run and near the end she went up ahead to meet mom, dad, and the kids. Then when I came down that last long straight away on Capital Blvd I got quite emotional again with the magnitude of what I was so close to finishing. I pushed through it and felt like I ran the fastest mile to the finish. I was happiest with the run result of 1 hour 55 minutes after all the biking and swimming.

I told Michelle next time I should swim more than zero times and bike more than zero times in preparation for something like this. Since my hernia surgery last year I have not swam or ridden my bike at all.

Thanks for all your support and letting me share my goals with all of you.

Ryan