This is not the official time. If you use their official time everyone I know I beat out of the water was faster than me. I am not even in the AG results, I have no T2 time, and my swim time is OUT TO LUNCH. I am convinced my chip was not functioning properly. So I used my watch time. Shoot me. I am POSITIVE the watch time is correct. The time includes a run of about a football field in length to the timing mats.
***UPDATE*** I contacted Run-Far and it turns out my bib number was originally assigned to a relay team which started in the FIRST wave...hence the approximate 10 minute error. It will soon be fixed and when it is, I will put up Run-Far's official times. Anyway, I digress...
I was a little disappointed with my start. A lot of folks got a jump on me (sts) but I like to swim solo anyway, so whatever. I went out hard and felt pretty decent. Arms were hurting by the end of the first leg of the triangle. Hmmm...not good. So I took it easy for a little bit. I did an INCREDIBLE job sighting for me. I am usually all over the place but wasn't really today and I didn't even look up all that much. I had two spots where I got stuck in traffic and had to do mini sprints to get out of the way of people. Those made me very tired but I just swam easy for a bit after them until I felt better. Otherwise, no comments. My best open water swim of the year. Not time wise (no wetsuit) but execution-wise.

Try to draft more. It's free help...I need to get into a lake for drafting practice.

Long, but the area was pretty long. I semi-took my time...there really wasn't anything to rush for.

Nothing.

Oh I am such a horrible biker. It was another Pass Jen Party. I mean, what do you expect when you come out of the swim 61st overall but are 205th overall on the bike? :) I got passed...A LOT! Right from the get go my quads were burning...and I wasn't pushing hard. Never stopped the whole day. The wind was already raging. Okay, so it was Texas normal...for a Texas AFTERNOON not 8am. Each of the out and backs went INTO the wind first. The first time through the second out and back the wind was already awful. I thought to myself...that is gonna HURT on the second time through! Even though my legs were burning, I wasn't working hard. I kept talking to myself to make sure I could still carry on a conversation comfortably...I could. Drank from my diluted gel bottle (4 gels) every 15 min. At 1:15 I ate a 100cal of a clif bar and at 2:30 I had 4 PB crackers. JeepFleeb passed me about 10 miles in. He was hauling the mail. About 35 miles in I had to stop to take care of 'girl stuff'. This lost me a little over 2 minutes, but unavoidable. I kinda had to pee anyway. About mile 48 I was midway through the very windy second out and back and I started to hurt...back, right foot, neck...brutal. Not a happy camper. But I pushed through the next couple of miles and then got to turn around with the tailwind. I sat up for several miles trying to stretch out. Kept it in the easy ring (I went into the big ring a couple of times with tailwinds) and spun it in. Definitely felt better getting off the bike than I did at my last HIM, but still need to tweak a few things I guess. My toe REALLY hurt the last 10 miles. Seriously need to fix that. It was overcast (thank GOODNESS) and it even drizzled on us a couple of times. My aerobar pads officially destroyed themselves today. Wouldn't you know the new ones were waiting on my front porch? Why couldn't they get here a day earlier?

Uh...ride faster? :) Just kidding. I honestly don't know.

Watch time since there was no official time. Nothing spectacular here. The usual thing plus I downed three Advil :)

Take feet out of shoes and run in socks...it was a loooooooooong run in bike shoes.

Yet another episode of Jen using her races as her long runs. I deliberately took it out slow since my longest run to date had been 10 miles. But boy do I wish I had suddenly gotten faster. I carried a throwaway bottle of fluids again for the first four. I really like that method. Just plodded along feeling pretty good for a long time. The majority of this run really was unremarkable...slow but unremarkable. I was proud of myself. A few times I felt good enough to speed up but restrained myself by saying if I still felt good at mile 11 I would speed up then. Needless to say, I didn't feel good at 11. :) Somewhere around 7 or so I started to get symptoms of GI distress...NOT my stomach. My stomach was hungry. I even ate about 5 cookies out on the course because I was so hungry. They were good. Anyway, so the lower belly starts to grumble. Which made the next 6 miles pretty uncomfortable, but luckily it didn't rear up until I'd finished. Whew. Anyway, spent about 2 miles (8-10) running and talking with two other racers. That was kind of fun and made the time pass quicker. The last few miles I was pretty miserable. Legs felt okay, but lower belly did not. Kept plodding though. Was getting kinda hot. Kept drinking a cup of water at aid stations. Probably not enough. Honest...just your average long run. But I still managed to fit in my signature cartwheel. Oh, you want to know about the knees? They didn't hurt. They twinged at me a couple of times but never the horrible awful pain I had at Buffalo Springs. Could have been because I was seriously doped up on Advil...dunno. But they didn't hurt terribly badly. Whew.

Run more to train :)

Made a beeline for the pizza. I had been wanting some ever since mile 8 or so when I saw some volunteers eating some at an aid station. With two slices in hand I walked over to JeepFleeb and dgillen to say hi. JeepFleeb says, "I have your beer." OMG...he took me seriously. We walk over to where his friends were and he breaks out a Fat Tire for me. :) Ah...all is well with the world. Talked to them for a bit and then had to leave. I was at the mercy of my driver and she wanted to get out of there. The GI problems let to at least 4 bathroom stops on the way home...ugh.


Not properly trained for this event. I hemmed and hawed participating and just didn't train specifically for it.


Okay, not my most stellar racing day. But...without going TMI on everybody too badly, I had my period, I had GI issues, I hadn't specifically trained for it, and I had planned to use the run as my long run for the week. All that considered, I couldn't ask for much more. We lucked out on the weather...overcast all day long. Good training day for me..I think I learned some good stuff about pacing and effort. And I am really not sore at all. Ask me tomorrow. The race itself was well run. The Race Director is known to be kinda mean, but I didn't think he was that bad. Maybe it's the military in me...but I don't mind my-way-or-the-highway or rules are rules as much as other people do....And the post-race spread was pretty good!