Panama City, Florida United States Gulf Coast Triathlon 90F / 32C Sunny

Total Time = 5h 38m 33s Overall Rank = / Age Group = 30-34 Age Group Rank = 64/125

I need to start with Thursday night. I drove about 7 hours, most of it with Craig, and my buddy from Cincinnati drove almost 12 hours to get to the race. We were all dead tired so as we were about to crash, I pulled the sheets back on the main bed and there was a giant cockroach looking me in the eye! WHAT?! My friend Matt wanted to pull the bed back to see what else was back there. Yep, a family of 4-6 others! We immediatly called the front desk but no one would answer. I called Expedia and they finally helped us get in touch with them. We demanded another room in another hotel. They agreed but wanted to charge us more. We said absolutely not but thanks for the new room key. Well, that key did not work. Nor did the next one. The security guard, after seeing me bang on the door and nearly break the handle off of it, said he would help us. Finally, it is 2am and we are going to bed. Only about 3 or 4 hours behind schedule so the 7am swim was not happening. We woke up about 8am and ate some breakfast before the swim. It went well and we decided to follow the plan of doing a light 20 min bike to a 10 min run, like we always do. The ride went well and as we approached our hotel, Craig pointed left towards the hotel and I nodded. I went to turn and he did not. In a split second I had two choices: either slam on my breaks or hit him at 21mph, and probably take us both out. I choose the former and went head over heels and landed head first on the road. I got up, did not seem to have a broken bone, but had to check out the bike. She (my BRAND NEW Cervelo P2C) seemed to be fine. I walked over to the make-shift medical area and got cleaned up and bandaged. After a couple of hours I did not feel right about it so Craig took me to a walk-in clinic. About 30 minutes later I had stitches in my hand and was told not to race by the doctor. I asked what I do as I had to race. He said to bandage it up with water proof bandaids and tape and to wear a latex or plastic glove that was extra secure. Mind you I had to get permission from the race official still. I saw him at the pasta dinner and he approved it. So, with bruises, scrapes, a swollen ankle, and stitches, I was going to race!

My warmup consisted of eating about 750 calories of oatmeal, skim milk, an Ensure,and green tea. I walked with Craig and Matt to transition and got set up. My glove was secure and I was ready to race.