I'll write my race report tomorrow, because I have a day off, but I wanted to get a few thoughts down, because wow, I had a decent race- and some fun.
This was a great race. Mandy did an awesome job of setting up a fair, challenging, well-marked course that was well supplied, well-staffed. The swag was the best I've seen in years. And John- anyone who plays not one but 10 NIN songs on request is a man among men. Awesome.
Backstory- Last year I finished third at what was at the time Connecticut's other half-ironman, Extrememan in Madison. This was a disappointment. With only 75 people in the race, I finished 3rd because I couldn't keep track of where I was on the race, and when, thinking I was fourth of fifth and started to melt down on the run, I didn't fight it. I was in second at the time and closing on a win.
Fast forward a year- Extrememan didn't survive, and Nutmegman was moved to a new, closer venue very close to some great babysitting- Margit's friend Helena. So we both signed up. And as I wrote yesterday, my goal was just to have a solid race and undo the damage I'd done last week at Hammerfest. I just wanted to have some fun on what I was sure would be a challenging course, be solid, swim well. This sport is hard work, but on a good day it's tremendously rewarding and a lot of fun.
Then I get my race number. 4. Bret Favre's number. I admit it. I felt a little pressure there. And I slept like it.
New race goal- sleep like I sleep before IMLP 2006 (7 hours straight through). Not 2 hours. Maybe 3. Felt like 0.
And the end result. As John pointed out as I was finishing, they called it right. I finished 4th. I earned the number, maybe even deserved the number. And hey, a number is just that. Meaningless. It's how you race. Today's was good.
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