Just to let everyone know I successfully completed my half Ironman Triathlon race on July 31st. It is also called a 70.3 race, since I traveled 70.3 miles while swimming, biking and running, all back to back.
The race was held in the Santa Rosa or Northern California area. The swim of 1.2 miles was in the Russian River in Guerneville. We began the 56 mile bike portion of the race there, as we exited the water. We rode through the vineyards and extremely beautiful rolling hills, passing dozens of wineries. The course passed through the towns of Heraldsberg and Geyserville, before ending the bike portion in the town of Windsor. There were two significant hills on the course that made all my miles of bike training pay off. I was able to ride up the entire Chalk Hill, passing men and women who were walking their bikes up the steep grade.
From the town of Windsor, the 13.1 run portion began and ended. The run course went through the very hot and dry area where the temperatures were in the high 90's. I had set a goal of finishing within 8 to 9 hours, depending on the heat. I finished the race with one minute to spare, in 8 hours and 59 minutes!
It was an amazing journey to set a fitness goal this big and accomplish it. This took many months of training, sometimes six days a week of workouts. Now I can enjoy my summer!
Dream Big!
Sandy