I raced two Ironman 70.3 races this year; Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga in May and Ironman 70.3 Musselman, six weeks later.  My results at the races were very different, but I believe one performance led to the other.

I had a career first at Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga in May; my first ever DNF (Did Not Finish).  It was not my day that Sunday in Tennessee, but I am very proud of the decision that I made to stop at the start of the run.  You can read about it in this blog post.  The choice I made during the Chattanooga race, would prove to be hugely beneficial, when it came to my next race in Geneva, NY.

At Ironman 70.3 Musselman, I had a completely different experience.  I completed my fastest ever 70.3 event. I don’t think I would have achieved this result, if I had not pulled out of my earlier race.  My Ironman 70.3 Musselman race report can be found here.  It was a tough day, but one where I pushed through the pain on the run, to get a PR (Personal Record).

I enjoyed the race at Musselman so much, that I plan to race there again this year.  Knowing the course a little better, perhaps I can go even faster.  It is so hard to know if I can do that, because conditions on race day could be very different.  I’ll be pushing hard however, as I want to continue my trend of still getting personal bests at races, as I get older.