HAJ Hannover 1/2 Marathon

Next race coming up in April in Germany with my friends at KWS

Ironman 70.3 Buenos Aires

What an incredible opportunity to travel back to one of my 'other homes' in the world and participate in my second international Ironman race.  To be surrounded by so many wonderful people in my 'old backyard' it was a blast!  The city is a wonderful place to work and to play and it is one of my homes away from home

Fortunately, I was able to stay with the Longarela family who live right on the course!  Carlos Salvador, a business partner of mine, introduced me to his cousins, the Longarelas and we became fast friends.  Toto, Sofi, Juancho, Oscar, Milly and Lilly - all were absolutely incredible!  They helped with transportation, food, lodging - anything I needed.  They were the only reason I was able to do this.

SWIM

These pics come from the back of Oscar's house - we literally swam past him in the out and back swim course.  

The swim was one of my better ones @ 45:43.  It was barely wetsuit legal but the day of the race we got the green light.  Transition of 5:41 was good also for me.

  

BIKE

The bike was very flat two loops around Nordelta and the surrounding neighborhoods.  That was a good thing because the road conditions were typical Latin American - speed bumps, wooden bridges. Some gashes in the road.  It wasn't horrible but fortunately it wasn't very technical or there could have been a lot of accidents.  I loved the bike - it was the best part of the race for me.  Again, I did fairly well for myself with a 2:57:16 time.  Transition bike to run was not so good, 7:34.

RUN

The run was when it all fell apart, especially the second lap.  First lap I did quite well but it was an open course, on concrete and it was quite warm and humid in the afternoon.  They did a great job with the nutrition, water, sponges, etc. but I just flat ran out of gas on the second lap and ended up walking a good part of of it.  2:30:03 was a reflection of running out of gas.  

Summary:  Great race.  Loved the location and the people 6:26:17 official time.  125 in my division and 1197 overall (out of 1920 - this was very competitive and/or I sucked).