After Colonial Beach, I had a score to settle with the open water. DNF was NOT an option today. I was in one of the late waves out (7:48, first wave went at 6:50) so I had way too much time to watch the other swimmers. I'd already decided to just side/breast stroke on the first leg and just get comfortable in the water. The start was somewhere between "wade" and "if you stand on your toes you can see". The horn went and off we went. I stayed off to the side as I had no desire to get kicked in the head. Talked with another gal near me and we agreed as we went along, it's all about just getting to the next buoy.

I ended up ditching the breastroke and going to something vaguely resembling freestyle early on - 12 strokes, then flip to recovery in an attempt to keep everything in check. Sighting was good, mainly because I found I wasn't much actually getting my head *in* the water, LOL. Things thinned out very quickly so I could move closer to the buoys. Made the first turn and part way through noticed the girl next to me had no goggles - asked if she'd gotten kicked and if she was OK, turns out she just hates goggles. Then it hit me - I AM TALKING TO PEOPLE ON THE SWIM! I'm comfortable enough I am saying thanks to all the volunteers as I go by, and not freaking out.

On the second leg, I upped the swim/recovery interval to 16 strokes. Feeling good. Made the last turn pretty close to the buoy and upped the interval again to 20, cause I'm still feeling OK.

I was shocked that it took a full 17 minutes for the next wave to catch up with me (yes, I looked at my watch.) About 2/3 of the way through the swim I realized I was being stalked by one of the kayakers. Yelled to him, "I'm OK, I'm just really slow!" That must have convinced him that I was not going to drown on his watch and he went off to watch other folks.

Hit the second to last buoy and you can see the finish. Oh. My. God. It's there and it's not moving farther away!!! Part of me wanted to power through to it, but I knew that would be a Very Bad Idea, so I just kept plugging along and I FINALLY got there.

Stumbled out of the water under my own power, no faceplanting (go me) and grabbed the closest volunteer and hugged him and exclaimed "I didn't drown!!!!!" He hugged me back and congratulated me and I am sure was thinking "It's never the normal ones that throw themselves at me."

Get phone number of that volunteer at the swim finish.

My god, I SURVIVED THE SWIM, what more can you ask for?

For whatever reason, I decided to RUN into transition. Even as my brain is telling me, "Hey, idiot, slow down!" Got to my rack (no problem there) and decided to just park my butt on the ground and tend to helmet & shoes and such, since I was still fuzzyheaded from the swim. (Or delirious, which would explain the running.) Unracked bike, stopped and thought I was forgetting something, but took inventory - helmet on and clipped, shoes & socks on, well, that seems to be everything. Walked the bike to the exit - it was up a very steep grass hill and I could easily see myself losing my footing and falling flat on my face.

Read on to find that out...unless you've figured it out already.

Got up to the bike start, got waaaay over to the side before I clipped in and took off, as I'm not always particularly graceful getting started. Volunteer said I got extra points for the pink bike.

The course was pretty hilly, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to *really* categorize it. It was overall hard, but not *that* hard - I managed to get up every hill without having to stop, and most of my passing was going UP the hills. What can I say, I refuse to give up any momentum I have going up a hill. Hard, but I liked it.

Around mile 2 I figured out what I was missing - my camelbak. Oh, that's going to make for an interesting ride now, isn't it? (It was in transition, I just left without it.) At mile 4 the tri-gods smiled on me as smack in the middle of the bike route I came upon an IronGirl water bottle, 3/4 full. Well, I can't leave it there, someone might hit it and get hurt. ;) Quick stop, grab that sucker, down a bit of water and take off again. (Hey, I've heard rumors of people picking up Gu off marathon courses...)

Somewhere between miles 5 & 6 I think, I hear Chippy's voice behind me! To be honest, I was wondering where she was, I figured she was way overdue to pass me. (Turns out she was 2 swim waves behind me and not just one.) Some chatting on trying to decide if the hills are challenging or just suck and away she went.

Probably around mile 10 I came upon a gal walking, asked her if she was OK - "Yes, but on the edge" That just didn't sound good, so I pulled off and asked if she had any water - no. Yeah, that could have been me if I hadn't found my bit of treasure on the road. So, pulled the bottle out, she first said the aid station was just down the way a bit, I pointed out she seemed to really need it *now* and we could both get more at the aid station so just drink as much as she needed.

Having the aid station was great, especially with my flaking out in T1. Exchanged my "found" bottle for a bottle of Gatorade and took off again. Yeah, I pulled over, stopped and unclipped for it. The gal w/the bottle said "oh there's no one around you, it's OK!" and I quickly explained an on the move bottle exchange was a disaster in the making.

Back end of the course was uneventful, just more hills! Honestly, I think there were more uphills than downhills. Little did I know this was the theme of the entire race, and if they'd been able to make the water go uphill, they would have!

Remember my camelbak - would have had less stops along the way to drink, but at the same time, it was a nice reward for cresting a hill. Also not remove the normally-not-used-but-full anyway bottle from the cage before the race started. (I have NO idea why I took it out.)

Once again with the RUNNING through transition with the bike. Jeez, you'd think I was an actual triathlete or something. :) Charged through the racks, found my row with no problem, but overshot my spot by about 4 feet but quickly got the bike back on the rack, changed out my shoes, stretched out my quads, grabbed the hat and race belt and took off.

Not that I could have done anything about it, but I wish I had at least noticed that my socks were still soaking wet.

Just as I exited T2, it REALLY hit me that I was going to do this today. Came *this* close to crying, but I managed to save that for later. I must have done a decent job between gearing down and spinning out the end of the bike and taking the few extra seconds to stretch out my quads cause I felt like I had my run legs right away.

First mile was small hills and then flats, not too bad. Aid station around mile 1.5 was manned by the Village People. Awesome. Grabbed some Gatorade, walked while I drank and the up the hills again. At mile 2, I swear I was on a straight uphill spot, and decided to just give myself 30 strides walking. Honestly, I think the walking was faster. :)

Somewhere along here I ran into Chippy again on the backside of her run - hugging and squealing ensued.

Hit the hula aid station, grabbed a water and a gatorade, drank the gatorade and dumped the water down my shirt. Then a nice downhill. YAY! Except for the fact that there are runners coming back the other way, and that means it's an uphill when I come back. This is apparently "Gatorade hill" that they had referred to before the race. Ouch. Continue on, loop around one of the parking lots and back on the way to "the hill" - wow, that one kinda sucked. I was in the "just pick out something on the ground and sorta run to it" mode to get up it, but it worked. Got more Gatorade and water, same routine as before. They insist it's "all downhill from here"

Liars! Actually, there were quite a few flats, but still one more small hill, but it sure felt big. (If I went back and looked tomorrow, I probably wouldn't even find it.) Crested that, and more folks are saying it's downhill. I'm having some trust issues with those statements at the moment - saw a couple gals that had already finished, and asked them if it was really downhill and they assured me it really was. And thank god, it was.

Down the hill and to the flat back to the finish. Wheee!! They'd said there would be 2 timing mats, one before the finish so they could pick up who you were and then the finishing mat. Well, for whatever reason, I thought these would be farther apart than they were - I went over the first one, kept cruising along and before I even knew it, I was over the second one and had about 5 volunteers grabbing me and saying, "Whoa, slow down!"
"Am I really done?!"
"Yes, are you OK?"
I realize she thinks I don't even know where I am and is ready to send me to the med tent, so I assure her I am OK (and once again, fighting back tears) Hugs all around, got my finishers medal, and more hugs.

Walked out of the chute, which was right next where the swim start was. I looked out at the lake, and you know it - the waterworks started. Mission Accomplished.

Magically flatten the course? Actually, for all the hills, I'm happy with the result.

Walked around, found one of the gals I'd played leapfrog with on the bike course and said hi. The food tent, in keeping with the theme of the day was UP A HILL. Got back over to transition and this was when I discovered I'd been running with soaking wet socks the entire time. Yeah, there are some blisters. Next time around, I'll take the extra time to just switch out socks in T2.


Oh, where to begin?! Need to do more hills on the bike & run training.


This is an exceptionally well run and well organized race. TONS of volunteers, the aid station for the bike is fantastic and plenty of aid stations on the run as well.

Overall, definitely a challenging course, but a very good one.