California 70.3 re-cap part 3

See part two here

At this point I'm leaving transition to start the run.  I've now taken my bike shorts off and have on my spiffy SkirtSports running skirt so I'm feelin spunky :)  For the first maybe 1/2 - 1 mile or so my feet felt numb.  I think part of it is being in the bike shoes and I think part of it for this race was that it was cool in the morning so my feet were a little chilled.  Before the race my dream goal was to run a 1:45 which is 8 min/mile.  I knew that would be tough so I just decided I'd try my best in this first go and see how close I could get.  I maintained close to 8:10's for a while and found a guy who was running my pace so I hung next to him for a while and finally he chatted me up and told me I was pacing him.  Whoa buddy you are supposed to be pacing me :)  Worked out good except that he was on his second lap and I was just starting my first so I lost him about half way through my run and was on my own.  At this point I was also getting a little fatigued so I know I dropped my pace.  I was just trying to stay in the 8's and use the downhill's as best I could.  The last mile I still felt decent so I was picking it up and ran the last mile sub 8 minute and know I did the last 1/4 mile as fast as I could.  The run is still my comfort zone and where I feel strongest.  I was passing people on the run almost the whole time which is a huge confidence booster and for sure I was passing people on that last half mile and it felt great.  I felt good about my time of  1:49:42 even though it fell short of my goal.

After the race when we were walking through everyone who was post race relaxing a guy said "Hey, I think you were running in front of me for a while; you were pacing me except you totally smoked me at the end".  Um, hell yeah I did!  I mean; that is great I'm glad I could pace you :)

Overall I loved this race.  Part of it is the course and that it is "home turf" for me.  I've got the bug now and want to do another half Ironman for sure.  I'd love to improve my times; my overall fitness and FOR SURE my comfort in the water so I don't have as much anxiety going into it.  I'm looking at the calendar to pick out my next race.  Dave's been asking if I'm ready to sign up for a full Ironman and I'm sure I'm "ready" but not mentally ready just yet.  I need to make sure I can mentally get through a 2.4 mile swim and sit on my bike seat for close to 7 hours.  Other than that I'm totally ready :) So we'll see what the rest of this year holds.