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 !

Patriots Triathlon

A couple of weeks ago, we traveled to Williamsburg, VA for the Patriot Triathlon. This race was very well organized  with lots of refereeing going on (which can be a good or bad thing....). There were two distances on Saturday (International and Half Ironman) with a sprint on Sunday. Mr. Marathon decided to up his triathlon mileage and go for the International distance in preparation for the Half Ironman he is doing NEXT MONTH!!!!! Anyway, the International was a good in between distance for him so he can keep on improving. This distance included a 1500 meter (open water!) swim, a 40 km (approx. 24 miles) bike ride, and a 10k run (6.2 miles). Enjoy these photos chronicling the day's events, start to finish!

Preparing to swim in the 80-degree James River

It was stormy, cloudy, and rainy.....
Perfect day for a triathlon...?

Coming out of the water!

Running to the transition area

Biking out

Running in to the finish

Finishing strong!

He really enjoyed this triathlon, and he finished with a time of 2:42:38. He was hoping to finish around 3 hours, so he totally blew his goal outta the water!

As for upcoming events, we have the Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon coming up in October, but also, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, Mr. Marathon is going to tackle the half iron distance in October as well in Wilmington, NC called PPD Beach 2 Battleship. That's pretty much all we have lined up for now, besides the never ending training!

Hello? Is this thing on?

Ahem, hellooooo? Is anybody there? Oh wait, you're all here. I'm the one missing. Sorry for being such a neglectful blogger! Anyway, I'm here now for a catch-up post and that's all that matters, right? Right!

Busted Soles

Ok so first of all, we are going to rewind to May 6. May 6 was the first race of the Busted Soles Trail Race Series in Danville, VA. This trail series was Mr. Marathon's way to stay motivated and stay in shape. These races were held once a week for the 4 weeks in May on various trails around Anglers Park and Dan Daniel Park in Danville. The runs were varying lengths, from 4 to 6 miles each week. It was hard to tell the distance because GPS watches aren't very reliable on those trails, between the trees and intense elevation change. Anyway, he came in first place for each race and won the series! He enjoyed the races each week, and all the camaraderie involved. Fun! Moving on!

Super Run

As we have mentioned before, mister and I coach the running program at the elementary school where we worked this past school year: I coached Girls on the Run and he coached STRIDE (Success + Teamwork + Respect + Inspiration + Determination = Excellence in character!). After the season began in March, we have been working with our teammates on character development, and of course running. We had a long, interesting season, and we ended our season with the Super Run 5K as our celebration on May 16. It was Super Fun! (see what I did there?????) I was an official Running Buddy, and my little runner girl did pretty great! She kept pushing, even though she was tired. Every time she needed to take a break she would walk, catch her breath, then take a deep breath in, then out, then she would confidently say, "OK, I'm READY!" and we would take off again. Love it!

Oh, and that guy that runs with me sometimes came in 2nd place overall. Way to go... (see picture below). K moving on.

Yippee.... HAH!

Off the Rails Sprint Triathlon

Most recently, our adventure has been a triathlon on May 31. Mr. Marathon's recent goals include a little more swimming and biking, and just as much running (stay tuned...!). Anyway, last year he did the Off the Rails Sprint Triathlon in Roanoke, VA, and loved it so much that he decided to do it again this year! And do even better!

MHC Inspire representing!

What you might not have expected is that I did it too! Just one leg of it, though, so it's not that impressive. I formed a relay team with my runner dad, whom I've mentioned before, and my biking bald-headed brother, who owns Chain of Fools Bike Repair in Uptown Martinsville. We had so much fun being Team "Hulkfeldt" (which is a play on their last name/my maiden name "Huckfeldt" and it's super duper funny because I came up with it!!) and we rocked out in the mixed relay team category and placed 3rd! Out of 3 but not that it matters because we had lots of fun.  Mister placed 3rd in his age group, with a time of 57:48! Fun was had by all!

3rd place mixed relay! Woohoo!

3rd place Age Group Male 25-29

Ok, so the medals are intended to be a part of a 3-race series of triathlons and duathlons.
Each race you get another piece to the "puzzle."
But my relay team had three people. Mission accomplished!

Women's shirt logo.... one of my faves, definitely.

Triathlon: The Aftermath (even though it was just a sprint)
The receipt says it all: FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD haha!
And in case you didn't believe us, here is hubbs, showing off his FOOD (before and after).

Mister's splits for the tri.... total time 57:48.6!

Relay splits didn't come through, but here's our total time! 1:11:40!

Oh, and hubbs finished his semester off strong
and even won 2 awards for being a smarty pants!