Awesome bike split!  I can't even crank those kinds of speeds in a sprint race, much less over 56 miles of rolling hills!

And it seems like going too hard on the bike and suffering through the run was the theme of the day -- tons of people I talked to (me included) had exactly the same experience.  But - you made it through and NO KNEE PAIN!  Woohoo!!!!!

Great seeing you out there!  See you again at PP???

Laura, Good race, even if you don't agree.  Very good swim and great bike.  The run is coming and you are smart to not push it.   No knee pain is HUGE!!!

And I vote for the aerobottle.  I will tell you that it is a huge help.  I know it sounds simple, but I used to do the same thing.  Grabbing the bottle below you seems like a task.  With the bottle in front, you have to drink.

Great job and great to see you out there.

And FWIW,  I muttered the same thing during my run about hating this silly sport.  The finish line seems to erase those thoughts pretty quickly.

Oh dear God, I have a 1/2 in September and now I'm freaking terrified. Yikes! I think I'll go run tomorrow

But in other news -- I mean, that WAS a really impressive bike split

Laura,

First of all, I had no idea you were  hurting so much.  I feel slightly guilty for giving you reason to hammer the bike with the whole "race within a race" stuff.  Sorry.  You were awesome.  As bad as this was, now that you have a little perspective, don't you feel like maybe it was a good learning experience for moving on?  You still pushed yourself to the limit and I think the most important thing to take away from this race is your knee is good.  The surgery worked!  That's fantastic.  Now you can move past the knee and really focus on run training.

Congrats on a great job!

OMG!!!!!  This sounds so much like a carbon copy of my race strategy.  Survive the swim, beat everyone into submission on the bike, and do the "Dead Man Walking" thing on the run.  Hey at least you survived, and I still think it's an awesome job to finish, no matter what you have to do.  That's the true spirit of a Triathlete!  Congrats on a super race!! 

whizzz!!! Great job!! And such an great RR - you took me through it with you and had me rolling between the cabbage and the mountain lion on steroids. 

Regarding the race though - think about it this way - you pushed the swim and bike hard and found your new limits.  There is a lot to say about that; not everyone has the guts to really race through and push to those limits.  And, you hung on through the run and I am sure dealt with some mental demons on the run to.  So, this is a victory for you - you have found out how far you can push yourself - AND YOU WON!!

You're the best Whizzz! Congrats!

 I wish I'd have seen you cross the line...although I heard your name and sent a mental cheer (too tired to actually yell, sorry.) 

Whizzz, your hungry mountain lions were after me too!  Girl, you can FLY on that bike!  It seems none of us had any sense on Sunday   STill, we learned from our experiences...um...right????????

I'll  see you at PP - shorter run after means we can legally hammer the bike.  Right?? right????

It had very little to do with the race within the race... I was gunning for a fast bike split anyway. I just had no idea it would take so much out of me(!!!)

My Sister in Suffering.....Sounds like a craptacular run. But WOW, what a bike split.  At least you had ONE highlight from the day. I thought about you Sunday morning and said a little cheer for you in my head and hoped you were doing ok. But, alas, we were both on the pain train   I'll remember your race report when I do my 1/2 IM in three weeks. Talk about undertrained! Uh, yeah. That would be me.

Yes, I feel tons better about everything. I'm not quitting triathlon, and I'm probably not going to become a stage racer. I am still going to run the marathon in October.

However, I am rethinking nutrition, getting different running shoes, and dialing back the bike.

Setting goals and not reaching them and then getting disappointed sort of sucks the fun out of this thing. I think next time, instead of setting time goals for myself, I'm just going to set the goal of DOING THE BEST I CAN.

Hmmmmm….messing up on the bike and having nothing for the run seems very familiar (rockman).  And it seems a recurring theme is SoR race reports.  I wonder how many people didn’t have the mental strength to see it through to the finish line.

We race the clock, we learn something new (from a good or bad experience), we reevaluate, we move forward.

Have fun at PP and in your marathon training.

Congrats on the finish and a BIG YEAH for the k-nees not hurting.

what's that song, 2 out of 3 ain't bad?

but seriously - very impressive swim and bike and if the run needs work, well now you know where to put your focus. i think you have so much heart for gutting it out to the finish line!

congrats on the HIM!