End of the Season Break – Ironman 70.3 Style
A few days after returning from Australia I flew back to Florida to visit home. It was a great way to unwind after all the traveling and racing of late! While I was down there I helped out at the Kids4Kids youth triathlon clinic in Gainesville, FL (in conjunction with the Kids4Kids Triathlon that happened one week later). I got to watch the Gators play Tennessee (with skybox tickets thanks to the kind folks at the First Coast Kid’s Triathlon!). Lastly, I raced my first half-ironman at the Augusta Ironman 70.3. I know, that’s not generally considered a “post-season relaxation” type of activity, but I wanted to try a 70.3 and this seemed like a good time to do it.
Helping out at the Kids4Kids Triathlon Clinic with Jeff from the UF Sports Performance Center.
Watching the Gators play Tennessee in style!
The pontoon start at Augusta 70.3 felt very much like an ITU race, and with so many short course guys on the start line like Eric Limkemann, Brian Fleischmann and Greg Bennett I kept reminding myself that I was about to race for twice as long as I am used to!
13 miles to go. I’m in ninth at this point, I ended up in seventh.
It turns out seventh place is the last person to get paid. Sweet! I also got a spot at the Ironman 70.3 World Champs in Clearwater next month.
National Champs!
Two national titles in three years! Gainesville = titletown.
Although I’m on a bit of a break from the blogosphere, this is just too awesome not to post. The Gators won the BCS National Title game last night! Even though I wasn’t in Miami to watch it (or in Gainesville to storm midtown for the fourth time in three years – basketball counts, too) it’s still pretty exciting. It’s great to be a Florida Gator!
Read about it here.
Go Gators!
The Gator football team won the SEC Championship last Saturday, once again proving that athletes from my arbitrary region of the country are superior to those from other locations in the United States! The Gators will play the Oklahoma Sooners for the national championship on January 8th in Miami, FL, and despite my sarcasm, I’m pretty excited to watch it!
On another note – is the BCS (Bowl Championships Series) a fair way to determine the NCAA Football National Champion? Absolutely not! A playoff system is definitely needed. However, I can’t really complain because the Florida Gators are seemingly always the beneficiary of BCS ridiculousness, having received two last minute bids into the National Title Game in the past three years.
Gator Nation
I haven’t done any of those things!! But seriously I haven’t done much more than train and watch ESPN since I graduated…
