We had to walk down these stairs to a floating dock and then jump in for an in-water start. My first thought was that the water had to be much, much colder than 70 degrees. I tried to keep the icy water from making too much contact with my skin by warming up my wetsuit...yay! Sometime during the waiting around, I had nudged my watch 'start button' and as I hit 'start' when the horn went off, the dumb polar was asking me if I wanted to merge workouts. I really wanted good data, so I took a second or two to respond and start my watch properly. This meant I was the LAST person to start the race. Last person in the last wave. The bright side of this was that I was never swamped by the wave behind!

This was my best swim ever....I took it very nice and easy and felt like I was flying by the people around me...well, until I swam into a kayak and tried to swim into a few boats, but hey, we know sighting isn't my strength. Speaking of flying, there was a lot of debris in that water that kept floating by. It was almost like watching a parade of stuff go by. I felt sorry for all the folks that weren't used to murky tannic water with things floating in it. As one thing hit my ankle on the way past my body, I realized that it was my timing chip trying to break free. I stopped and tightened it. This probably cost me a minute or two. There was a girl in my wave who had a pretty miserable swim and kept moaning with each stroke and kept hanging on to a kayak on every other stroke. It seemed like the kayak was towing her down river, but I'm pretty sure she was swimming on her own, but just kept touching it. Thankfully, I was able to pass her and didn't have to listen to it the whole time. I started hearing people say were were almost there when my watch said 25 min. I had expected to only be about halfway, so I didn't really believe them, but it was true. I got out of the water in record time...thank you current!!

Struggled with unzipping my wetsuit all the way up to transition. Finally got it unzipped as I approached the peelers. I opted to take it off myself tho and headed to my transition spot.

The bike started off with a really sweet tailwind....fanning my dreams of sub-8 glory. I felt totally unstoppable with my 30 min 'buffer' toward my goal. I planned to keep the mph average to 15.5 and with the time saved on the swim, it could drop to 15 and I'd be fine. I knew it was going to be a good day. All of sudden, I had about 10 miles done and was feeling GREAT. At mile 15, we approached a big (for a FL girl) climb and though it was tough, I didn't think it was too bad. This feeling continued....these hills are hard, but not impossible. I did notice that my average started dropping....and the huge speed on the downhill wasn't making up for the 4mph on the way up. I tried not to worry too much about it....I still had my buffer. The one thing that was terribly annoying was the motorcycle that seemed stuck to my rear wheel. Here's were starting in the last wave really stinks. I had never spent hours listening to a harley idle right behind me before, and I didn't want to start. Unfortunatlely, I had no choice. The rider was very nice and kept saying encouraging things, but I don't think it ever entered his mind that anyone would not LOVE listening to buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh for 4 straight hours.

The race folks and volunteers did an awesome job manning the bottle exchanges and marking the course---prolly the BEST job I've seen at any race. I made friends with Chris (chzonke) and we kept trading places on the course. The brief banter made the ride go by much faster. There was only one climb that seemed particularly challenging and there were a few folks walking it up that one. I started to unclip and join them, but then toughened up and stayed on the bike. I did not get tempted to walk again during the ride. My favorite part was a particularly long downhill....I hit 40 mph...wheeeeeee!

Though my bike average had dropped down to the low 14s, I still felt like I could catch up on the last 9 miles that were all downhill. These 9 miles, directly into the wind, turned out to be the toughest miles on the course. Going over the bridge back into Georgia, I could FEEL the sand blasting me in the calves.....ouch!

Getting back to T2 was a relief and I stopped for a second to high-five Chris...we made it!

I guess I was already suffering from 'race stupidity' cuz I did some dumb things, like spray sunscreen on my shoulder, then put my shirt on. Then remember I didn't want to wear the wet singlet underneath. I know I was just a picture of Southern Belle Class sitting in the grass, changing my shirt-flash wet stinky sportsbra- while I was peeing next to my transition area. Yes, I did. I splattered water all over and cooled down.

I started off feeling really good...reflecting that even though the bike too horrifically long, this was going to be so much easier than last year and I didn't feel like I was overheated or anything. I jogged the first mile at the expected pace I wanted to keep. The second mile was a minute longer than I wanted but I still felt good. Each mile that passed, I was running slower and slower...until I felt like I was going faster by walking. Great. I really started to worry about being cut. Everyone around me was on their second lap and celebrating the end of their race, while I had many more miles to go. At this point, it got harder to navigate....my brain wasn't processing memories of the course map and the volunteers were not really directing people anymore...since for most it was a repeat of what they'd done already. It was tough trying to figure out the space between the finish line and the second lap start. Anyways, it was all about moving forward. At the start of the second lap, a volunteer offered to pour cold water down my back. At first I declined, but then thought 'what the hell.'...the ice water felt GREAT.....until it ran down my ankle into my sock. About a mile later, I felt the hot spot on the bottom of the ball of my foot. Unfortunately, I didn't have any lube with me....a bit later, I saw a tri car stopped at the red light and asked them for something..they let me use some of their chamois butter and I took my sock off and slathered my foot with it. This helped a lot, but it was prolly a little too late and once again I have a huge blister. Going past the finish line for the third time was awful. Having the motorcycle gang behind me for the last three miles was awful. Finishing last is awful. Its hard to feel good about a 22 min PR when you are dead flippin last. Overall, I didn't have the slowest times in the bike, swim or run....nor did I have the longest time overall....but starting 2 hours after the race started sure made me FEEL like I did.

I'm mostly disappointed in the run. This was a great run course....all shady and just the kind of course I should be able to do well at. Someday, someday I'll have a good run in a triathlon. Someday.

The best part of the race was just up ahead....finishing! My husband was there to greet me with my finisher's medal...that was awesome!!

Once we got to Augusta, events were very well organized...especially considering the start and finish lines were not by transition. Overall, I thought PEM did a very nice job...esp considering it was an inaugural race. I sure wish I could have started earlier than 9:07...maybe have bigger waves or less time between them?