At the start I was chatting with Melissa and we ran the whole way together. She helped me a lot by keeping a steady pace the whole way. I wanted to go out steady on the first run and we did that. This run was the best part of the race.

Nothing really. It got a lot worse after this.

Decent T1. I had my hat and number off before I got to the bike. Helmet and shoes (very wet) went on easily and I was ready to go.

Nothing really

I passed two people right out of T1 and set out on a mission to pass as many people as possible. By this time it was raining and the wind started kicking up. Oh, boy. Going out on 100th was nasty. The hills on the course were even tougher today. After the turnaround, the wind/rain/cold needles were even worse. By that time, I just wanted to be done. On a positive note, the bike handled GREAT! That's the first time I've ridden it in the rain and not even once did I feel unstable on it. Even with gusty winds and wet roads. I think I rode as aggressively as possible, which is why I'm kind of disappointed with my pace.

I was looking forward to killing my bike time from last year. Instead, I just bruised it a bit. It's a tough course and today's conditions were really tough. No one passed me the whole bike leg, so that's positive.

It's really hard to get off a bike with wet tights. The seat stuck to my butt and I almost dumped it over right at the dismount line. Nice. It's also pretty hard to change shoes with frozen fingers in wet gloves.

Let the suffering begin! I had no feeling in my feet except the squishing of water spurting out of my shoes with every step. I kept trotting along, except for one time when my body just froze up and wouldn't go any more. After the turn, I heard someone behind me. Judy W. was coming up and I knew she would catch me. She got me less than half a mile from the finish, but I just didn't have it in me to chase. Had to let her go. That was the only person who passed me on the run.

Nothing really. The second run of a du always sucks.

Warm down. Ha! Never warmed up. Got some water and headed for the food. I didn't have a dry change of clothes, so I had to put on another layer over my wet stuff. Pleasant. We hung around for the awards, then slogged back to transition to get our bikes.


The usual. I really need to start working on running speed. Also, I don't know if my head was really in the game. I was kind of hoping they would just call it off and we could go home.


What can I say about this race? It was one for the HTFU record books. Anything after this will seem like a stroll in the park. Bill and Wendy put on a great race and they did a fab job with not-so-fab conditions. And I LOVE the shirts. I'm wearing it tomorrow!

HR data-
Avg HR- 162
Max HR- 192 (that can't be real)