Preparing for an Ironman meant that I needed to race all the other shorter distances as a way of ramping up to the full Ironman Distance. I picked the Queen City Triathlon for my sprint which I did on June 1 in Helena. Then in August I raced the Polson Triathlon for my Olympic distance. I was having troubles finding a half ironman distance race the properly fit into my schedule until Lin informed me that she wanted to attend a conference in Miami in November as well as visit our friends Nathan and Kiara who happen to live in Miami. Wondering what fun adventures the four of us could do in Miami I found a Miami calendar of events and stumbled upon a half Ironman race. Did it fit my training schedule? Check. Did it include an open water swim so I could get more experience before Ironman? Check. Was it wetsuit eligible (I am afraid of OWS without a wetsuit)? Check. Can I get Lin's permission? Check. Bam! I was signed up. The layout of the race sounded really awesome. First, it was a lake swim rather than an ocean swim. I am scared of the ocean, having never swam in one. Granted, I know you're more buoyant in the ocean, but I'll take a lake any day. Second, the bike course is dead flat. I am on the heavy side so a course with no hills is great for me. And third, the run is two laps through the Miami Zoo which sounded pretty cool to me. Anytime I felt tired of running I could look around and see all these animals in cages and realize it could be worse!
Unfortunately I signed up for the race in early June. Who wouldn't sign up early so you could force yourself to train for such an event? Well as it turns out, injuries happen. If you have been following my blog, you know by now that I have been struggling with a hamstring issue. After the marathon attempt I got a shot in the knee, did a bunch of PT, and was praying for a miraculous recovery so I could race in Miami. I kept trying to convince myself I could still race. As the event got closer, I realized there probably wasn't a chance of me completing the whole event, but maybe I could do the first two legs just for the experience? Unfortunately things weren't adding up....I really didn't want to race two legs of the race just to drop out. Plus, I was struggling between shipping my bike to Miami vs. renting a bike. Either way it was a big chunk of change for a race I knew I wouldn't even start the run portion on.
In addition to having knee issues, Lin had flown out to New Jersey with Miles to see her sister while I was in Canada for Gooseathalon and was very reluctant to fly again so soon with an infant. As I have yet to fly with an infant, I cannot pass any judgement to Lindsay's horrible experience. Her thoughts far removed from the experience was "It totally sucked flying with an infant, the extra work far outweighed any fun I had." So between the knee issue, and the flying with an infant issue, we decided to postpone our trip to Miami for a year. The only bad thing was we had to break the news to our friends Nathan and Kiara whom were expecting us. Oh, did I forget to mention that our trip was scheduled to leave on Thursday Nov. 7 and we made the decision to postpone somewhere between Nov. 3 and the 5th? Yea, last minute crap! Being as Kiara and Lin were childhood friends, I let her break the news to Nathan and Kiara. Later when I asked how it went, Lin said they took the news rather well. I certainly hope so, because we are planning to visit them in November 2014!
In addition to having knee issues, Lin had flown out to New Jersey with Miles to see her sister while I was in Canada for Gooseathalon and was very reluctant to fly again so soon with an infant. As I have yet to fly with an infant, I cannot pass any judgement to Lindsay's horrible experience. Her thoughts far removed from the experience was "It totally sucked flying with an infant, the extra work far outweighed any fun I had." So between the knee issue, and the flying with an infant issue, we decided to postpone our trip to Miami for a year. The only bad thing was we had to break the news to our friends Nathan and Kiara whom were expecting us. Oh, did I forget to mention that our trip was scheduled to leave on Thursday Nov. 7 and we made the decision to postpone somewhere between Nov. 3 and the 5th? Yea, last minute crap! Being as Kiara and Lin were childhood friends, I let her break the news to Nathan and Kiara. Later when I asked how it went, Lin said they took the news rather well. I certainly hope so, because we are planning to visit them in November 2014!