We headed north to Maine for our first half ironman of the year. Traffic is a bummer - stop & go all the way north (spring, summer, fall, and winter - yuck!) So we took some detours off the stopped highway. Lowell, MA. Our friend Ray from Reno - his father was born here! It's your classic northeast town - lots of mills, old churches, and big beautiful captain style homes. It's more of a working town now - but still has it's beauty
We arrived at Old Orchard Beach in mid afternoon. Time to check in and do all that fun triathlon stuff :)
After we got our goodie bags, we had to drop off our bikes. It was a little bit of a walk, but it felt good to stretch our legs. Stress is so much less than when dealing with a full ironman. It's still a tough race, but no where near the challenges of a full IM.
2,000 of our closest friends :)
Since we didn't have to 'stay off our legs', we strolled around the boardwalk and pier
We saw the buoy's for the race - all ready to go!
It was a beautiful beach day and there were a lot of people out and about
The rides looked fun, but we didn't partake :)
Race day was a beauty - cool and sunny. The course was hilly from start to finish though! Big surf on the swim made for a slow but fun swim; lots of hills on the bike, that continued onto the run course (who said it was flat and fast - not!) We did it though! These sure don't get any easier especially since we're getting older, whew! The swim was 1.2 miles. The bike was 56 miles (beautiful country roads that were pretty good). The run was 13.1 miles (half of it was on dirt trails)
The finish line - always love to see this!!
The race takes about 6 hours, so we're able to head home after. Of course, traffic again. So more detours - this time on Highway 1 through Portsmouth, NH
farm stand
packed clam shack
We found a Five Guys - and it saved our lives! We don't eat french fries very often - but these were well deserved :)
Traffic on '1' too
We did make it home eventually. But not early enough to get Bolts. So it was a peaceful sleep night :) And now we have a week off - yeah!
Official race photos - courtesy of Finisherpix!
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