Had an awesome swim. I started up front on the beach and charged in. There weren't a whole lot of girls in my wave, even though all women in the international distance were in the same wave. Didn't get bumped or jostled at all. There were 2 girls who took off and I lost them from the beginning, but for 98 percent of the swim, I was alone and just cruising along. My navigation was surprisingly good, except the buoys were hard to see coming back into shore due to the sun.

Couldn't believe people were wearing wetsuits! This water was like bathwater. And I think some people were freaked out by the fact that the water was GREEN, very, very GREEN. To the point where you couldn't see your arm when it went into the water.

AG- 2/3
OA- 23/72

Nothing really, maybe swim a bit harder?

Had a good transition because I didn't have to take anything off. I had swam with my insulin pump on as an experiment, which was a good idea. Cap, helmet, glasses, gels into pocket, grabbed the bike and was gone. Stupidnickname was on his was into transition when I was on my way out, stopped to say Hi!

dunno...get bike shoes without laces.

I'm not saying this was a tough course, but it was more than I had bargained for. There were a lot of rollers. Coming out of transition, you had to zig-zag your way, Alp Du Ez style through the residentail part of the lake...at this point I was very glad to not be using aerobars.

when we got out onto the road, it was basically a rolling course, very few straight aways, lots of turns, and lots of hills/grades. First lap was hard on the ol' legs, second one was much improved.

However, there was the issue of Fido. In one of the more remote parts of the course, I heard the sound of carbon wheels coming up behind me. I looked behind to make sure they were passing on the left, and I thought I saw a dog, but I thought it could just be the biker...biker passes me, and I look behind and there is Fido and his buddy, chasing the 3 or 4 of us that were in a group. I started cussing at him and screaming (don't know why, seemed like the right idea at the time and I didn't want to waste my water to squirt him). Finally his owner called him off...never been chased by a dog before and didn't think the first time would be during a race.

In other doggy news, they had marked on the road, in florescent paint, "DOG" about 2 miles AWAY from where my canine encounter happened. Great. Thanks for the heads up. But then a few miles away, they had painted "DOG COW" on the road. Ummm...ok, I understand the concern about the dog, but cow? seriously? Does Bessie have a vandetta against bikes?

AG- 2/3
OA- 65/72 (ouch)

Buy a tri bike. I was one of maybe 3 people without one, and it showed.

Not get chased by a dog (furry bastard).

Take more liquids...I was roasting.

Came in with my bike, racked her, changed out my gels, switched shoes. I made the decision to run without socks in my running shoes. More on this later. Had a nice talk with the girl across the rack, she was super nice and she ruled. Decided to run without my trisuit up, so I unzipped and let the sports bra hang out...pale guts of the world, UNITE!

See run portion!

Oh boy, where to start. Firstly, it was almost 11 by the time I started. Translation: hot. First mile was pure pain, and my HR was wayyy up there. Finally hit the first aid station about mile 1.5. 2 cups water. I was eating my sport beanz as I went along (tasty buggers, those). At about mile 2 and some change, some people had set up a sprinkler and were cow belling and cheering everyone on (made me happy). The majority of miles 2-3 was shaded, rolling hills. Nearing mile 3 there was another aid station. Hit it on the wat out. Ran in the open to the turn around, did so, and came back (hit up aid again).

By mile 3, I was feeling pretty good. Stride was relaxing, breathing was calming down and my HR was coming down a bit too. But I could feel disaster starting in my right shoe. Uh-oh. Add to that, I could feel a bit of GI problems starting as well.

At theturn around, I saw a girl who I thought was in my AG...made mental note to push harder. more on this later.

Started to come back into town. hit the mile 1.5 aid station again. But I could feel the wheels starting to come off, in a big way. I had stopped sweating a while ago. I was starting to get cold (yeah, WTF?), but most worrying, I could feel my blood sugar dropping. Oh crap.

Blister on my foot was now SCREAMING...didn't want to know.


AG- 3/3
OA- 73/75...ouch ouch ouch

bring fuel belt, drink more water, cure diabetes, not be a spaz, oh, and WEAR SOCKS WHEN YOU BUY NEW RUNNING SHOES!!! I thought I had worn those things in enough...aparently, no.

Couldn't take a gel because I had no water and I knew I couldn't get it down without it. Thougt I should just press forward to the finish. Could see girl in blue coming behind me. Oh crap. Started to push, felt ill. Got passed by a guy who asked how I was, I decided to be honest.

"um, I think I might be going into shock, and/or hypoglycemia...I'm not doing well but I just want to finish". But this point, I'm like, less than .25 of a mile from the finish. He takes off, and I can see him telling people to get the medics. At this point, i'm shivering, hurting, and really incoherent. And I'm about to get passed. So I start sprinting, and my BF joins up with me. Girl in blue yells at BF to stop pacing me (wtf?), I try to pass her, with about 4 feet left in the shoot, and I just let her go. I walk the finish line, get my chip taken, and the medics come over and fixed me up, along with help from BT'rs Buckeye66 and his SO and Stupidnickname.

Apparently, as I was finishing, the RD announced my name, and kept asking if I was ok, like 3 times...don't remember this really.

Girl in blue must have thought I was a maniac, but then I saw her in the finish tent...she was only 19. Not in my AG. I laughed and apologized.

Huge blister on the instep of my foot as well.

BUT! I also got some AWESOME news when I came in the finish tent... I PLACED!!! I got 3rd! Yeah!

I was a bit disapointed..everything had been packed up by the time I finished and most of the food and stuff was gone by the time I finished.

I want to find the guy who was ahead of me and thank him for sounding the alarm ahead of time...really appreciated it. The volutneers were awesome too, they came up to me at the end and were asking how i was and telling me i had a good race.


Diabetes, heat, lack of run training, not wearing socks on the run.

**EDIT***
I always hate when results come out. I feel great about my race and then I see how crappy I did. My run time is absolutely disasterous. I've put so much into running, you'd think I'd be able to do better than that.


There were no bike marshalls, although the Fairfield county Sheriffs were AWESOME. I saw a bit of drafting going on as well. Also no bike aid stations for the INT bikers. Would have liked a bottle drop.

Transition/finish area had no water fountains or really anywhere to fill water bottles up...not good.

Also, the website directions took you nowhere near where you wanted to be, and we got lost (as did several others).

Would have thought there would have been more aid stations on the run, considering the heat. If it was a cooler day, what they had would have been fine, but on a 95 degree day, spreading them out over the 10k would have helped.