Peterborough Half Iron Relay

I just got home a couple of hours ago from a very fun day spent at the Peterborough Triathlon with many great friends! The day started off with a 4:45am wake up call, because Team Awesome (myself, Ming, Mike Chang) decided that we would save some money on accommodations and just drive up the morning of the race. We had our own personal Chauffeur, Fred Hines, who is a very good friend, fellow triathlete, and who just happened to be in town this weekend for a visit. Yup, that's right, we put him to work! Not only was he our Chauffeur, but he was our personal photographer as well today. Thanks for all of your help and support Fred:)

Doing the half ironman relay was Mike Chang's idea, and I loved it! It was nice to just go out there and have fun, especially since it breaks up a block of racing 4 weekends in a row for me. I did the 2km swim leg, Ming did the 90km leg, and Mike ran the half-marathon. I would say that I probably had it the best since I suffered for the least amount of time, got it over with first, and did it while the heat was managable:) I must admit that I was happy to be reacquainted with my wetsuit today, and I ended up having a great swim. I swam 28:37 for the 2km swim, which is my best time by about a minute on this course. I also managed to have a stellar wipe out as I was rounding a bike rack in transition as I was running to Ming to pass off the timing chip to him. Very graceful! I've swum this course 3 years in a row, and although conditions do vary from year to year, I thought this was still a good indicator for improvement. Better yet, it was about 2 minutes faster than my first 2km open water swim where I was having wetsuit problems 6 weeks ago! Ming biked 2:28:21, and Mike ran 1:27:34 in the blistering heat in the middle of the day. Our concerted efforts were good enough to win first place in the relay, and we were fourth overall in terms of finishing time for the Half-Ironman! Way to go Team Awesome!

Great job to everyone who raced out there in those conditions today!

Leanna
P.S. I'll post some pictures from the race courtesy of Fred Hines once I get my hands on them.