The HIT IV–Photo Spectator Report

IronHubs competed in the TBF Racing Half Iron Triathlon today and, needless to say, completely ROCKED his race!  This was his second half-iron distance race – he did the HIT III last year with similarly spectacular results.  Here’s our day in pictures:

Pre-race selfie from a strange angle.  I’m covered in sunblock, wearing our family team shirt, got my backpack full of snacks and cowbells, and have IronHubs’ wedding ring around my neck.  He says he’s afraid of losing it in the lake (he lost wedding ring #1 many, many years ago), but I suspect he’s  trying to pick up chicks in his sexy wetsuit.  “Hey, baby, swim here often?”

Still dark when we left the house.  Don’t let those clouds fool you – it was already 60 degrees and climbing at 6 am.  Gonna be a hot one today!

Racking his bike approximately five feet from the bike mount line – sa-weet!!

It was a super small race, under 100 participants.  This was the “mass start.”

The swim did not go well.  All the pics I took of IronHubs coming out of the water make him look angry and a little bit mean (which he totally is NOT), so here’s a pic in transition.  You can sort of see in the background that – *ahem* – there aren’t very many other bikes still there.  1.2 mile swim = 41:58, T1 = 1:57

As he was leaving, I thought of all the times a crappy swim has lead me to a killer bike time and hoped IronHubs could harness his frustration and turn it into fuel for the ride.

Which he totally did!!  His projected bike split was 2:55, but his actual time was 2:44!!!  He was probably something like 50th out of the water, but came in somewhere in the top 20 off the bike – woo hoo!

T2 was lickety-split, under a minute!  It was in the mid- to high-80s at this point, but IronHubs has been doing lots of heat training this season, which paid off in spades today!

The half-marathon is a two-loop course, so Big Boy and Little Boy got to give out high-fives at the halfway mark.

It was hot, but he was smiling at the halfway point, on pace to finish near his A+ goal.

I know I’ve mentioned it many times before, but this run course is brutal.  Hot, dusty, hilly and unforgiving.  And IronHubs got to run it TWICE.

My new most favorite picture of IronHubs – the moment he saw the clock at the Finish Line and saw his 16 minute PR – 5:20:30!!!

You can call him “Mr. Podium.”  4th place AG and 11th place OVERALL!  Oh, yeah, baby!

I’m unbelievably proud of this guy!

Also, a huge congrats to all my Hood to Coast girls – I’m loving all the updates and can’t wait to read complete race reports!!

And be safe out there if you’re getting a visit from Irene this weekend!