I donned my longjohn, pink swim cap (so Bryan could see me), and goggles, and climbed down the rocky bank by the ramadas to the water. It was a nice temperature, and the water looked a healthy green color. A nice little warmup swim to the start where about 40 or so athletes were congregated. Out there, I practiced floating for a bit in my wetsuit. I noticed how much heavier my chest was than my legs, and i noted that my arms and head really made my upper body sink. I decided that I should lift my head more, therefore, to help balance my position.


The race director came out ot the end of the dangerous pier to shout about how we were good for coming to do such a hard race. Then he sent us off with a count down, and I settled into the swim.



The course led along one cliff wall towards Butcher Jones Cove. The half athletes then made a sharp right turn to cross , and back track to the far side of the lake, and then returned to Butcher Jones.

After swimming along the cliff side for a while, the sun peaked over the cliffs in front of me, and I couldn't see the buouys in front of me - only swimmers. I was pleased that for the whole swim though that I was not swimming alone (means I'm not the last one). When we turned to cross the lake, we passed into shade, and that helped in sighting a lot. It seemed to take forever to get to the yellow bouy on the far side of the lake - and at that bouy i checked my watch - i was at 28 minutes. I thought, I should be able to get to the Cove by 35, but it seems it was a lot farther than I thought. Even though I had picked up the pace of my swimming, I still didn't get out of the water until 45. This rather irked me a bit, but it's about what I expected myself to finish in, in the first place. Also, I may not have swam exactly in a straight line, which can add to the course.



There wasn't really a way to know the course better - the lake is surrounded by cliffs and the course goes in a linear direction so you can't get to a vantage point to see - plus they didnt' set the bouys out til 5 minutes before we started.

Perhaps the most helpful thing would be to practice swimming in my wetsuit a bit more. That's rather a different game. Also, I forgot to put body glide on my shoulder blades, and got some good chafing from the wetsuit there.

I took my time with this transition. We had a 100 meter run over rocky sandy surfaces to the parking lot where the bikes were racked. I had a hard time getting my wetsuit off my feet. Will need to practice that one. I body glided my feet, chamoised up, grabbed my bike and ran to the bike start, where I started off at 10 mph up the hill....


Practice getting wetsuit off better.

This is the part I had practiced for. The course led up the 2 mi uphill out of Butcher Jones Cove, turn on Bush Hwy, and then 2 massive downhills with 1 massive uphill past Saguaro Lake. Next, ups and downs on a shoulder-less road, over the river, up a small climb to Usery Pass, aka, Sufferfest 2000. Sufferfest is a 3 mile low-grade hill with little let up til you get to the top. It can be misleading if you don't know where the hill ends, but having practiced this, I was well prepared. When you get to where you can hear the target practice in the desert, you can shift up your gear, because while it looks like the hill is still going up, it magically becomes faster. Then, when you pass the Usery Park Mtn sign, you're set - 20-25 mph the rest of the way down Usery Pass and onto McDowell, through the neighborhood with the very smooth roads, until you reach Power Rd (Bush Hwy) again. This following section has one really big down hill, one pretty nice uphill, and quite a bit in between. When you get back to the massive hills at the start, the RD fortunately does not make you climb those massive hills, rather turn around and repeat the Usery Pass loop.

I had a hard time keeping my HR under control, as whole sections are climbing and whole sections are coasting. But I made sure I stayed in front of the other girl I saw who was F25-29. We yoyo'ed a bit, and finally i past her for good.

Nutrition consisted of clif shot bloks, pretzels, which I found can be hard to chew in a dry mouth, and rich gatorade. I went through 4 water bottles, and I think this set me up well for the run. Overall I felt strong the whole way, and didn't go too fast.

I guess I could be better at riding hills more smoothly. I feel there's a lot of difference in output over the course of a hill, and I think this could be ironed out a bit more. I probably could have raced a bit more as well, considering I was 5/6 in my age group for time on the bike.

They took our bikes from us at T2, and gave us our T2 bags. I changed shoes, hit a porto john, and was off.

This course was fairly insane. Up the single-track horse path to the top of the mountain, wander aimlessly through the desert on said horse path, a couple scrambles up and down, along a long wash with deep sand, through a tunnel under a bridge, and finally up to pavement! It didn't help that there weren't very many people around me during a good part of the run - it felt pretty lonely and desolate out there. I did pass about 4 people out there though. I guess this section was supposedly 5 miles, but I think it was shorter.


The road led up a nice big hill, through a parking lot, to the shoulderless Bush Hwy. We ran out 3 mi, and back in 3 miles. A few rolling hills there. Pretty nondescript, except we had all kinds of traffic at this point swooshing around us - trucks with boats, 18 wheelers, etc. Fun! I passed a few more people here too. Finally we got back to the parking lot, and we were led onto a trail that was "10 minutes from the finish". The trail led to a riverbed filled with river rocks! I couldn't believe they were having us run over river rocks like that. It kinda deflated my go-gettem, and a guy I had passed earlier passed me and encouraged me to finish strong. Up a flight of stairs and into a green lawn in front of the resort - the Finish Line!

Nutrition consisted of Carbbooms everry 45 min, and I drank some of the coke. I tried to stay away from the Gatorade, since that makes me sick, and that was a good idea. I kept cool by putting ice in my hat and pouring water on my head at every aid station. Also, I used the Galloway method of running for the first 1.5 hrs to help pace myself.



I did well compared to everyone else on the run. I would not change anything, given the challenges of the course.

Some beer, some coke, sit in the grass under a big tree. Most people had already left - no one was sticking around. Except the Ukrainian pros who had won the race. I guess they are in town staying at Denise's again. I asked about Tamara, and they said she was doing IM FL. They thought the run was crazy too. It was nice to talk to them - they have very uninflated egos for pros. Or maybe their English just isn't good enough to expound on their own virtues.



Lack of natural talent. Lack of acquired talent. Knowledge of the course (but it was meant to be a mystery.) I think I performed well, given my current abilities. However, I probably could have raced a tad more - pushed it more than I did.



Challenging, fun course. I also especially appreciated my enthusiastic spectator and picture-taking boyfriend, Bryan!