The Downtown Doubler, a 15km/9.3 mile event (there was also the doubler version, a 30 km run) was awesome. The weather was perfect: cool with some sprinkles. Also got to run with some great friends. Ended up doing it in 1:32 or just under 10 minutes/mile, my best long run ever.
I also took Jessica on her first real ride on her road bike. We ended up going a bit over 11 miles on a super flat course. Near the end was a big left hand turn. Well, my rookie bike rider wife strayed left out of her lane, clipped my front tire and sent me down! Just a few bruises, mostly my ego, and no bike damage except for some torn bar tape.
We took our first swim today as well. I can sense an issue Jessica is going to have. She can't get the enormity of Ironman out of her head. The pool is set to 25 meter lanes for the fall/winter. The Ironman swim is 3862 meters so she does the math and freaks out a bit. So I tried to get her to think about it in terms of a sprint (400 meters), etc. We took it easy on our first swim. She did 300-400 meters and I probably did 600-650.
Finally, I've added another event to my fall schedule: The Bourbon Chase. It's a 12 person, 200 mile (322 km) relay event. I'll be running a total of 11.5 miles in 3 of the 36 legs. Should be a blast!
You know early in training an ironman is totally impossible mentally and physically. But as you progress it becomes a reachable goal. It's a very dynamic thing. Then after the race it slips away again and you have to train up to it again. That's why so many people do them year after year. Because skipping a year and building back up is way harder than keeping going. I know because I've done it. I won't skip another season without at least a few 70.3's.
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