Florida Rev 3 Half Ironman

Yesterday I raced the Rev 3 Florida Half Ironman, my first long distance race for this year. My race season didn't exactly go as planned but I was happy to squeeze in the last North American Half Ironman of the year. Following my foot surgery at the end of March (for removal of a large neuroma and repair of a torn plantar plate ligament), I had a few months of rehab, and then in an over ambitious attempt to get back to racing, I strained my hamstring at the Boulder Peak 5150 in July. To make a long story short, I had another couple of months of rehabbing my hamstring, and finally got going again with my run training in late September. Phew, just in time before the 2014 race season came to an end!

The Rev 3 Florida Half Ironman was an age group race with a prize purse for the top 5 men and women overall. The swim was one of the roughest swim conditions that I've ever swum in. It was a point to point swim against a strong current, and the general consensus from talking to athletes after the race was that swim times were about 4-5min slower than normal. I came out of the water in 29 minutes, slow for me but about 3 minutes ahead of the next female. It had been raining through the night and early morning, but thankfully the rain stopped halfway through the bike, which made cornering on the "etch a sketch" bike course much easier than the first half of the ride. I entered T2 with a 5 and a half minute lead on the second place female, and then head out on the 2 loop 1/2 marathon run course. Although fading on the second half with limited run mileage in my legs leading up to the race, I extended my lead by the end to finish 7 minutes ahead of second place and 12 minutes ahead of third.

So now it's time for a little bit of an off season break before I start gearing up for next year. What started with a question mark racing season after my surgery in March finished on a good note, and I'm happy that I could squeeze in this late season race. Now it's time for a vacation day in Florida before heading back to San Diego tomorrow. Onwards and upwards!