The thrill of victory

From right to left: Rob, Mike, Heather and Tom

The "recovery" period

Rob finishes lap one of the run

Donation update

Just did the math and Make a Wish will receive a sum total of $608 for my "sweat" equity. That works out to about $75 for each week of training. Not too shabby.

Official Official results

So apparently some adjustments were made overnight because my time (which was listed on an "offical"-looking document posted at the event yesterday) suddenly increased when results were made available on the race website today.

My new final time of 1:28:31 beat two other competitors in my age group. Thanks to VJ Anma who finished at 1:46:56, I was “not last” by 18:25.

We’ll round that down to 18 minutes which means all you fine donors need to get out your checkbooks and start sending me money. If you’ve forgotten your commitment, let me know and I’ll look it up.

I’ll also be making the rounds with a Make-a-Wish t-shirt for folks to sign to commemorate this historic achievement.

Official finish times

Times just got posted and I came in a very respectable 1:26:49 which put me in 112th place overall. Age divisions weren't broken out but there was one person near my age at 1:29 so it looks like 3 minutes will be the minimum for donation purposes.

My neighbor Tom Butler (whose wife started this whole mess) finished a very strong 1:20:42, good enough for 81st.

Mike got a DQ for wearing his timing chip on his wrist instead of his ankle but based on our best guess, he was somewhere near 1:20 in the shorter Tri-it<.BR>
I was very happy with my split times. I felt slow in the water but managed a 19:42, at least 4 minutes faster than I expected.

The bike took 39:32, right where I thought it would be. The run was 24:48, a little slower than I would have liked considering that was my strongest discipline going in.

Not last (unofficially)!

Well, it looks like all the training paid off. I passed two competitors that appear to have been in my age group which would mean I was not last.

Everyone was marked with their number and age on their legs and I saw at least two ages in my group on the run.

We'll have to wait and see the official results for confirmation.

Race conditions

It's super cold out here this morning. I can see my breath. The low last night was in the mid-40s and it doesn't feel like it has warmed up much. The reported water temperature is 61 degrees. Fortunately, there isn't much wind which means the water will be calm for the swim.

We came into the park on the road we'll use for the bike portion of the race and it seems fairly flat. The hilly sections are short and shouldn't pose a challenge.

I haven't seen the running trail.

I got bib number 751 in my race packet. I've got all my stuff arranged in the transition area. Transitions aren't something I practiced so it will be interesting to see how I handle that.

Got to go to the start to get my race briefing.

Race day!

Race day is finally here! I'm riding down to the race with Mike, the fireman.

I'm changing out the pedal's on Lincoln's bike this morning because he uses clip-in style shoes. Since I'm just wearing my tennis shoes, I prefer flat pedals.

Hope to have a report on race conditions later:

The blue band is magical

Got my package from Make a Wish today. Two t-shirts (XL) and 7 blue wristbands a la the popular yellow Livestrong bands (one of my all-time favorite marketing programs).

I wore a wristband on my run today and it must be magic because I went 6 miles at a pretty decent pace and felt like I could go another 2 or 3. It's either that or my "eat anything you want, workout occassionally" training program is going to make me millions.