Wow, swimming the in ocean is hard. The inside of my mouth got burned by the salt. The swim to the first buoy was so long and hard that I convinced myself that I can't do an Ironman next year during it. After I finally got to the second buoy, I escaped some of the other women and labored to the turn. Allegedly the long part of the swim was upstream, but it felt a lot easier than the other parts. I swam way wide so it was just me out there in the ocean. I could see the other ladies (and some of the over-40 men) on my left and the kayak on my right so I figured I was OK to just aim a little more left. Miraculously, I arrived right at the turn buoy for the "with the waves" leg. I kept waiting for the waves to help push me in, but they never seemed to help. I was surprised when my hands hit the sand, though, because I never could really see the bottom during the swim. All in all, this turned out to be a much better swim than I thought while I was doing it. Maybe I was able to get into my groove better after getting away from the people.

Relax and go with the flow better. Also, maybe some vasaline inside my lips because they are still feeling burnt today (Monday morning).

I didn't even stop to go potty. No idea why this took so long - could have been the sunblock, I guess.

Practice with the wetsuit.

Well, the super-secret goal was to hold 20 mph, but I gave that up in mile 9 when we turned into the wind. Then I decided 19 would be good but that I'd just hold a decently fast effort without looking at my pace. Doug had told me to go by HR if we hit any wind. I couldn't see my HR very well but after discussing my HR numbers with Doug on the way down and reading the Augusta race reports, I thought I could hold in the high 130s/low 140s for my HR. If only I'd listened to my own advice.

I actually did hold the HR to the high 140s at a good 19 mph until we hit the turnaround at Big Talbot Island. I was expecting to get a tailwind because it felt like we had been fighting a headwind on the way down. Alas, no. Coming out of the turn was like a giant brake and I realized that I couldn't hold the pace with that wind.

And then, the drafters.
I've seen pelotons in races, but never individuals that looked like they were pulling each other. Maybe I've just not been paying attention. Those drafters hacked me off and I couldn't talk myself out of trying to pass them after they passed me. It was almost always a woman and one or more men. I said a lot of bad words and took a lot of deep breaths to calm down. There was a group of 3 who passed me at the end and I tried so hard to catch them that I dropped my chain. Then, I had to motor up the hill (one of two on the course) to re-pass another pair and then get back close to the three. I went so fast that I even caught up to Doug. Oops.

Don't eat the paste. Really, how many times have Doug and I talked about how overdoing on the bike will kill your run? A billion? Still, I couldn't help myself after those drafters made me mad.

And, have more bike fitness. Even though I'm in way better bike shape than last year, I still gave up places on the bike.

Full stop on the bike and climbed gingerly off. Then, ran into transition. Not a bad time for someone who also stopped for the potty.

Not skip my stretching in the two days before the race. Only other improvement would be not using the potty, but I'm just not going to pee on my bike. My shoes smell bad enough as it is.

Started off great! My plan was to come out fast and run at what felt like an easy pace and if it was higher than 10:00 per mile, try to speed it up.

Doug had passed me in transition (he didn't have to pee) and I could see him as I started the run. I told him to go on and thought I'd just use him as the pace booty. I thought that was a great plan, but I lost him very fast. My feet were completely numb, which was weird, though, so I figured that numb feet just happen when you go too fast on the bike. It felt like I was running on stumps, but I tried to wiggle my feet around in my shoes (plenty of room, so they weren't swollen) and wake them up. Then, it got hot. There was no shade in the beach loop and I slowed my pace significantly. After Mile 2, I knew the 9s were gone and I was OK with 10s. I was very hot and thirsty, and my hand bottle water warmed up very fast. I had the most delicious ice cold blue gatorade in the universe and felt immediately better.

As we turned to go into the park, I dumped the rest of the handbottle on myself and wished that I had left it in transition. There were zillions of water stops, so it was unnecessary. The park was beautiful. Giant trees with spanish moss hung over the road. I passed two guys who were struggling and encouraged them. Blue shirt was run-walking and white shirt was just walking. I told blue shirt that I was going to keep running just at a slower pace. In about mile 4.5, the feeling came back into my right foot and the left foot felt tingly, which was good. Unfortunately, my GI cramped up and started spasming right about the same time. So, I walked. It sucked. Blue shirt and white shirt passed me. As we turned into the first out-n-back, there was a port-o-potty and I made good use of it. Bless those nice little boy scouts who kept trying to give me water. Coming out of the potty, the GI was still unpleasant so I walked some more. White shirt came by (running) and told me that I really helped him because he had needed some encouragement. That made me cry. Then, the feeling came back into my left foot and I thought I'd try running a little. It was OK! We got wet towels and circled a parking area with a marvelous breeze. All was right with the world. I tried to go an easy pace because 10s had me breathing hard. I gave up on 10 minute miles and tried to stay under 11. I played cat and mouse with a 50-ish year old woman who was run-walking. She was holding a great 11 minute pace but I had to let her go in mile 9 as I suffered. The volunteers were great and had water and some kind of electroylyte drink and sometimes cold towels. I stopped and picked up a lot of gel wrappers on the course, but not the towels because those were too heavy. I even ran with one too long because the back of my neck is all chafed. The second turnaround was after the bridge at the Pogy plant. It was very hot here and I suffered. I did take a gel (Pineapple Roctane) as I went around the loop. I talked myself into running faster in mile 11, but it wasn't even an 11 minute pace. With the 11 minute pace out of reach, I re-adjusted my goal to going under 2 hrs 30 minutes. With two miles to go, I turned up the pace as much as possible and brought it home through the beautiful tree-lined boulevard.

Not kill the bike.
Not come out so hot on the run.
Leave the handbottle at home.

Got water and sat in the shade with Doug to cheer on the other racers. I saw blue shirt and white shirt come in - no idea how I passed them, though, maybe they stopped to use the potty also.


Using up my juice on the bike and lack of run fitness. My longest run since SC HIM has been 8.5 miles. I've done a lot of them, but my knees felt the pain of not having run for longer than 1.5 hours before.

Forgot to list my fuel: 1 Gu prerace (Plain). 3 bottles Raspberry Gu2O plus lots of regular water and 3 Gus on the bike. 1 cup (2-4oz) gatorade and 2 cups Heed plus lots of water and 1 Gu (Pineapple Roctane) on the run. This was the perfect amount of fuel. If it had not been so hot, I would have stuck with the Gu/water plan on the run but I was very low on electrolytes.

I'm still disappointed that I didn't perform better in my race. It was a super race, I just screwed up on my bike pacing. At least I can gear up for another half and give it another shot in the spring.


This race was super. Everything was well-organized and the location was just beautiful. There were zillions of aid stations - four hand-ups on the bike and seven stations (and you passed most of them twice) on the run. Fernandina Beach is a super beach and it would be great to rent a house to stay here for a week with the family. I definitely recommend this race to anyone and would love to come back next year.