Fast, Fast, Pain, Pain, Locker #1

Fast, Fast, Pain, Pain, Locker #1 is what I chanted inside my head during the entire run of today’s Duke half race.    Haha, it worked.   I also used my Rice Krispies on Drugs idea when I started to fade in the 2nd lap of the run.   It worked, too.     I used a new idea, which I wrote about in another blog post:  Suffer Section.

I had an amazing race…I’ll even go so far and say it was an out of body experience. Got 1st AG.   Overall Time 5:33. That’s not a typo. I beat my sub 6 hour goal by almost a freakin half hour.  Just found out I got 1oth Overall Female!

Official Splits:
Swim: 00:38:05
T1: 00:01:44
Bike: 02:53:00
T2: 00:02:01
Run: 01:58:54
Overall: 05:33:43

Goals:
My primary goal for this race was sub 6 hours.   If you are regular bloggy peep, you probably knew that I have been trying to get sub 6 hours at the Duke 1/2 for several years.  I also wanted a podium spot, and felt confident I could get one this year, because there was only one other name on the participant list that I recognized as a fast chick.  But, secretly, I had a time goal of 5:44, which is the time that it normally takes to get the podium at Duke half in my age group – when all the fast chicks do show up.    I didn’t really think I could get that time.   I am completely beside myself with how I got 5:33.   I came out of the water in first place, and just held on.

Short race recap:
My Garmin 50 got water inside during the swim, so it crapped out.  And my bike computer crapped out a few weeks ago.  I was forced to race completely by feel, which is something Stacey Richardson suggested  (tho I wasn’t going to listen!).  It worked!  I think focusing on my body instead of on my watch allowed me to go hard in a more efficient way. Or something like that.  I crossed the finish line and saw 5:50 on the finish clock. I thought “Wohoo, I beat my 6 hour goal by 10 minutes”. A few minutes later, I realized my wave started 20 minutes after the clock, so my race time was way better than 5:50!     Then I was like, OMG, WTF –  where did that come from?

Thanks to Scottie and Jennifer for shouting out the time of day to me during the run. That way at least I knew I was on target for a good race.  (Since I can’t do math in my head very well while racing, I had no idea how good of a race I was having!)

Here I am taking an ice bath in the parking lot.  A guy named Clay let me use the shade from his car.  Thanks, Clay!   I had played leapfrog with him on the bike.

Here I am on the podium.  Thanks to twitter friend @darnyce for taking this picture!   They didn’t have an awards ceremony because every body wanted to leave.    So, this is sort of a staged picture, that’s why nobody else is up there with me.    Too bad!  I didn’t care so much for myself, but what if it was somebody’s first podium finish?    I think that is sad.