Lately it seems I keep finding races that I say have to be the hardest I’ve ever done, but I think I can safely say that one takes the cake by a long shot. I was in pain for the ENTIRE almost 3 hours of the bike, and by about halfway through I was just hoping I could finish the bike course! And somehow after getting off I managed to still have running legs (really happy with my fitness right now)! But they went after about mile 5, when the heat and effort level finally caught up with me (never been so hot on the bike, even). So the last 8 were the normal struggle just to make it to the next water stop so I could walk for just a brief second. So yeah, I don’t think I’ll be going back until I learn how to fly up those hills like a couple of those pros were doing…
About the race though, it had great organization throughout. No line at check-in, no wait for a shuttle from the finish to the start on race morning, not even a wait to get into the parking lot to get to the shuttle, easy to follow swim course, bike course and run course, great roads with no worries about traffic. The only problem was when they changed the rules at the last second to say you couldn’t leave your shoes on the bike! Turns out, it wasn’t that big of a deal since I got really lucky with my transition area spots, but since I’d never ran in my bike shoes or done things that way in a race before, I was quite worried pre-race.
Also, running through the shopping center was really cool, my first two laps were packed with people cheering and little kids to give high fives to.
Lastly, was that run course long or was I really just that SLOW?
-Bryan Journey
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