Weekend of the Halves

So, we have had some pretty hardcore race situations: double headers, triple whammies, back to back race weekends. Crazy stuff like that. Well this past weekend is just another to add to the list. It was the.....

What makes this the weekend of the halves is that this time last year, we ran the Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon with friends and had such a great time that we signed up soon after for this year's race. We were so excited for 2015 Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon on October 18! While we were signed up for this race, my crazy husband who not only runs, but swims and bikes as well had his goal for doing his first Half Iron distance triathlon in 2015. He heard so many people in our area saying great things about this race called PPD Beach 2 Battleship (PPDB2B), which has a half and a full iron distance available. So he signed up for it! Yay he's going to a Half Ironman yay!!!!!!!!! When asked about the date... he told me that it was going to be on October 17. Wait a second.... Myrtle Beach on the 18th, PPDB2B on the 17th. That's back to back days, in case you didn't realize. But hey, he decided to tackle it head on and I decided to go along for the ride.So that's just what we did! And we had a spectacular weekend. Here's the recap of the weekend:


We headed to Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach, NC to prepare for the PPDB2B festivities on Thursday. Friday was full of logistics planning-- we went to the expo, got his bike checked in, got his transition bags checked in at the two different transition areas, stuff like that. Then on Saturday, we woke up super early so I could drop off Mr. Marathon (Mr. Half Ironman?!) at the swim to bike transition area in Wrightsville Beach. The swim was a 1.2 mile swim in the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, so it was salty, in open water, salty, with a current, and did I already say salty (???)-- all things he wasn't used to swimming in. Regardless, he had a fantastic swim at a time of 34:25. Upon completing the swim, he had to run across some docks and have his wet suit removed by wet suit strippers (I guess I had no choice but to be ok with this?!?!?!) and ran to the transition area where he biked out for his 56 mile bike. The bike was a little challenging due to limited training as he was focused more on the swimming and running. He hadn't biked this far since he had his Gran Fondo adventure last year, but he ended up finishing in 2:54:52, a little faster than he expected! After he biked in to the Wilmington Convention Center, where the bike to run transition area was located, he had a speedy quick transition and headed out for his 13.1 mile run, which he ended up finishing in 1:44:27! Even after swimming and biking for the past few hours. Crazy guy. While he was off gallivanting around, I was busy taking care of business. And by business I mean being his race buddy, which means I got to pick up his stuff as he finished with it, like his bike and his transition bags. And I had to pick them up and walk them to the car where I parked like a mile away in a parking garage (I ended up walking 7.5 miles that day according to my Fitbit-- almost a Half Ironman, right? HINT: WRONG. A Half Ironman is 70.3 miles). Anyway, he ended up finishing in 5:21:02, which was an hour shorter than he expected! He was very pleased with his time, especially taking into consideration the fact that he did not quite get in all the training he wanted to. And I'm super proud of him for setting his goal and smashing it!

Now for some pictures from the PPDB2B portion of the weekend:

At the expo!

Planning his transition bags very carefully

setting up bike to run transition

Setting up swim to bike transition area

Posing in front of where the swim course was

Oh yeah, and we're super cute! Hanging out on the beach!

Doing his wet suit waddle, haha!

Before doing a triathlon, one must take a selfie, duh

Getting on the trolley to go to swim start

There were too many people smiling as they went past this sign...

Making his strong arm as he ran through after his swim

Taking off on the bike

Coming in, he barely looks tired!

Running out like a flash!

Running down the finishing chute!
Ignore the lady who was still watching for her Ironman,
she's chill, don't worry.

Post race pizza, soda, chips, and cookies.
Also, from this angle you can see
his awesome temporary tattoo body marking!

His unofficial time/distance

After our busy day on Saturday (ok, some of us were busier than others), we headed an additional hour south to Myrtle Beach, SC to prepare for the Mini Marathon. We went to the expo, ate some pasta, and settled in for the evening to prepare for our early morning on Sunday. We woke up at 5 (ok 5ish....) and headed to the start line by 6:15. Of course after extensive porta-potty line-waiting, it was time to start. Now, remember that SOME people completed a Half Ironman the day before. Mister was sore and tired, obvs. But he still decided to give it all he had for his second half of the weekend. And despite my 7.5 miles the day before (totally hardcore, I know!), I decided to give it all I had as well. He finished in 1:34:58, which is by no means a PR, but still very impressive considering he had just completed 70.3 miles the day before. I have not been putting in the training that I needed for a PR, so I did not expect to do very well. I ended up finishing in 2:37:23, which is approximately 18 minutes longer than my standing PR from last year's race. So my time was not awesome, but at the same time, it's not too shabby at all (considering my practice run from 2 weeks ago took me over 3 hours....!). We were both happy with the race and we had a fun weekend, or should a say a fun.....

Now here are some pictures from Sunday:

OH LOOK! We ran in to our running buddies at the expo...
JK we wish. They had other things going on and couldn't make it.
(They're photoshopped in there, I know you can't tell.)

Pre-race Flat Stanleys

Very nice pic of me around mile 11 or 12
on the Myrtle Beach Boardwalk
courtesy of my personal photographer

Weekend of the Halves in one picture.... 

Running buddies
(yes my eyes are closed
THEY WERE CLOSED IN EVERY SINGLE ONE
OK IT WAS BRIGHT.)

:)

Walking on the beach post-race

It was a tough weekend, ok??
And somebody had to drive the car!
(HINT: It wasn't me.)

As for upcoming events, we don't have anything coming up immediately. Mr. Marathon has his Spartan Beast event in November, but other than that, nothing else major, besides actually training. Yeah, we need to do some of that I guess... for anything else that may come up in the future.... As for now, we will be recovering from the !