The swim today was not wetsuit legal. I was a little bummed about that. Oh well! We had to swim out to the start location and tread water until the start. I usually go out way to fast, freak out and have to get myself under control in order to finish the swim. I swore to myself that I wouldn't do that today. So I lined up at the back of the pack and when the whistle blew, I started out slowly. I found a good rhythm and stuck with it. I was feeling good (probably swimming a little too slow) but at least not hyperventilating and freaking out!! The water was so murky that I couldn't see my hands in front of my face, so there was no way to see feet or bubbles ahead of me. So, it was hard to do any drafting.

That first turn buoy was so far out that I could barely see it. I had trouble siting on that first section. The buoys were to our left and I breath to the right, so that made sighting more difficult also. My goggles were fogging and leaking some (not too bad, just enough to be annoying). I had to stop and tread water several times to regain my bearings and make sure I was still on course. I got hit and swam into many times, so I obviously wasn't the only person having trouble sighting. There was one lady who was swimming in a zig zag. She would run into me, so I would let her cross over to my other side. Then a minute later she was hitting me from the other way! This went on for about a minute, then I decided to speed up for a second and get away from her.

After I made the turn at the firt turn buoy, I was able to see a bit better. The fog was clearing from my goggles and the bouy was closer. I felt pretty good through the entire swim. I am not happy about my swim time though. I thought I was swimming faster than that. I know that the sighting problems cost me a lot of time, but my pace wasn't at fast as it should have been either.

I need to do more OWS to practice sighting!

When I got out of the water and started to run up the boat ramp, my legs didn't want to run. It was all I could do to keep my legs moving - they felt so heavy.

Since the race wasn't wetsuit legal, I didn't have to worry about removing that at least. My bike was racked close to the swim entrance, so it was a quick jog to the rack. I quickly put my feet in my shoes and put my helmet and sunglasses on. Then I grabbed my bike and started the long run out of transition.

Nothing

My heart rate when I got on the bike was in the 160's. I wanted to keep my HR in zone 2-3 for the bike. So, I tried to get my HR down. It didn't go well. Just as my HR would start to get lower, I would have to climb another hill and my HR would jump again.

As I started out on the bike I noticed that my glasses were fogging! So I took them off and was going to try to wipe them off some. But when I took them off, I realized that it wasn't my glasses that were fogging but my contacts! I started blinking frantically trying to get my contacts to clear up. I was just about to yank them out and go without them (I can function without my contacts) when they finally cleared up. I wonder if my contacts were my problem with the swim and not my goggles?

It was already getting hot when I started the bike. I had 3.5 servings of Infinit on the bike and my aero bottle was full of water. All they were giving at the aid stations was water. So my plan was to take a water at each aid station and refill my aero bottle, so I would have a serving of Infinit and a bottle of water every hour. It was so hot though that I was drinking the water faster than normal. My water ran out a few miles before each aid station (I was definitely happy to see each aid station come along)! The water bottles were not being cooled - they were just "room temperature". So the water got warmer with each aid station. At the third and last water handoff - the water was hot. But it was still wet and I drank it and loved it!!

Around the halfway point in the ride, my right knee started to hurt and my saddle was causing a lot of discomfort. I was going down a hill just before mile 30 and thought my bike was shifting under me. I realized it was my seat - it had come loose and was wiggling under me. So, I pulled to the side of the road to check it out. The screw had come loose. Unfortunately I didn't have a tool kit with me. The ironic thing is that I brought one but I forgot to put it into my saddle bag last night!! So, I had no way to tighten the screw other than my fingers. I spent at least 5 minutes tightening with my fingers - as many people passed me. The sag wagon didn't come by while I was working on my saddle - so no help there. Once I got it as tight as I could, I started again and just hoped it would stay tight enough to finish. At the next aid station, I asked if they had a tool kit. They said no, but told me the sag wagon had just been there and left! I never saw the sag wagon. But my seat stayed tight enough, but shifted back. So, I was in the wrong position for the next 26 miles which wasn't very comfortable.

I put sunscreen on before I started the race. But towards the end of the bike, I could feel the sun baking my back and I knew I was burning. I had sunscreen in the transition area, so I planned to put more sunscreen on before I left for the run.

Make sure the saddle is tight before the race and put my tool kit in my saddle bag just in case!

My transition went well. I ran all the way through the transition area with my bike back to my transition spot. I switched my shoes, took off my helmet, grabbed my hat, race belt and gels and ran out of transition. A few seconds later, I remembered the sunscreen!!

Not forget to put more sunscreen on!

This was the hardest run I have ever done. It wasn't really the hills (although they were awful) because I have run hills before. I think it was a combination of the hills, the extreme heat, and the sun. There was not as much shade as I would have thought there would be. At the time that I was running, the sun was directly overhead so the trees were providing very little shade. I still started off alright.

I decided to run without my Garmin because I didn't want to try to push a certain pace. I knew it was going to be a hard run, so I wanted to go by RPE instead. I wish I had brought the Garmin though, because there were no mile markers so I had no idea how far I had gone or how much farther there was at any given point! I ran up the first bad hill. I think that was a mistake. I had a lot of trouble getting my HR back down when I got to the top of the hill. It just sapped all of the energy I still had. The rest of the run I was reduced to walking up the hills and running on the flats and downhills. I did try to walk as fast as I could though. Even with my walking, I was passing a lot of people. I stopped at each aid station to make sure I got plenty of fluids and a cold towel (I loved those). I lost a lot of time walking up hills and stopping at aid stations. I also took one porta-pottie break. I had to use the bathroom since I got off the bike, but I was trying not to stop. I decided since I was losing so much time with walking anyway, what harm could a potty break do?

I am not used to running on trails, I do all of my running on asphalt. I know that running on trails is better on the legs, but I think it is something you have to be used to also. I had to watch my footing a lot to keep from twisting an ankle or slipping on the gravel. I noticed after the race that my legs below my knees were completely scratched up from the undergrowth we were running over or through (but this had no effect on my race time as I didn't realize I was being scratched up at the time. Another annoyance on the run was the horseflys. There were several times that I had a horsefly circling me non-stop and landing on my back trying to bite me. It was very irritating. I kept trying to shoo it away. I probably looked like a crazy woman running around with my arms waving in the air!! I was hoping to finish the run in 2 hours. It took me an extra 20 minutes. I wasn't thrilled with my time, but I was happy to finish the run.

I couldn't control the heat, so there is nothing I could do about that. But training more hills probably would have helped some.

When I crossed the finish line, I got my finisher medal, a cold water and a cold towel. I found my husband and we walked around for a minute. I went to the food tent and grabbed a banana and a fun size bag of M&M's. Then I found some shade to stand in to cool off. After I was cooled off, I packed up my stuff, changed my clothes and left. We stopped in Sanford on the way back to Fayetteville and had lunch at Ruby Tuesdays (I hope I didn't stink too badly).

I should have taken a dip in the lake after the race to cool down a bit. I always tell myself that I will do that after a race. Then when the race ends, I forget!!


The heat and not being properly prepared for the hills.


The race was very well run. All of the volunteers were great. I felt so sorry for the volunteers - especially the ones out on the bike course. There were kids out in the middle of no where in that heat to signal our turns.