The swim was AWFUL. When I hit the water it was so cold that I couldn't breathe correctly. I didn't really warm-up in the water enough to breathe right until about 200 yds from the finish. I ended up doing a combo of breaststroke and backstroke the whole way. I tried crawl every now and then, but it was just too hard to coordinate your breath when you are nearly hyperventilating from cold. I did freestyle the last 50 yds just to leave myself with a good impression. I was quite demoralized coming off the swim. The thought of biking and running at that point sounded like the last thing in the world I'd want to do.

Rent a wetsuit. Go open water swimming. Grow cojones.

Transition gave me enough time to calm down and prepare mentally for the bike leg. I probably was a little slower than I could have been, but I needed to catch my breath and get smiling again.

Assuming the swim is better next time, I won't lolligag.

The bike leg was glorious. Heading out was kind of a b**ch, slight headwind and all uphill (mostly in 2 long hills), but the way back was fun. It was all downhill and fast. Had a smile plastered on my face the whole way back. Ate 2 Gu's on the bike, one at the very beginning, one just after the turnaround (I felt hungry, so yes, that was necessary). My bike ran perfectly!

I think I was passed by roughly the same # of people I passed.

Maybe push a little more on the uphills, but not by much.

No problem.

Nada.

UGGGGG! The first part was great. That smile was still plastered on my face. I was kind of wondering why no one heading back was smiling at all. But I just ran happily along telling everyone what a great job they were doing.

Then, the sidewalk ended. And the mud began. Smile very soon gone. It only took a couple hundred yards until my shoes were caked with mud all over the sole. I would estimate that I was running with at least 1-2 lbs of mud on the bottom of each foot. It SUCKED! In some areas, the mud got very slippery. At that point, it was a waste of energy to try and run, so I walked through those spots (which probably constituted a third to half a mile). I stopped each way on a little bridge to peel the mud off my shoes on the side rails. The mud lasted half the 5k. The mud had caked preferentially under the arch of my foot, so I rubbed a nice blister

Back on the cement, smile quickly returned when I went by two women in gaudy make-up and viking hats heading the other direction. They yelled for me and I for them. After a quarter of a mile on the cement, most of the mud was gone, so I got to return to a normal pace. A few hundred yards from the finish a little blonde girl started jumping up and down yelling for me, so I turned on the gas to the finish. Coming in the chute, I had the biggest poo-eating grin on my face that the announcer started making jokes about me. It was fabulous!

Everything that went wrong was out of my control. Nothing.

Smiled till my face cramped up. Hugged my wonderful boyfriend a lot. Walked around and stretched a little. Felt immensely blessed and almost bawled a couple of times.


Cooooold water, mud on the run, taking it a bit too easy on the bike (though that probably only cost me a minute or two).


I think that it was stupid to have us run through that mud. It would have been wise for them to have an alternate course set up over pavement.

Other than that, this was a GREAT race. I had tons of fun and won myself a 3rd place medal in my age group (out of 4, and it wasn't a medal, actually a coaster....)