Not a bad day for my 9th half iron triathlon. 😎Today's race was really tough. The wind caused a bunch of chop in the water that we had to deal with. My swim time came in a full 15 minutes slower than my last half in Mont-Tremblant. A good portion of that can be attributed to wetsuit there versus not here but not all of it. Then on the bike we had a wonderful tail wind going out the Mann's Harbor bridge (a 2.7 mile long bridge!) but then on the way back that wind was a ferocious head wind! I did about 22-24 mph on the way out and only about 13-14 on the way in! And we had to do that twice! Then when we got to the run, it had really heated up! It was at least mid 80s and it was the middle of the day. And about half the course didn't have shade. But, I made it to the finish line, not as fast as I would have liked, but no real major problems. I spent some time at the finish line laying down, stretching, eating some pizza, grousing about there not being any soft drinks at all unless you wanted to pay for them (!) and then as I was about to leave I noticed the results terminals there and said oh what the heck I'll see how I did. I printed it out and said, this can't be right! But it was! I got 2nd in my age group! Someone suggested it was all due to my spiffy number. 😎This wasn't even my best time this year. I guess it's all about who shows up. So, that was my race today. And tomorrow I get to do it all again! 😱 But at least tomorrow's race is just a sprint. Then in 5 weeks I do my 10th half iron: the NC 70.3 Beach2Battleship in Wilmington. That was my very first half so I'm glad I can do it again 3 years later as my 10th. #triathlon #obxtriathlon #imnc703 #roanokeisland #outerbanks (at Old Swimming Hole Manteo, NC)