Everyone had promised that this race is scheduled for an incoming tide so the current gives you a push once you get across the waterway ... but NO! Not for the year *I* enter ... low tide at 7:08am ... so instead of the 1500m swimming like a 750m as promised, it swam like 1500m. Now, the good news is that I actually swam faster than normal ... which is good. I swam slower than every other relay team swimmer ... which isn't so good. I caught some people from previous waves ... which is good. I had a 10 year old boy from the last wave (14 vs. my 10) swim directly over me ... which is kinda bad ... except he was so light, it was almost like butterfly kisses in its brevity.

There was no panic this time, though. I picked a line and stuck with it. Swam so close to the point I was able to say good morning to the nice folks sitting out on their deck watching the race. I swam crawl about 95% of the time ... just adding some breaststroke in to sight and realign myself. Muscles didn't give me grief and I just changed my breathing frequency if I started to feel like I wasn't getting enough air.

Perhaps a better mantra ... NCTriNewbie and I couldn't get past the "Find a happy place! Find a happy place!" from Finding Nemo ... well, except for the cadenced chant of "Breaststroke, Sidestroke, Backstroke, Doooooooogpaddle".

Oh yeah ... and swim faster. I don't think I pushed as hard as I could have.

Since I was doing a relay, all I had to do was get to the TA and exchange the chip. It was a looooooooooooooooong run from swim exit (and the timing mat) to the TA, so I have no idea how our transition time is so short, but I'll take it. I used about 20 seconds putting on my little water aerobic shoes for the run across the parking lot and the street into the TA.

Nothing, really. I remembered to thank the volunteers as I passed them ... smiled for the camera so that the Human Blueberry photos will be as good as possible. I'm happier with the transition than the swim. ;)

This was my teammate's leg ... wanted to include her times because without her, we'd have been the slowest all female team instead of the next to slowest!

Nothing ... all I could have done was choose a different partner and that wasn't going to happen! She rocks!

Relay teams have a distinct advantage in the bike/run transitions ... all we have to do is grab the chip and run. Literally.

Not a thing.

Apparently, I'm not much of a swimmer or a runner ... but I was danged proud of myself anyway. Before July, I'd never done any kind of organized running and I ran most of this 5k. I should have pushed myself harder ... probably could have come in with a 36 minute time and broken the 12 min/mi marker for the race, but I didn't. I have run on my own a couple of times, but it took me awhile to find a good cadence without my running group. My shins bothered me a little at first. I'm thankful that Shaun had coached me to do a little jogging warmup as the wait for my biker to come in gave my muscles plenty of time to cool off. Without that, I'm thinking that I'd have had a much harder time. The volunteers were great, and again, I made sure to thank them at all of the water stations. A couple of the "pro wrestler-ish" racers were along the course near the finish cheering people on ... as were a few of the faster racers ... oh yeah ... that could be just about anyone! ;) I rounded the corner towards the finish ... greeted my ex-bf who showed up after working until 3:30am and then having to drive an hour to get there ... oh yeah, he showed up last week too as the result of a misread of the calendar ... and headed to the finish chute where Laura, my teammate, was waiting to high five and run a few steps with me in celebration of my first run.

Push harder ... run more on the asphalt and less on the cement sidewalks, if possible.

The one thing I did NOT do was stretch. I won't forget again. :)

Grabbed a recovery drink. Hugged the teammate and ex-bf and thanked them for their support. Headed over to a good cheering place to cheer for NCTriNewbie as she came in ... and hung around to cheer on other finishers. For those of you that hate it ... sorry ... I just can't NOT do it. ;)

Met chris hughes, spot and love2tri ... clapped during the awards for the winners ... had some caffeine and water. The ex-bf hung out as we went to the Holiday Inn Express to shower ... then he bought us all lunch. Too bad he's so much better as an ex than he was as the real thing! Then I drove 2.5 hours home and crashed.


Overweight, overall lack of stellar fitness, didn't push myself hard enough.


This really is a great race. I'd like to do it again next year ... all by myself! :)