For whatever reason, I never felt like I was in a good groove. Form felt off. On the first stretch I kept running into weird things like people (LOL) and a submerged buoy (???) and a floating buoy. Sighting on the way back was tough because the sun was to the side I breathe on, then when I looked forward I'd just see spots or a big blur.

No wetsuit, the water was hot and I'd have cooked. 78 degrees, I think.

Not sure. Better body position, swim faster. The course was possibly long, my friends all recorded extra distance on their watches.

The run up from the lake was not nice. They had the indoor/outdoor carpeting down, but it was on dirt and stones and the stones poked up painfully, making it tough to run. I walked instead of ran after I kept stepping on stones. I also tried running on the small grass strip next to the dirt and carpet but that wasn't working out as well as I'd have liked, either.

This was slow because I had a lot to do. Put on HR monitor. Put on cooling sleeves. Apply sunblock. Put bike gear on. Also, I was in a grump from my bad swim time.

I guess nothing except maybe try to do these things faster, although it's not like I was lazy daisy-ing around. Sleeves were tough to put on over damp arms even though I attempted to towel them off. Have my head in a better place mentally. I was bemoaning my poor swim result and letting it bring me down.

Heading out on the bike I was getting passed and passed and passed again like I was sitting still. This, partnered with my displeasure with my swim performance, eventually led to a mini meltdown complete with so many negative thoughts and even tears. I was hating myself and the race. I wanted to quit as soon as I got off the bike. Eventually I managed to snap myself out of it and refocus. Instead of focusing on what I wasn't doing right, I vowed to find something to do right: make sure I stayed on top of nutrition and hydration. I told myself I may be a lot of things, but I'm not a quitter. I finish what I start. Too many friends and people are keeping tabs on my progress that I'd be embarrassed to drop out for no good purpose.

This worked. I drank a lot. I ate gels and did BASE salt on my set schedule (gels at the top and :30 of every hour, BASE on the :15 and :45. Drink often. Eventually I did pass a few people which was a little added booster.

I saw the aftermath of a few wrecks and almost had an incident myself. There were cones marking 'bump' just before a bridge. OK, no problem. Took them carefully. Maybe 100 feet later, there is an 8" wide, deep hole in the shoulder, like where a water pipe would've been, vertically. Absolutely no warning signs or orange paint like was used other places to mark issues. Again, OK, saw it in plenty of time and could avoid it. Maybe another 50 feet later, another one of those 8" wide, deep holes. This one I only saw at the last minute and said, "Whoa!!" as I swerved to miss it. I later learned at least one athlete crashed and had his day ended by hitting one of these and going over the handlebars.

The entire ride was done in the big ring, no need to drop lower.

Saw 'yard dolls' for sale (silhouettes of girls in dresses with bonnets) and made a mental note to tease my friends about if they wanted to go back and buy some. Turns out neither one of them saw them on either lap, LOL, despite the fact they were right by the edge of the person's yard.

At the water station I stopped to get both water bottles filled and to add more Nuun tablets to the one. Great volunteer, very helpful.

Coming toward the turnaround for lap 1, my pal LT went flying by me, having just finished lap 2. I was excited to see her and to see her doing so well. I never did see my other friend on the bike.

More of the same for lap 2, I made sure to watch out for those crazy holes and the chopped up road heading back to the race site. Around mile 45 or so, I attempted to eat an Uncrustable (my body does better when it has some solid food in it) but the heat made it icky to eat. I spit out the entire first bite which seemed to be all bread. I forced myself to eat a little more than half of it, then I shoved it back in my bag. Felt like I was fading in the waning miles. Attempted to eat the rest of the Uncrustable but again the heat made eating unpleasant so I managed a few bites then put the last bit back in my bag.

I liked this bike course: Two loops, closed road which was nice. To this PA girl, FLAT. To the midwesterners, hilly, LOL, although I really had no idea how approach such a course as far as effort. The only other 70.3s I have done were truly hilly (Syracuse and Lake Placid). I believe I went waaay too conservatively partly because of not knowing how hard to push but I was also afraid of overcooking the bike and having nothing left for the run. Had I realized the run was going to be a complete disaster (for most people, not just me), I definitely would’ve biked harder.

Be a bit less conservative, especially in hindsight. I was saving something for the run knowing it was going to be a SOB but if I had known how bad of a SOB, I'd have biked harder and likely had the same result on the run course but at least a faster bike. I'm not happy with the result, pace-wise.

Decent transition, only needed to get in, drop off bike and bike gear, switch into running gear and get out.

Eh, move a little faster? I didn't mess around but also didn't have a super speedy transition. I think I already knew my time goal was out of reach and was resigned to just finishing the thing. Should've taken my feet out of my shoes to run the bike in.

UGLY. HOT. UGLY. I could stop there in the write-up, seriously!

My new mantra: "Finish this b****!" I headed out, keeping my pace easy, trying to get into a groove, but ended up walking fairly soon into it. At first I thought it was because of the typical sluggishness off the bike but soon realized it was because of the heat. Right around the first mile, the road cut close to the lake and there were a group of boats all strung together, owners drinking, swimming, and yelling at racers as well as playing loud music over speakers. Interesting. I tried to not be conspicuous because they were singling out people to yell at, ie, "You in the blue shirt! Hurry up, she's going to catch you!" (not me, just an example)

I kept setting little goals for myself, like I'm going to run from one aid station to the next only to fail because of needing to walk after only covering 1/4, 1/3 mile.

I saw my pal LT walking which both made me both sad (to see she was suffering, too) but also vindicated. If she, a fairly fast, thin racer needs to walk, there is no shame in me doing so. A little farther up the road, I saw my other racing pal, JA walking. Now I knew it was serious, if he's walking! I would hedge a bet that there were few to no racers who were able to run the entire distance, I saw plenty other more-fit-than-I looking athletes walking.

Kept on top of water, salt, gel. Drank what I had on me and also drank water and Gatorade at aid stations. Re-wet my cooling sleeves regularly, put ice in my hydration vest pouch and under my hat every chance I got. Somewhere around mile 3 or 4 aid station, I saw an athlete sitting on the ground not looking so well. I asked if she was OK or if she wanted salt. She perked up when I mentioned I had salt, so I shared some of my BASE with her, then continued on.

Yo-yo-ed with SO MANY people, it was getting tiresome. Around mile 5.something I started talking to the one lady and then I let her talk me into walking. Well, to clarify, my brain told me, "You just keep yo-yo-ing with her anyway, what difference will walking make?" Well, my brain wasn't quite accurate with that assumption (I should've kept run/walking) but since I knew my goal time was unattainable at this point, I decided, why not?

We chatted and walked, I tried to keep the walking pace on the higher side. She was originally from Indiana, now lives in NC. Around the turnaround for the out and back, I stopped to fix the irritation in my foot, I assumed it was my sock bunching up. Pulled my sock tight but still felt the odd sensation, kept going.

Realized at some point I was getting some blisters between the ball of my foot and my toes, but what could I do? Kept going. At mile 9 (or was it 10?) I told my new friend I was going to launch an attempt to walk/run the rest of the race. I did so, expecting to see her yo-yo back but never saw her again. Still couldn't run a full mile. Exactly at the mile 11 marker, the blister on my right foot popped. Great. Gross.

Made another new friend somewhere in the waning miles of the race, a very tall, older fellow. We did our walk/run intervals together and helped push each other to run a little more than we would've solo (but still no complete miles). He wasn't fond of the boaters near the start/finish that were still going strong a couple hours later. I was surprised they were still yelling at people, considering the alcohol intake. I think I avoided their scrutiny once again but by this time didn't care as much.

As my new pal and I neared the end, I told myself, "Run to the end", apparently not seeing the slight incline in my way. Walked the incline a bit, then made myself run and let the older guy pass through the chute first and with a gap between us. I was so glad to finally end this day!

Turns out my sock issue was an insole issue, it had slid sideways, helping cause a massively disgusting and painful blood blister. I ended up with blood blisters on the sides of both my heels in addition to the other aforementioned blisters. Shoes and walking period were not my friends for the next week! Such grossness!

'Run' a little more in those middle miles where I walked with that lady. Fixed my insole instead of assuming it was my sock. Maybe not let my feet get as wet as they did.

Got to the finish and was immediately worried about how long I'd made people wait for me to finish and tried to rush our departure. They assured me I needed to cool down, relax, get something to drink, get something to eat, calm down a bit. I eventually conceded.

Drank more water. Saw someone with cherry applesauce from the athlete food tent and I wanted that in the worst way! I got a full plateful of the race's renowned BBQ chicken, roasted potatoes, and the coveted applesauce. I am never able to eat anything other than fruit or something light right after a race, so I devoured the applesauce (very tasty!) and kept the other food until later when hunger eventually set in. Ate the chicken and potatoes on the drive back to the house, it was very good!

Got back to the house and finally took off my shoes and socks - NASTY! My huge blister looked bad but the two gigantic blood blisters on the inside of my heels were worse! Smaller beginnings of blisters on various toes. Fun times, fun times.


HEAT. I do not race well in heat. Give me sub-80 weather and I do much better. I feel my training was there but the heat sapped what I had to give. I have learned my lesson - no more long-distance races in the heat!


The volunteers were top notch and it was evident that many of them help at this race year after year.