WOW! Last year was crazy! After hard work in NOT training. (yes, its hard NOT to go train!)  Actually letting my body recover and then training RIGHT... I finally got my goals! I wanted a sub 11 Ironman. I wanted to be able to to an Ironman and actually RUN (not walk AT ALL) the marathon portion. I wanted to do a half Ironman and hit the run at 1:30. Its amazing what training right can do.

 



Lake Havasu Half Ironman was in the middle of Nov. What a crew we had! My bestie, Kristi was competing in her 1st tri EVER! yes, right into a half ironman :) LOVE IT!! James (my coach) was competing in his 27th full Ironman for the year and pulling a 16 year old boy named Dayton with cerebral palsy.
With not much time, James had put me on a great schedule to crush this race! His words "the course is super flat" hence the reason he was pulling Dayton ..
 The swim went nicely and then off to the bike. So, wait, I MUST be on the WRONG course cause all i see are HILLS!! No worries, what goes up must come down right?? Well, yes  BUT every down was with a sharp turn to the next hill so you never really could just fly down I LOVE hills! Just wasn't expecting them is all :)

 The run I felt AMAZING in my Altra shoes!! We ran up the actual LONDON BRIDGE!  Yes, it was moved to Arizona for some strange reason :/ So running UP the 50 stairs then back DOWN, under the overpass to get to the other side of the bridge, then back UP! FUUUN!! I LOVE variety! fairly flat run. Repeated the London bridge part at the end to get to the finish. running a 1:30 half  Marathon! and gosh felt GREAT! My nutrition was perfect... hanks to my coach!  1st place baby!!
Kristi was not far behind. Coming in 2nd place ! So fun to "podium" with my bestie!

 The half is over and all the full racers are out. the bike was HARD pulling a cart for James with all those hills. We are all there for transition to support. He looks TIRED.  Knowing the stairs he'd have to go up and down I decided to go out with him for a little while and help. Well, 16 miles later... I decide 30 of  miles running was probably good :) James finished in time for the cut off and man oh man, it was an amazing day!
   

Palm Springs FULL Ironman!

Its here, the full ironman I needed for redemption of my mind for that horrifying performance in St George :)

Once again with the IRON COWBOYS crazy crew! The day started great! I had Matt at my side helping me get set up and ready to go. The swim was 4 loops!! What the?? right?! So everytime you had to get out of the water and cross the line and then go right back in. Different. but different is fun too :)

Onto the bike I go (which is 3 loops). I like that cause then I get to see the crowd more. Bike was going great! Flat flat flat road baby!! then at mile 45 (so on my second loop) a car decides to back up into me and take me out ..uuum ouch! Stuff scattered everywhere, heart bounding cause im scared out of my mind! Pull it together and jump back on and GOOOO!!  After going for about 5 miles I feel SO tired from pushing so hard and not going fast I realize my brake was jammed into my wheel. LOL . erg... no such thing as "perfect" race day i guess.. 

I get to the 3rd loop and grab some Ibuprofen to ease the pain of the wreck.  That never settles good on my tummy. Bike was 5 hours and 25 min (ish) now off to the RUN!!!!

I'm not happy with my hip right from the beginning but I determined to RUN that marathon! It was about 85 degrees out. Matt came out when he could to be my number one cheer leader! there was only to porta-potties on the course but 2 loops so we had them at mile 1,6,13, 18 hmmm.. not enough.. maybe too much info but I didn't get any of those spots and had 4 potty stops (so sorry for the citizens on Palm springs )

I finished the run strong in my Altra shoes and my only stops were for the potty so i was SUPER happy with that!  Finishing with a time of 10:38!   YAY!! I got my goal!! Finally!! and 2nd place female :)