Syracuse Half Ironman

Bill, Bob and I decided to do this inaugural race because Bill’s parents live in Syracuse and Bob's grandparents live in Long Island. Chance to visit relatives and race!!!! How sweet is that!

Race day morning: heavy drizzle going to the race – rain over night. Our bikes were in transition all night but we plastic bagged them till the cows came home!!

Got to the race – the traffic was just the worst. We got in transition with 25 minutes to spare before they closed it – and that was because Bill dropped us off on the road outside the park (he was not racing due to injury). The police were in total Nazi mode and he almost got a ticket for stopping to let us off.They did announce a few minutes after transition closed they were going to leave it open for another 15 minutes – good thing for all those who had not even parked yet!!

The water was 62 degrees. Bob and I bought throw-away hoodies, shoes and socks to keep warm before the swim. Actually the air temp was not bad and we were not cold at all.

My wave went off about 10 minutes after Bob’s did – and since swimming is such a joyous part of my race, I decided to confront one orange buoy at a time so that I did not go into complete apathy about how far away the yellow buoy was – as that was the turn-around point. Swim was not bad with the exception of when I took in a mouth full of water at the beginning and had to stop until I stopped choking and could breathe again. Got out of the water at 52 minutes thinking I am doomed to never be able to do a swim in less time than Barry can in a FULL Ironman (for that I hate him!!!)

Transition was 350 feet from the water – so after the wetsuit strip it was a good run. I found my bike – all went smooth and was off on the bike.

2 days before we drove the bike course and it “looked” really hilly, all the hills seemed to be in the first 15 miles. I was a bit apprehensive about that since my tri bike is geared for flat. But the hills were not that bad and I passed a bunch of people. Since I am not a good climber, that told me there are many that are even worse at climbing than I am. At mile 10 my average speed was 13.5 mph. That was not too encouraging! I only got passed by about 20 people on the bike

The sky was still overcast and there were times on the bike you could not see more than a half block as the fog was so bad. This was never a problem with the exception of the hills that came out of nowhere and were major short climbs that were on you NOW!!. The bike course had about 2,700 ft of climbing on it, the rest were rollers. It was actually a great course.

All in all, the bike was a great ride. I thought I would be around 3:30 on the bike and came in at 3:11 and had an avg. mph of 17.5 by the time I got to the end. Better than the 13.5 at mile 10!!

Got back into transition and was out on the run. And I do not know about anyone else but starting the run with an uphill would not have been at the top of my list of what I would EVER “choose” to do.

The hill did not last too long and I was getting in the groove as the first 2 miles were then down hill – at that point I am praising the higher powers to be and thinking – life is G O O D!

And life did remain good until about mile 5 of the race that found us on Erie Blvd which was about 7 miles of the run course – flat, Bob thinks it was an incline, I thought it could not have been more boring and N E V E R, and I mean never ending!!! I was in nowhere man's land with a Blvd that never ends, my legs starting to hurt, my ability to entertain myself – GONE, and this was the part of the race where that finish line could not come soon enough. BUT you never think of things like finish line as 4 miles seems an eternity away from it!!

Finally turned a corner and got onto another street – new stuff to look at and UP hill. I am now refraining from my thoughts at that point. Finally made it to mile 12, a new street and ALL downhill to finish!! Bills parents, Bill and sister were about 0.2 miles from the finish, that was encouraging!

Finished Half Ironman #14
6:29:38
Swim – 52:29
Bike – 3:11:38
Run – 2:15:24 – that is my best half marathon time in a half ironman! Thank You Mr Steve Mackel – best running coach ever!!
Divison position – 5th of 9 – not that good but I thought my race was good and I was very encouraged by my run and doing way better on the bike than I thought I would do.

This was a great venue. The crowds were awesome, the weather was overcast most of the day making perfect race temperatures. I would recommend this race – good course – good support – great people!!!

Lynda