After the gun I was in the water within a minute. The water gets deep fast so I was swimming within a few feet, or rather, was in the washing machine boxing ring. I expected some contact and was prepared for it by keeping an arm out in front for the first couple hundred yards. That didn't help. A rogue swimmer came in from the side and I took a heel to the face. Result: a bloody nose and I thought possibly a black eye. At least the cold water would stop the bleeding, eventually. After regaining my focus I kept moving and kept running into people. I seemed to be catching up to many people but I had a heard time finding a reasonably paced person to draft from.
I got to the first turn faster than expected and rounded wide, as the crowd was still there. I rounded the next buoy, also wide and rode the light chop into the shore.
A short beach run brought what crowd was there back together. Once I reentered the water I took some quick strokes to try and get ahead of some people. I hadn't yet realized the wind had picked up even more and now we had 2ft chop to deal with. This made navigation and sighting much more challenging and now I was running into even more people. I was also swallowing half the lake water (at least it felt that way). I could feel the gas bubbles bubbling and hoped this wouldn't be an issue later... My second loop was only a few minutes longer than the first and I happily exited the cold water. My hands were numb but I still had a small amount of muscle function in them. I skipped the warming tent.

Start closer to the front to catch some good feet to draft from.

I ran and grabbed my bike bag and into the changing tent. since I was not changing my clothes I only needed to put on my socks, shoes, arm warmers, and gloves. It sounds easy, but my fingers had zero dexterity left and I had to "be" dressed by a volunteer. THANK YOU!!! After being dressed I realized I forgot to apply chamois lube. Hmmmmm. Thank you fingerless gloves. I ran out of the tent and must've looked cold because a volunteer grabbed and bear hugged me and swiftly rubbed my back. This made me smile and I ran to grab my bike that was taken from it's rack for me.

Lube before gloves.

As I started the bike leg my feet and hands were numb and I was ridiculously cold. My plan was to have drink of water every 10 minutes and take a shot of GU from my flask every 20 minutes. That is until I tried to take some GU from my flask (that I had refrigerated the night before). I squeezed and squeezed and sucked on that flask just trying to get the smallest amount of GU out of it. (Panic hits as I realize my nutrition plan is now out the window if I can't get the GU from the flasks). I quickly started thinking about the GU at the aid stations and trying to do the math on the calories I would need and found I would be seriously undernourished in a short time. I did have with me a 3 fun size Twix bars which I knew would give me 150 calories. These were planned as treats for specific mile markers. I slid my flask into my jersey pocket in hopes that my body heat would warm the GU. 30 miles later it still wasn't warm enough and I was grabbing a GU at every aid station I passed. This cut my planned calories about in half.
The first out and back section of the bike only has one real hill to worry about which is about a 1/2 mile long and not too steep so this part is fairly fast for most people.
The second out and back section follows along a highway and has hills, long gradual climbs that pretty much take you all the way out to the turn around. The first climb is about 2 miles long at 6% grade. I passed a lot of people going up these climbs. (Thank you Leelanau County). You get the pleasure of going down the other side of this hill only to be hit by the next hill that seems to be longer and pretty much takes you all the way out to the turn around. Fortunately, we had a headwind going uphill, so the downhill would be somewhat of a breather. There are almost ZERO flat spots on this bike course and the hills are so long and gradual that you have no momentum going into them. Easy spinning up them worked best and didn't trash my legs.
About mile 30 the air and water from the swim started rumbling in my stomach and I thought about the next aid station. I planned to pee on the bike and just hose off with some water but this might be worse. I stopped, and all I succeeded in was losing 8 minutes. Darn it. After the turn around we got to play in the downhill. I was about halfway back to town and had to pee again. I stood up on the pedals, and tried, and tried, and tried. After having no luck for the next 20 minutes I got off my bike and hid behind a nice wall. I did however scare up another woman who had the same idea. Another 3 minutes lost.

The second loop I felt like I was getting caught up on nutrition and was able to get the other flasks I had put in my special needs. YESSSSSSS!!!! they were semi liquid. This made me very happy and I cruised back through town. All was good until I got to the top of the hill and learned the wind had picked up again . The long gradual uphill coupled with the stiffer headwind caused my speedometer to dip into the single digits for a good portion of this section. The turnaround couldn't come fast enough.
I made the turnaround and was shocked to see how many people were so much further behind me. I looked at the time and knew there were many that would not be making the cut off. I came back into town at an easy pace.

Don't refrigerate my GU

Only had to change my shoes and socks and make sure I had some salt tabs with me. Got some more suncreen rubbed on on the way out.

The first 6 miles of the run felt terrible. I had fallen behind on my hydration and nutrition on the bike and I still felt like I was not completely caught up. The sun had come out and it got hot. The portion of the run through town was full of spectators and people cheering. That helped a lot. I managed to run/jog most of this section.
7 miles in we turned uphill for a while. I walked through the aid stations and drank a couple cups of water at each. My stomach was churning and I feared I may vomit with much exertion. The next 6 miles were kind of a blur. I do remember having that conversation with myself... Why am I out here? This hurts.... I'm never doing this again...
Mile 13 I grabbed my special needs bag a popped a couple Tums and a Tylenol to try and rid the feeling in my belly and my headache. I did the run/walk thing for a bit and noticed myself and another guy were leapfrogging each other. We finally started to chat. Turns out he had also done St George, although he was pulled from that race. Before I knew it we were near mile 18 and I was feeling pretty good. We parted ways and I ran most of the way back to town.
By now my legs were in pretty severe pain and the uphills made my quads feel like they were tearing. The run through town was a bit quieter now as the drunken house party had wrapped it up, or passed out. I didn't notice anyone laying in the grass. Some of the corners still had a few people cheering and then I saw the 25 mile marker. For some reason this is longest mile I have ever run. I think I was still running, but it seemed like 30 minutes before I hit the turn down Sherman to the finish.
I could see the light off in the distance of the finish line, and the last 5 blocks were packed with spectators cheering. I was inspired that so many people would stay out and cheer for total strangers, just to finish the race. There was a slight downhill at this point and I was flying. I hit the finisher's chute and was high fiving people. Then I heard Mike Reilly's voice say "You are an Ironman" and for a brief moment, I felt invincible.

My poor run could have been better had my nutrition plan gone the way it should have.

Was caught by a couple volunteers and cramped immediately. They walked me around and stood me in front of the finisher screen for a picture. They gathered my finisher medal, hat, and shirt and walked me to the food area. I could take it from here. Had some chocolate milk and pizza.


Nutrition and hydration overall. Weather conditions on the swim and bike.


The volunteers and spectators made this race AMAZING. It's a beautiful venue. Even with the cold water, I would do this race again. I loved the challenge of the bike course and the hills on the run were enough to keep it honest.