signage

70.3 miles is a long way. About midway through the bike leg as we hit a headwind at about mile 27 (still 29 miles to go) and while on the "65th bottle of beer on the wall" verse (started at 99 of course), I calculated that I would like to finish the race in 7 hours.

Official time: 6:59:43.

Yup, 17 seconds to spare. Damn glad I kept the jog/shuffle on that last 4 miles of running when everyone else had resorted to walking. I especially enjoyed moving past the people in all their expensive gear like fancy trisuits and compression socks.

Overall, the mental mindgames and physical energy needed to complete this race was similar to the experience of a marathon. The only thing that I emphasized more on was keeping track of nutrition to avoid the cramping. After eating bananas, oranges, gels and gatorade for 7 hours, I don't want to see that stuff for long while.

...or maybe in three weeks when I do the San Antonio marathon. Talk about miscalculation of time between races. (Stupid national running day race registration sale.)