1/2 Done

Over half the year has passed, and I'm half done with my races. Only 10 (maybe 11) races to go. I'll have another tough couple weeks in early August (3 races in 11 days), but this time I'm going to sleep and eat excessively well.

I ran 8 miles pushing Cedric today. He held up quite well, though he got really fussy a few times. At mile 6 I found myself gasping "Victors" up a hill to entertain him. It reminded me of trying to blast out M Fanfare after doing entries into the stadium. I need to run with him more often, though on shorter routes, for both our sake.

National 24 Hour Challenge

The National 24 Hour Challenge is a bike race in Middleville, MI where the goal is to bike as many miles as you can in 24 hours. I was planning on doing the first loop of this race, 120 miles, with my Dad. Unfortunately I fell ill the night before. My dad still completed the loop on his own. Way to go, Dad!

I was planning on finding another long bike ride to do this summer, to make up for missing this one. Once I started looking at my calendar for a weekend that would work, I remembered how many events I already have on my plate this year. Aside from the stress on my body, it is also stressful for my family to plan around these weekends. I think I'll just aim to do the National 24 Hour Challenge again next year.

Triceratops Triathlon

Felt great the whole races. Made some mistakes, including leaving my socks inside out, forgetting where my bike rack was when I came in from the bike, forgetting to take my helmet off before the run...but I think those are to be expected for a first timer. My goal was to finish in the top half of my age group, and I did (8 of 16). I would have placed better except I'm worse at the swim than I had originally expected. The good news was that I never panicked on the swim, and "swam" the whole thing without stopping. Percentiles in results are given as the % of people better than me (so 100% for the swim portion in my AG means I was last).

Flirt with Dirt

First of all, thanks to my parents who saved the day. They drove all the way from Sturgis to watch Cedric so that I could run and Greg could go to work. Here are the results:

Time: 54:13 (8:45 pace)
Place: 112 of 327
AG: 3 of 24

This is a huge improvement from my 1:05 time last year. Not only was I in better shape, but I improved my strategy as well. A good portion of the course is single track, meaning that it's difficult to pass. I made sure to start in a faster pace group and I was more aggressive with passing. I still got stuck in lines a few times, but most of the time I was going at my own pace.