Napa Valley Half-Ironman

What a day!  I was up at 4am to drive to Lake Berryessa near Napa.  I'd never been up there, and was struck by how nice it is up there.  This has actually been a recurring theme during my training - seeing places for the first time and wondering why I've never seen them before.

The event was very small - I'm guessing there were 300 people there, which was a nice change of pace.  Here are the highlights of the race:

* I swam with the 'slow' group, and realized that I'm one of the slowest people in that group

* It rained hard all day long.  At several points, the rain was actually HURTING my face

* I felt very comfortable on my bike and really enjoyed using the aerobars I recently had installed. I'm getting much better - especially on the hills.

* Good pace - my speed on the bike and run was reasonably fast, and I had plenty of energy left to finish

* The athletes who do this are in INCREDIBLE shape.  It's hard to describe how fast and strong these people are, but it's pretty inspiring to see.

* These events are staffed with a lot of volunteers, and they do an amazing job in supporting the races.  During this one, I stopped at an aid station to use the bathroom, and one of the volunteers saw my water bottle/gatorade weren't full and filled them up for me.  

This is my second time completing this type of event, and this one was far easier.  Now it's time for the home stretch - getting myself to the point where I can do twice this distance!