After Ironman Brazil, I had in one of my dimmer moments decided to do a half ironman while sick just six days later. It took me several weeks to recover from that “double” and it was with some hesitation I was at the starting line for the Vineman half ironman this year, not quite sure what I would have in my legs.

For a change, we got to go off in the first wave (the Russian River isn’t wide enough to allow for a mass start with 2,000 plus athletes) which was a treat as I knew the mid-day sun would be brutal during the run. Right off the bat, I felt great, exiting the swim in 4th place in a time of 32:47. A few miles into the bike, I passed a couple of girls from my age group, giving me additional motivation to keep pushing. There was a pro up the road who was providing a good “rabbit” to focus on. I was doing alright and feeling quite strong when, much to my dismay, I had two girls go by me mid-way through the bike drafting off each other. As drafting is not allowed in this event, it was a bit upsetting to see others cheat but I decided to use it as positive motivation to catch them on the run instead. Finishing the bike in 2:48, I was relieved to know that I was finally able to push myself again and finding there was indeed “fuel in the tank” so to say. On the run, I managed to pass one of the drafters about 3 miles into the run, which propelled me for a few more miles before my legs started to feel like they had had enough for one day. The last couple of miles were a bit of a struggle, so it was great to see my amazing TEAm Lipton teammate Kiki Rutkowski heading out on her run among the top women in her age group. My final time of 5:12:18 was good enough for 3rd in my age group and netted me a nice bottle of wine and some other schwag in prizes. Kiki had another great race and finished 3rd in her age group as well. Now it’s time for both of us to recover before staring our ramp-up for the “big dance” – the Hawaii Ironman World Championship in October.