There was some bumping around, a few elbows, a few grabbed feet. Nothing out of the ordinary. The water is cold, murky, and salty. I don't like swimming in the ocean because of the saltyness. And the things that can eat you, but I covered that already.

I felt good to the first buoy, I couldn't see the second buoy until I was right there. The third buoy came pretty quickly for me, but I swear the shore was moving away from me as I came in from that third buoy. Seaweed wrapped around my arms, legs and face a few times. I thought I swam hard, but I was a full 3 minutes slower than last year.

I got out of the water quickly and ran up the ramp to transition.

Swim faster?????

Yeah, whatever. That was about 20 seconds slower than last year.

Nothing really. Try to be faster?

I beat my old time by 25 seconds. I am not impressed given the fact that I increased my volume significantly leading up to Timberman and have been doing some interval work leading up to this race. I expected the biggest gains here, and I didn't get much.

The course is on roads that are in great shape through a really nice area. I would call the course rolling, but not overly hilly. But I just couldn't get up to speed on any of the climbs. I am a fantastic descender though, I have a weight advantage on all of those skinny hill climbers that kept passing me.

Everything was very well marked and as usual, the volunteers rocked. I came in from the bike feeling pretty good, but I knew I wasn't as fast as I had wanted to be.

This is the only place where I thought that maybe the 4 day 35 mile hike with a 40 pound pack 4 days before the race was a mistake.

Almost a full minute slower than last year. What was I doing? Making a sandwich?

I had a hard time getting my shoes on this time, I don't know why.

I wasn't expecting much improvement at all here after the season running I have had. This was 2 minutes slower than last year.

At the start, my body was revolting more than normal post-bike. Everything hurt. My toes, my arches, my calves, my shins, my quads, my hammies, my stomach was cramping, my arms...EVERYTHING hurt. I felt like a complete turd. This has never happened to me before, the full body assault. I kept pushing through, telling myself it would go away.

I was shuffling big time, but I kept running (can you call it that?) and got passed by a few 75 year olds. I started to come out of it around the 5K point. My stride opened up a bit and by mile 4, I was feeling great. I was passing people like crazy. I would look at each person's back and pick them off. I kind of wish it was 10-13 miles, not 6.2. I wish there were mile splits, because I know I was running very strong in the last 3 miles.

One girl I passed said, "Holy crap, great running!"

At the 5 mile mark, I felt like I was making headway. I was picking off people (I got past both the 75 year olds too), focusing on their back, reeling them in, getting past them and looking on to the next. I was alone on the loop around Winslow Park. Then as I made the final turn to the finishline, I saw another person about 100 yards ahead of me, she was only about 20 yards from the finishline, waving to her friends on the way in.

I sprinted as hard as I could, and her friends suddenly started yelling at her to "Oh no!! GO GO GO" because I was coming fast on her back. She put her head down and ran hard the few feet she had left to the finish. She got me by 1 second, I almost had her.

I don't know.

Walked around and talked to people.


Not sure, I mean, maybe more speedwork and not hiking the few days before...duh.


I love this race and will come back next year!