Holy chop batman! The swimmers I was with commented how this was a horrible swim. I am not calling it unbareable, but with the fast approaching storm - it got hairy out there. Within the first 200m I wanted to turn around, but I kept on going. I found comfort in the waves and literally just went with the flow of the waves. I got into this rhythm and just stuck with it. Sighting was spot on, drafting NA due to water conditions.

Crazy enough, this was my best swim. I really enjoyed it and was sort of sad when it was over.

Nothing honestly.

Our racks were the farthest away from the bike out, however it floew right by!



NA. I felt really prepared.

The start is rolling hills. Nothing major - never had to get out of the big ring. After ~2.5 miles we turned onto the Greenway - a nice rails-to-trails system. We stayed on the greenway for maybe 6 miles - shielded from wind and pretty flat - I averaged 23 miles per hour on the greenway!

Then we turned onto route 35 for the looooong flat and fast stretch of the race.

First thing I noticed - headwind. MPH dropped to 17. No sweat. The real issue I had was the result of a choppy swim is a lot of back twisting. Add that to a 56 mile bike ride and you have a lot of lower back pain. A few miles down the road MPH was at 14 and my back was killing me. I kept getting out of the saddle and doing some yoga back stretches to help ease the pain. Whatever it would take I was going to do.

By mile 15 I was in near tears from pain and just praying for a break in wind so I could lay it down and get back to speed to get to the finish to get the pain gone. God was listening because at the turn off to head towards the turn around point I got the break in wind... in the form of a downpour.

At the turn around point - arouind mile 28 or so - I got off of my bike and made a quick trip to the porta-potty. Once back on my bike I executed the turn around and headed back super excited for that headwind to be a clear tail wind. Avg was back up to 18 MPH into the wind... for about 6 miles.

Lightening. Hail. Of, and the wind changed so I was once again in a headwind for the looong retun up 35.

I never swore so much in my life. At some points I was barely going 13 MPH.

I truly think there is a point when you just say F it. For me - when I reach this point I don't give up - I lay down the hammer. I got down into my drops and just bore down as hard as I could taking coasting breaks to massage out the back as best I could and to stand up on the peddals to do more back stretches.

After some more little rollers I saw the dismount signs and started to slow. Once I got to the line panic set in. I clip out right foot first only this time I twisted my foot and nothing happened. I was locked in getting yelled at by officials and was 6" away from a penalty for crossing the mat on my bike. My friend Noah yelled to me to unclip left so I did right before my front tire was going to hit the mat. I was lucky and pulled my bike back and in the effort to prevent a penalty I ripped my right clip clear off from my shoe. I ran acrossed the mats and the volunteers starting laughing. "Good save!" they yelled, "we were running to catch you, thought you were going down!"

Nothing - it was what it was and that is all I could have hoped for. I did it. The training worked. I felt fresh at the end minus the rediclous back pain from the swim.

Walked over to Melissa'a sherpa-boyfriend Doug and we took all my gear back to his car. Came back with my friend's hubby Michael who also did the Aqubike and had lunch. Got my plaque for finishing, and talked to Alaina and Ryan for a few minutes. My gosh they are the most amazing couple ever! So sweet, so friendly, so talented. I am really happy that I met them in person finally! It only took 2 years, eh?


Wind, hail, rain, crazy Muncie weather never disappoints. All in all, I felt good about my performance given the conditions.


LOVE Muncie. I am doing the Half Ironman in 2009 for sure. This race is awesome!!!! Weather be dammed, it was fun.