ME! That’s who! I LOVE swimming! I live for diving into the crisp cool water, I find joy in following the black line, and if it were socially acceptable, I’d probably use chlorine as perfume.
I love swimming so much that when I found out high winds had caused the race director at the New Orleans 70.3 to replace the traditional 1.2 mile swim with a 2 mile run, I reacted like this:
Ok, maybe it wasn’t quite that bad. But I wasn’t happy!
Luckily, my coach is a bit more even tempered than I am, and he convinced me to stop screaming obscenties and contemplating retirement from the sport and instead focus on how best to race my first ever duathlon.
The new race format was 2 mile run, 52 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run. I decided to run those first two miles like I would normally do the swim – HARD. My sister had traveled all the way from Houston to cheer me on. She’s a swimmer too, and I’d hoped seeing some fast swimming might inspire her to start doing tris. With the swim cancelled, I had to do a quick switch. Plan B: Show her some run speed!
Before I knew it, I was through the first run and out on the bike course. Yes, it was windy. Yes, it was crowded. But neither of those were much of a surprise. My start wave was at the very back of the pack, which just meant I always had someone to chase. And my friend Betty always says wind is your friends back home cheering you on, so I appreciated the breeze!
Plus, since Brent and Kyle were racing too, I enjoyed some on-course cheers and camera snaps from their official photog John David!
Once back in transition, I slipped on my trusty Mizunos and headed out on the 13.1 mile, two-loop run course. Between my sister and other ATL friends cheering me on, and glimpses of my teammates Gerry, Ryan, Kidd, Brent and Kyle looking good in their green and yellow Dynamo kits, my head was flooded with happy thoughts. I couldn’t help but run fast.
I enjoyed every mile. I think I even liked the .1.
I finished the race with a 1:28 half marathon – my best off the bike effort to date. My performance was good enough for first in my age group, second overall amateur female, and a qualifying spot at the Half Ironman World Championships. Now I’m looking forward to fast racing – including the SWIM – in Vegas in September!
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
And when you’re in Vegas, you can work on that awesome tan! Congrats Haley. Swimming is overrated (at least that’s what lousy swimmers like me say.)
Nice photos =>
Love you Han! And your mad photography skills!! Thanks for making me look like a real runner!
WOOP WOOP! So awesome! Congrats
Congrats, Haley. I agree with Mike – swimming is overrated (clearly I am a member of the lousy swimmers club).
BAM. you look awesome in that kit! congrats!
HAHA, your reaction to the no swim is EXACTLY how I would have reacted. Shocking! Way to rock, Haley! Glad to see you are doing Vegas this year, you will rock it!