HOME Iron Sponsors Iron Honorees How To Sponsor Me IRONMAN IRONMAN Summary IRONMAN Pictures IRONMAN Video PAST PICTURES WIldflower 2002 WF Training (Apr) Fashion Show (Mar) Practice Tri (Jan) Wildflower 2001 OTHER Final Training Schedule Ironteam Site IronmanUSA.com Louie Bonpua's Site Team In Training Leukemia & L. Society	Finally: Ironman USA 2002		August 7, 2002
		Wildflower Long Course Triathlon May 3-5, 2002 The Wildflower race is the first major test of our training...roughly seven months since we began in Oct/Nov 2001. The Long Course (as opposed to the Olympic, Mountain Bike and Relay races this same weekend) is a half-ironman, meaning we swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles and run 13 miles to complete it. In high heat. On big hills. It's undoubtably the hardest non-Ironman course...and thus a great confidence builder assuming we all finish healthily! Last year I had an unfortunate bout with hyponatremia, brought on by pushing too hard on the course, extreme heat (100+ degrees) and my not taking salt tablets. Continuing on until I went into seizures didn't help either. Fortunately, the weather was forecasted to be milder this year (80 degrees), I carried plenty of salt tablets and I planned to race at an even, Ironman-type pace and use the day as a training day. That is, pushing at moderately hard pace. Hey, the race was going to take me ~6:30 hours and I needed to make my energy last! As the pictures and video demonstrate...it was a successful race. I finished in a decent time and in good health. SEE THE VIDEO! (5MB) You spend significant amounts of time just preparing all your gear Nicoletta and Pepe came to support me Thousands of people come to compete It's about 7:30am - and people are beginning to gather A last bit of support! 8:15a - we're off! We'd hit 40mph on some downhills (For running shots you'll have to watch the video) ....FINISHED! (And no injuries) ...meaning the push is on for the next two months until Lake Placid on July 28th... To Be Continued... SEE THE VIDEO! (5MB)
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