Felt great the first 3-4 bouys, then I started cramping in my feet. Weird. Lots of contact catching previous waves and having the waves behind me catch up. Waves went off every 3 minutes, so it was very crowded in the water.

Rounded the first turn bouy and my right calf cramped. WTF? Kept swimming, and getting hit. I was kicked, smacked on the head, swam over. Good grief! It was like a wet cage fighting match!

I slowed down a lot on the way back in because of how crowded it was. It didn't seem to matter where I went (close to bouy, far away), there was traffic. I need to work on being more aggressive in the water I guess.

Rumor has it the course was .2 long, making a 1.4 mile swim.

Swim faster?

The mile run from the swim exit to the bike was better this year. They had carpet down on the mulch path, which was much nicer on the feet. I did stop to pee in T1, so that took some time, but I felt much better!

Pee faster?

I felt great on the bike! I was pretty confident that I would have a good bike split, until it started raining. I was pretty timid on wet roads especially when I started seeing people slide down! I took the turns REALLY slowly, and there were lots of complete turn arounds on the course. My right foot started hurting about 10 miles in, but I just tried to adjust my foot in the shoe. I had a lot of mulch from T1 in the shoe, and with the rain it was floating around! Around mile 40 it had stopped raining but the traffic was stupid. Two lane road, with bikes passing on the right, while police tried to stop vehicles. One guy ahead of me almost lost his head to an Escalade's sideview mirror THEN they head us onto a sidewalk which slowed everyone down to a crawl. The road was under construction, so they put carpet and plywood down over the missing sidewalk for us to ride over. Kinda ridiculous and one of the girls I chatted with on the run crashed at that spot.

My nutrition was spot on. Nuun every 15 minutes, spiz every hour.

Saw Jeff (Q), Mindy (Trichica) on the bike and whoop whooped them. It's always nice to see people you know out there! Met some really nice dude with a pretty Cervelo and kicking set of wheels. We played cat/mouse for about 50 miles, then he pulled up beside me and told me to hang his wheel and hammer it home. Ugh...yea, ok. At 24 mph, I tried to hang, but I gave up after about 1 mile! I'm a wimp!! Plus, I realized the course was obviously gonna be long as I had already hit 56 miles. Bike computer measured 57.2 miles...

More aggressive on wet roads? Hang better with the fast guys?

I couldn't find my stuff. It had rained and there was mud all over my hot pink Princess towel! My shoes and socks were soaking wet, so that made for a few extra seconds getting into them.

Put an umbrella over my stuff?

And this, folks is where the wheel fell off the bus. I felt great overall, my nutrition was good, my stomach wasn't bloated, I just had this unbelievable pain in my right foot. I could walk on the inside of my foot, but it hurt like crazy to run. So...I decided to do a 4:1, and just suck it up. That lasted about 45 seconds! I ran when I felt like I could and for as long as I could, otherwise I walked. The rains had gone, the sun was out, and it felt like it was a bazillion degrees, especially in the fields with the dirt flying around. Ugh! I took 2 ice sponges, coke, ice, gatorade and dumped a water over my head every station. I took a power gel every hour.

Mike and the kids were at the run turn around, so I got to see them every lap. That helped! Although, I knew the kids were getting tired of being out there, and I should run faster to finish and get them home. Saw Terri and got a whoop whoop, I think it was the start of my second lap.

Started feeling better and less pain mid way thru the second lap, but had met up with a girl who was also walking and she wanted to stay together. We ran some, walked a lot, talked a lot. It was nice to have someone else there to keep your mind off the miles ahead, but I think it slowed me down. It was a good trade off though. I wouldn't have met my goal time, regardless, so meeting a new friend is always a bonus!!

Found the kids, Mike, Sue, Coach Freddie. Drank the most heavenly COLD diet coke and ate a turkey sandwich and brownies that the bestest friend in the world brought over (THANKS SUE!!)

In hindsight: I PR'd by 7 minutes. Not near what I had planned, but a PR is a PR!! I'll take it!