I had a great swim! The swim start had waves and each wave started with their feet in the water. When the horn sounded, it was a mad high knee run to the water. I loved it! It was great fighting for a swim spot. Once I got in the water and found my space to swim, I found a few people to draft behind. Normally in my past races, I never drafted because I couldn’t find anyone who was going my speed but today I found quite a few people. I just followed the bubbles from their feet and hung on. I felt awesome in the water and my arms never got tired like the normally do. I also stayed on course the entire swim. It was a great swim for me.

Nothing!

I had a good transition. No flying start today because I wanted to have my shoes on nice and snug for a good bike ride.

I felt great on the bike today. Right from the start about mile 5, I saw one of my age group competitors, we will call her speedy. I knew that she was good athlete and that she was faster than I was, so my plan was to stay behind her and try to keep with her for the bike. We can later look at this as mistake part 1. There was a ton of people on the course so we were passing people like crazy and people were passing us like crazy. I realized then that it was pretty overcast and I though to myself - great keep that sun away maybe we will luck out and get a cool day. Around mile 30, we were poured on. Everyone slowed down for fear of crashing. I saw a girl wipe out in front of me; she was fine and eventually passed me later on the bike. At a round mile 40, the clouds disappeared and the sun came out. I was feeling good on the bike but was a little nervous because my heart rate was pretty high for the whole ride (higher than I wanted it to be). I tried to keep drinking fluids and eating but I was concentrating too much on the race and staying with speedy that I didn't drink enough. I passed two aid stations and didn't grab any bottles. This could be mistake part 2. Around mile 45, I noticed I had passed speedy and I thought oh she will catch me back before we get into transition but it never happened. I think she knew something that I didn't. Anyway, at mile 55.5 I took my shoes off on the bike thinking the dismount is around the corner. - Apparently not. SO here I am stuck peddling with my feet on top of my shoes for an extra mile - darn it they never have the mileage right! Anyway I made it transition and had a good flying dismount.
I must say this was an incredible bike time for me. I was on cloud nine when I realized I got under a 2:43 for my bike split. I figured in my head that ok maybe I went a little too hard on the bike but running is my strength and if I can just hold on during the run, I should be in a good position. I had never pushed that hard on the bike and felt that good so I wanted to see if I could hold it together on the run. So I headed into transition feeling great.


Use my heartrate to quide my speed rather than getting carried away withthe competition.

So I am off and I can't believe I am ahead of speedy. Wow, I never thought I would be ahead of her off the bike. I am thinking wow this is great; I am having a really good race. I just need to hold on during this run. And . . Boom here comes the sun. What happened to all the clouds? I though oh boy this is not going to be fun.

I tried to break the run up in my mind. So I said ok lets get thru the first 3 miles. They went by fast - maybe too fast, I averaged an 8:00 min/mile. Then I said ok first loop (4.5 miles) and I tried to slow it down because I could feel my leg muscles starting to ache. I still had a lead on speedy but I thought she might be gaining on me. It was getting really hot out so I grabbed everything I could at the aid stations. I stuffed ice down my shirt and squeezed cold sponges over my head. Thank goodness for all the volunteers, they truly make a race.
I thought ok lets make it to 6.6miles they half way point. I am now averaging an 8:40 min/mile. This is when it started not to feel so great anymore. My legs were killing me, every step was hurting. Negative thoughts keep popping in my mind - like I don't know if I can do this. I tried to focus on anything to keep my mind positive and off the pain. Mile 6.6 passed and I was now focusing on making it to mile 9. Mile 7 passed and so did speedy. I honestly didn't even care at this point I was starting to switch from race mode to I just want to finish mode. Mile 9 came and I walked the aid station again grabbing everything. I made myself start running again and it was really get painful. Each step hurt. I focused on getting to mile 9.5, then 10. I was now averaging a 9:20 min/mile. I walked the aid station again, and then made myself run. I wanted to reach 11 so badly but I had been fighting the urge to walk for so long and my body and mind had been telling me to walk for so long I finally gave in and started to walk in between the aid stations at mile 10.5. I didn't feel that bad because about 70% of the people out there were walking - it just got hot fast. I made myself run to the last aid station at mile 12. I walked that station again and then made myself run. I wanted to run the last mile. I was shuffling along when it hit, my legs cramped up and I had to walk again. I was now switching from just wanting to finish the race into survival mode. My body was shutting down. I had never pushed myself this far before. I could hear the crowd at the finished so I tried to run again and made it to mile 12.9, I had .2 miles to go and my legs cramped again. I started crying because of the pain and because I knew it was finally almost over. I started to run again just to get it over with and I ran a waddle leg cramp run while crying to the finish. Not exactly what I had in mind for my finish. That race photo should be interesting. I finished with a time of 2:24:57. That places me 18th in my age group out of 99. And 421 out of 2300 overall.

I went to the preliminarily med tent because I knew something was wrong. The moment they sat me down both my legs cramped up in charley horses and the volunteers helped me rub then out for 30 minutes but I just wasn't getting better and anytime I tried to move I would cramp up all over again. They said I needed to go to the med tent and asked if I could stand. I tried and cramped up again this time worse. Luckily, the volunteer was strong and caught me. He carried me to the med tent. At this point, I was still crying because the pain and I think because I was just exhausted. The med tent immediately gave me an IV and within 5 mins I was able to straighten my legs. That is the fist time I have had an IV and that thing is miracle! They helped stretch my legs and gave me another IV. Now that I was feeling better I really wanted to see Dante and know that he was ok too. He eventually found me in the med tent and when he walked in, he said, “I figured you might end up here". He was pretty banged up too so he laid down on the ground next to my make shift bed (AKA lounge chair) and just laid there together in the med tent waiting for my last IV to finish.


I would hydrate more!! and slow down on the bike