Ironman 70.3 Florida - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I was feelign really, really good about this swim before I started. Lake, calm, nice, no problem. WE weren't allowed to practice swim or even wade in. The first thing I noticed was the taste. It needs more salt. Anyway, almost immediately, my goggles started leaking. Adjusted them, no go. Just a little bit o' water, no biggie.Kept on swimming, caught some feet and before i know it I was in the front. yikes!!! But... my left goggle kept filling up and I kept having to empty it, tried to tighten them, but no go. Why is this a big deal? Because I have contacts in!!! I have, like a -3.75 Rx in that eye. I need my eyes!! I couldn't clear it and it bothered me the whole swim. I kept having to stop and drain them. Then, before I knew it, I was in the back. yikes!!! Then I drained them again, and this time I am like 10 feet awayfrom a boat and a LG is yelling at me to get back on course or something like that. So... I lost time and this should of been WAY better than it was. And... during one of those drainage acts, I inhaled and water went in my mouth. So I had to cough and hack and recompose myself. That was horrible. I mean, it's a freakin' LAKE swim, people!! It's supposed to be a piece of cake!! Even though it coulda used a tad more salt, though.... :) REally disappointed, I KNOW I can do better. Just bad luck.

I am never wearing those goggles again. They were my "lucky" ST A's goggles. Not so lucky anymore, are they?

This was a LOOOONG run. First sand, then sidewalk, then mulch, then grass.... I knew I had a sucky swim when the bikes were half gone. What a downer.... I ran the whole way over though. Got feet semi dry, socks on, shoes on, glasses, helmet, and remember I still can't see out of my left eye and it's irritated. Made a mental note to stop at med tent for saline on the way out but I never did see a med stop on the whole damn bike course.... It was okay but my eye was irritating the heck out of me. Something was lodged n under the contact and it wasn't in the right place, so it was blurry.

oh good Lord. We started out easy enough, with an overcast. Nice!! Then the hills came. Then the wind blew. Then the rain came down with a venegance. I was wishing I had my MTB on. I didn't mind the rain too much. But, with my left eye irritating the hell out of me, and the bike course was freaky crowded b/c the guys started after me I was being whizzed by like nothing ever. Then we went to this one area with heavy traffic, plus a little construction detour, about 3 feet wide carpeted sidewalk, no passing, with live traffic....
Hills. Let me tell you, if someone tells you this course is flat, slap them. I was about to cry when I saw the last hill in the distance, I was really pushing to make it up there and let out a scream when I finally hit the apex of it. I just coasted down the damn thing I was so tired!
And, what's with those sharp hairpin turns? That was scary. With the wet conditions, man. sheesh!
And... I had to pee like halfway into the ride. I just couldn't do it. It's hard. So, because I had to pee I didn't drink like I should..

hill train? Learn to wet my pants on the bike?

Tom has a great pic of me getting off the bike. My face says everything! Jumped off, racked my bike, socks off, they were soaked, turns out it rained there too. So everything was wet! Socks on, shoes on, down a salt pill, grab some gels, put salt tab thingie in my pocket. Took one step and ow! Rock in shoe. I am not doing 13.1 with a rock in my shoe, so sat down and took off shoe, sock... it's not a rock but a nasty cut on the bottom of my toe. Shit. I put the skin flap back where it should be and put sock/shoe back on. Tried to pee sitting there but just couldn't. Ran to porta potty.

Learn to wet my pants while sitting down on the grass. Not cut my toe.

oh my gawd.... this was like, shoot!! Legs felt great. Surprisingly great. But the toe hurt. I had to adjust my stride to alleviate some of the pain on it. Saw the fam right out of the T area, nice. Water stop right there. Dang, it's crowded! Started running. First loop was okay. Not optimal, but okay. I knew I'd get faster. No such luck I later found out. Hit the dirt part and it's horrible, I can't get my footing. Got to the turnaround. It's nasty. Hot and humid, the rains stopped and the sun came out which I'm sure the Disney tourists loved but we all hated!! Plus the dirt path is right next to a canal, so more humidity. Dust, heat, humid, gag! Saw Jeff pass me. Near the end of the first loop saw my coach. Two other chicks I know ran in front of me to say hey. Freddie ran to the other side to see me again and check in... he did tis the second lap also. The second lap I told him "I'm gonna DIE!!!" Saw Tom out there in a similiar way, coming and going. Bridget ran into me on the second (or wasit third?) lap and kept on going. I told mysef this is the third and final lap, make it hurt and make it count. I sorta did, I had such a hard time making my legs go... the heat and the unstablepath was just too much for me. EVERYONE was walking the second and third laps. I mean, EVERYONE. Except Jeff and Bridget! And the girl I was trying to catch with "40" on her leg. I gave up on that. The third time I hit cement, I tried to keep running, it was on cement and in shade... but I was so freakin' tired. HIt the 13 mile marker and I was so happy but it seemed to take FOREVER!!! I mean, how far can 0.1 mreally be??? I found out later it was long. oh, well.
I also saw quite a few people down on the course being tended to in one way or another. A girl in front of me stepped in a hole and she couldn't get up, so at the rest stop 1/2 mile up, they alerted medics and they came running back, they were the only people running!

control the weather.

RAn down the chute, high fived Tom and my kids, and broke the tape! That felt soooo good!! Shirt, hat, medal. Had Tom look at my toe, Dr. Sue determined it didn't need stitches, since it didn't cut deep enough (bottoms of feet are tough, eh?) so Tom went to medical and got some stuff to clean and badnage it, that burned!! Sat on cooler and had a beer and Freddie and Christian bought me some pizza. Hung out for a bit and decided to haul ass out of there, it was already a long day and we still had a longer evening ahead of us. Hugs, pictures, etc, etc. Grabbed bike, Tom rode it back to the car and I sat on the bus with the boys carrying all my stuff.


fat ass, sore toe, heat, humidity, dirt trail. Why do I have to make excuses?


I have three rolls of film on the way to being developed so I will post when they come in. We kept the obys busy with my old SLR camera with a zoom lens. Hope they come out good.