The challenges of this race start with the logistics.  Because we’re relatively local, it was not so bad for us.  We drove down to Providence on Saturday, registered, hit up the race briefing, and dropped off our T2 bags.  Then Sunday morning, Mr. & Mrs. Snow made sure that we had a ride to and from the race without hassle.

It was supposed to rain all night Saturday and most of the day Sunday.  Not even close!  Sunday was warm (beautiful, but warm) from dawn to dusk.  We pulled up to the beach as the sun was coming up, and tackled the challenge of setting up T1.  With the exception of one bike wheel, everything had to be off the ground.  To avoid fumbling around with the plastic bag they gave us, I took the risk and hung my shoes on the brake levers and balanced my helmet on my aerobars.  I crossed my fingers, hoped my gear would maintain its position, and hit the beach.

Took a deep breath...

and off we went!

I love the ocean, but I did not have a spectacular swim.  It was not so much the swimming as much as it was the not-so-hot start and poor sighting on the way back in.  My shallow-water running is not quite up to Baywatch standards, and ends up being more of a plow and flop.  I did my best, though, and swam hard to catch up to the second group.  Once there, I settled in on a strong set of feet through the second turn buoy, at which point I decided to try to pull ahead.  That would have been great had I not mistaken the orange “in” buoys for the yellow “out” buoys.  I kept thinking I was cutting left, so I’d pull right only to realize that I was now swimming away from the course instead of right on track.  I ended up coming out right in front of the pack I’d been swimming with earlier.  Doh!

Onto the bike!

Got through transition pretty quickly, and hopped on my sweet new P2.  Love it!  I was a bit nervous with this being the new ride’s race debut, but I felt great and rode stronger than I ever have.  The reports were that there tends to be a tail wind heading north out of Narragansett, making the first section of the course pretty fast.  Not so on Sunday.  We had a head wind right out of T1.  Oh, well!  Everyone’s in the same boat.  Just get low and keep the cadence up. For the most part the roads were really smooth, especially for New England.  Then we hit Providence.  Yikes!  Not only did course get silly-technical, but there were pot holes and railroad tracks jumping out all over the place.  Let the obstacle course begin!  Kept the cadence high, the grip tight but the joints loose, and managed to make it to T2 without launching any equipment.  Phew!

Tim's dismount...

My dismount!

Yeesh!!  Another detail to work on!  Once I got myself disengaged from my bicycle, I made quick time through T2, and headed out on the run.  Right away the spectators were plentiful and loud.  Thank the Lord!  I had not seen the course, so was trying to be prepared for the worst, but Holy my goodness!  People said that the was a tough hill, but this was insane!  The first time we hit it I couldn’t help but laugh.  Somehow I made it over the top without having to stop and catch my breath, and descended into the technical side of the run course.  ”Obstacle course” really is the best description I can give.  We cut around a tight, blind corner, ran up a hill, crossed a bridge, maneuvered three switchbacks, ran over cobblestones, hopped off and on curbs, and then did it again!  At the same time, it was beginning to get quite warm, and the urban setting did not offer much shade.  I think I’ve made clear that it was a very challenging course, but the spectators made it so fun!  I was rockin’ my new, neon orange Kinvaras – they got themselves quite a bit of attention!  People were shouting all over the place, “Nice shoes!”, “I LOVE those shoes!”, “Go orange!”.  It was great!  It was even better because they’re not only flashy, but they’re super-comfy and light.  I’m thrilled with my run, especially because I rode harder than I am used to.  I was nervous that this more aggressive tactic would fry my legs, but they actually felt great.  I felt stronger and stronger as the run went, and was able to hold my pace throughout.

What a fun course!

This race really has me psyched up for LP – 10 days and counting!

Wait a minute! Did we swap tops??

I woke up to the sound of thunder and pouring rain at 4:51 Saturday morning, and, for some reason, my mind flashed to my wetsuit.  ”Tim, where are the wetsuits?”

“Huh…  They’re drying on the hood of the car…”, and back to sleep he went.  Oh, for the love!  I knew I should have brought them in!  How in the good Lord’s name am I going to get a wet wetsuit on??  Ought to be interesting.  Whatever – time for breakfast! Spinney, Wheeler, Jesse, and I rendezvoused at the kitchen table for our pre-race meal and watched it rain cats, dogs, and guinea pigs.  As the thunder and lightening came and went, Jesse checked the doppler to get a sense of what the Big Man had in store for the next few hours.  ”Oh, it’s just a small cloud,” he reported.  I took a look for myself.  ”Ha!  Dude!  That ’small cloud’ covers all of New England.  It’s only ’small’ ’cause it’s on your computer!”  Didn’t look good for an open water swim.  This ought to be interesting. We packed up, put the helmets on, took our lives in our hands, and rode our bikes the 2 miles over to the race sight.  Just as we were coming up to the entrance of the park there was a flash of lightening at the exact same time as a crack of thunder.  I’m no meteorologist, but I know the old “one Mississippi” rule.  Crikies! As we made our way over to transition the announcement was made: no swim, bike course shortened by 10 miles, if the race happens it will begin at 9 (1.5hr delay), more announcements to follow.  Alrighty.  Let’s get comfortable! We all made our way over to the new team tent, and settled in.

Party under the QT2 tent!

A little before 8 the plan was announced: at 9 we would start the 17-mile bike/10k run duathlon.  It would be a time trial start with athletes leaving every 2 seconds.  Oh, geez!  This ought to be interesting! We hung out for another half hour and then began to disperse, heading over to our bikes to get ready for the adventure to come.  This is going to be absolute chaos – there’s no way that they got this re-organized that quickly.  We’ll see what happens!

We were lined up according to the location of our bike racks, and, sure enough, as we stood waiting our turns to start the sun came out.  It didn’t go away for the rest of the day.  Ha!  Cue Alanis Morissette.

So off we went!  Because the bike had been shortened so much, I just rode like a madman and tried to average the highest power and HR that I could, and ran (as coach JJK instructed) “like you stole something.”  What?  ’Cause I live in Brockton I’m a thief?? Well, I rode my brains out, and wasn’t passed by Jesse until we were leaving transition (he did start at least 2 minutes behind me).  He ran by me so fast I thought he was either kidding or going to explode by mile 2.  Neither was true.  Try as I might I could not catch him!  I did, however, have a great race, and must say that Keith Jordan’s team did an unbelievable job getting everything and everyone rearranged for the altered course.  If we hadn’t signed for an international distance triathlon we wouldn’t have had any inclination that things had not gone as planned.  Every corner was well manned, cones and signs were all in the right places, and the TT start went off without a hitch.  Amazing!

We followed up the race with a 3-hour ride, and finished the day off with a team dinner at BHOP.  What a day!!

We headed over to T2 at 4:15 to catch the shuttle over to T1.  While this process could easily have been a nightmare, it was actually quite smooth and painless.  Except for the part where I had to pee REALLY bad.  The ride between transitions took about 30 minutes.  I basically high-speed pee-pee danced right off the bus and into the porta-potty line.  Upside: the line was short.  Downside: we waited for a phantom pee-er.  The guy in front of me thought both “stalls” were full.  He even went up and checked, so we all assumed someone was just taking their time.  When I got to the front, I decided to knock.  Wouldn’t want anyone passing out and missing the race in one of those plastic rooms of aromatic bliss!  No one responded.  It’s empty!  It’s been empty this whole time!  That man better get outta Dodge before I exit this thing! Well, I got to go, and was far less aggressive after doing so.  I did not accost the man.

We set up our bike areas, got the tires pumped, sat for a bit, got the wetsuits on, dropped off the dry clothes bags, and made our way over to the swim start.  Now let me tell you something, just because the water temperature is announced as 58° does not mean that it is 58°.  Nor does it mean that your body will function as though it is 58°.  Within minutes of getting into the water my face was numb.  The discomfort is one thing.  The lack of sensation is another.  When you can’t feel your face you don’t know when your mouth is out of the water.  If this occurs while trying to breathe more rapidly, say at the beginning of a triathlon, there’s a tendency to inhale early and take in more water than air.  It took close to 10 minutes and about 6 cups of water to get the hang of using sight to time my breathing, but I got things under control by the first turn buoy.  Aside from the unexpected extra hydration and oxygen deprivation, I actually felt pretty good and was able to settle on a solid set of feet through the first 25ish minutes.  At that point, the claw began to set in.  This is a pose that the fingers lock into when you lose the ability to contract the muscles of the hand into a proper paddle.  Set your finger on the keyboard as though your about to type.  Now, without moving your fingers, lift your hands up.  The claw!  (This doesn’t work if you’re a hen-pecker.)  So now I was swimming along trying to use my forearm as the paddle and just dragging my hands through the water.  I managed to hold onto the feet for a bit longer, but once we made the final turn toward shore, with about 10 minutes left, I started lose them.  It wasn’t by much, maybe a 5-second gap, but that’s enough to lose the draft.  Luckily it was only for that last stretch.

Now came the interesting part: dressing myself without the use of my fingers.  Oh, how underappreciated these little digits of dexterity are!  As I ran into the tent I was swarmed by 4 or 5 volunteers.  Godsends!  I managed to dump my bag out on the ground, but that was about it.  I picked up my long-sleeve shirt, and, before I could finish saying “This might take awhile,” one of the women had pulled it right over my head and down over my torso.  At the same time, one woman wrapped my race belt around me and clasped it while another put my socks and shoes on.  I managed to get my sunglasses on, and place my helmet on my head, but didn’t have enough strength in my fingers to pinch the clasp together.  One woman took over that task and another held my gloves open while I tried to cram my fingers into the their little sleeves.  No good!  At this point I just started running toward my bike in hopes that I’d be able to get the gloves on properly before I reached it.  Nope.  It took another century to manually (with the other hand) straighten my flippin’ pinkies out and get them into their designated glove space.  OK!  I’m ready! I grabbed my bike, and peddled off.  I got the hang of shifting sans fingers pretty quickly and was able to get moving.  Aside from the phantom extremities, I felt great!  There was a decent climb right at the beginning, which was just what the thermogenesist ordered!  (Yeah, I made that word up.)  While I didn’t regain full sensation in my feet until mile 50ish, the harder effort and slower speed on the hills helped bring the core temperature back up.  The course was amazing!  A-mazing!A description of the views simply does not do them justice.

You see that?? And this wasn't even the scenic part of the course!

I couldn't stop smiling - look at this place!

Hopefully these pictures give you some sense, but it’s still not the same.  Just beautiful!  There were some solid climbs, but the difficulty of this bike course came more from the winds that began to set in a few hours into the race.  And the chip seal.  We hit a 20-mile-ish section of this sweet pavement on each loop.  It’s kind of like a rumble strip spread out over the entire road.  Ok, I’m awake!  Thanks!! The chip seal section was followed by “the wall” (a relatively long hill that brought us up to the highest point of the course).  Then came the descent.  While I enjoy a nice challenging climb, going fast is fun!  Max speed: 49.8 mph.  Woop woop!!  This got a bit sketchy on the second loop when the gusty cross winds started to pick up, but I made it down to T2 unscathed.

So far so good...

My legs felt a bit heavy as I started the run, but I knew they’d come around.  By the first mile marker things felt good, and I was excited to try and run down as many people (I know how much guys love being passed by a girl!   ) as I could.  Coming off the bike in 8^th place, I had my work cut out for me to get on the podium.  So work I did!  I kept things nice and steady, pushing into 5^th by mile 8 and 4^th by the half marathon.  The crowds were amazing and made all the difference when things got bad between miles 16 and 19.  I noticed the slight tingling in my pinkies around mile 11 and knew that things could get ugly.  At mile 15 they did.  At least in my head they did. This is too soon to start losing it!  I felt so good – what’s happening?!  Should I walk?  Should I stop??  All those people cheering will feel sorry for me!  I don’t want pity!  They’ll say, “She went out too fast.” Nope!  I’m not stopping.  If I don’t cross that finish line it will be because I collapsed on the side of the road…  I wonder what it feels like to collapse mid-stride.  Is this what it feels like right before you collapse?  Stop!  Focus on the positive! I continued to push through mile 16, and then I remembered Kona.  Ok, don’t be stupid!  Don’t let Kona have been in vain – learn from it!  Back off, regenerate, and then ease back into the hunt. I pulled the pace back drastically, and started speed walking the aid stations.  I walked long enough to get a couple sips of sports drink and water at every aid station all the way through the final one at mile 25.  No kidding!

Keeping cool in the desert.

It took nearly 6 miles to close the 2-minute gap between me and 3^rd place.  Around mile 19 my sight straightened back out and I felt the life come back to my legs.  Even then I wasn’t 100% sure that things weren’t going to fall apart.  Just keep pushing – Tim and Mikaela are waiting for you at the finish line.  The sooner you finish the sooner you get to stop running.  You can even lie down if you want! I really tuned into how I felt and just tried to ride the line between running as fast as I could and not letting the wheels fall off the bus (Munnis, I could hear your commentary through much of this run!).  The crowds through the final 3 miles were out of control and drowned out any doubt or discomfort that was left.  And Tim and Mikaela were right there waiting at the finish line!!

If you’re looking for an ironman that’s a bit like an adventure race, sign up for IM St. George!

The Swim

We hit the Pacific at 6:43 am, and with the air temperature hovering around 40°, the water felt tropical at 59°!  We had just over 3 minutes to warm-up, and then we were off.

It's brisk, but beautiful.

I went out as hard as could, spinning my arms like a pinwheel in a hurricane, and battled for a good set of feet.  By the first turn buoy, I settled in and felt good.  Then the mid-swim thoughts started: Where am I?  I don’t see anyone ahead of us.  Is that because they’re 3 minutes up?  Does this feel good because I’m going too easy?  Or is it because my stroke is stronger than it’s been? As I ran up the ramp out of the water I saw the clock: 29:59.  Whaaaat??!  I swam high 28 last time! It took me until about mile 10 of the bike to realize that that was the total race time, including the 3 minutes the men had started ahead of us.  Phew!  Cool!  That was a good swim!

The Bike

After a silly-slow transition, I hit the road ready to rock the bike.  My goal power felt very easy for the first 15-ish miles.  Then the wind started to pick up.  We hit one point that was slightly uphill and very exposed – holy headwinds!!  There was a little caterpillar that was trying to cross the road – not only did he have bikes with which to play Frogger, but the wind was so fierce that it caused him to log-roll perpendicular to his intended direction.  Poor little fella!  (It literally made me laugh out loud! )

The last section of the bike course was FAST.  I really tried to push it and stay super-aero through there.  At the same time I was wondering how my legs were going to feel once I got off the bike, having gone after a significantly higher power number than in past races.  We will see…

The Run

My legs felt great!  My goal was to go out at 6:10 and hold that as long as I could.  I had to keep pulling back, and still went through the first mile at 6:05.  I was actually getting concerned that there might be something wrong with my Garmin, so I really tuned into how I felt and how it should feel.  Sure enough, it got tougher!  Heading back after the first turn-around I realized that there had been a relativley significant tail wind on the way out.  Said tail wind did not make the turn when I did, and made for a lovely little head wind on the way back.   During the first leg of the run I counted 17 girls in front of me.  By the end of the first loop, I’d gotten it down to 13.  The second loop was tougher than the first (simply because I’d already run 6.55 miles!), but I was able to hold my pace – finished with a 6:10 average and only 9 girls in front of me.

1:37 off the swim, 7:50 off the bike, 1:49 off the run.  Not too shabby.

The Treats

Following the race we treated ourselves to some mexican deliciousness:

Post-Race Dinner with Fellow QT2-ers

I had myself some fabulous nachos, a chicken sandwich with avocado, and some french fries with plenty of ketchup.  And then there was dessert…

Woop woooooop!

That there is a “love it” sized Cold Stone sundae in a waffle bowl (they didn’t have any of the chocolate-dipped bowls ) made up of the following: chocolate cake batter ice cream with a brownie, white chocolate chips, and walnuts (gotta get some Omega-3’s in there!) mixed in, and peanut butter, fudge (room temperature – they didn’t have “hot”), and whipped cream on top with half a Twix stuck in for good measure.  Oh, yeah!!  I really outdid myself this time .  It took well over 2 hours to finish…  Seriously.  The longer you make them last, the less time there is between sundaes!

The Plans

Up next: IM Utah!  We’ve got a couple weeks of heavy training left, a little taper action, and then race day four weeks from Saturday.  Hold onto your butts!  This is going to be a quick 4 weeks!

Jim ended up with a solid PR, averaging just under the goal pace, and Kevin nailed his race, leaving it all out on the course.  You guys make me so proud!!

On top of that, QT2 took 2nd, 4th (my husband, thank you very much!), 5th, 9th, and 11th, taking first in the open men’s team division, and our older fellas (I really think 40 is too young to be considered “masters”) brought home the silver in the master’s team division.  Good work!

While this was not quite a PR (only about 30 seconds off) for me, it was a great race!  I’ve been really pushing the bike and swim, and seen some significant improvements not only from this time last year, but from pre-Kona (and post-LP) last season.  I’m really pumped, and looking forward to putting the training to the test!  Up next is California 70.3 (3/27), and then IM Utah (5/1)…  It’s almost tri season!!  

It was like watching a circus!  There were people, cars, dolphins, horses, bikes, buses, and scooters everywhere!

This bad Larry was on the side of the bike course!

There tends to be a very strong current along the shore where the swim was held, so all of the buoys were supposed to be shifted to avoid swimming into this current for too long.  It appears that only one set of the turn buoys was moved, though, as one athlete managed to swim 2.4 miles in under 36 minutes.  Sorry guys!

Tim making his way through the chop and undercurrent.

As the athletes made there way out of transition, they were greeted by their friends, family, and the entire population of Cozumel.

Everyone held their breath as this bus passed through the transition exit and blocked our view of the athletes...

It was great – the crowd cheered for every single athlete, but when a Mexican athlete went by?  Holy schnikies!  They went NUTS!  And then there were the sporadic “Meh-he-co” chants, the drum corps, the mariachi bands – the people of the island were genuinely excited to have the race and all of the athletes there!  Every person that we encountered during the week was friendly and spoke far more english than any of us spoke Spanish.  One of our cab drivers translated the lyrics and plot of “La Cucharacha” (while cruising at 80kph down the center of a 40kph street).  I can tell you right now that if a Spanish-speaking tourist asked me to translate “Happy Birthday” I’d be at a loss.

Anyway!  The race was so much fun to watch and looked like it was pretty cool to race.  The bike was three loops around the island (they literally rode the entire perimeter of the inhabited portion of the island).  Two thirds of it were along the coast, with a fierce head/side wind.

Along with this view came a persistent head/side wind.

Opposite the water was a forest that came no higher than your bottom bracket.

The other third came through town with billions of spectators crowding the sidewalks and streets.  It looked liked some of the crazy portions if the Tour with the masses spilling onto the course, leaving a narrow shoot for the athletes to ride through.  It was pure chaos everywhere, but somehow it was also organized.  The bikes had to cross traffic at a couple points.  These spots were very well-manned and the cyclists always (from what we saw) had the right of way.

Tim running strong despite the slip-and-slide surface.

The run was also three loops.  Actually, it was three out-and-backs, so we got to see the athletes twice each loop.  The road surface that they had to run on, on the other hand, did not look so fun.  It was a kind of coated concrete that was extremely unforgiving and very slippery when it got wet.  The guys said that they lost traction when they went through the aid stations and their feet slipped quite a bit.  A marathon is long enough; there is no need to throw the Running Man in there!

Tim greeting some of the fans that asked for his autograph.

All of our guys managed the elements extremely well and made us so proud!

This "salad" was actually presented to us at the awards dinner!

Our hatch-back crammed with seven people was actually at lower capacity than the average vehicle we encountered.

Mikaela had a special seat!

I really don't know what to say...

A Not-So-Fun Side-Note

I must discuss the one negative thing that I witnessed while watching this race.  The drafting.  I’ve seen it before, and it’s made me angry before, but this straight up broke my heart.  The pro women that rode in second, third and fourth, and started the run in the same positions, were blatantly, shamelessly drafting at every point that I saw them on that bike course.  They came through town grouped together.  Twice.  They came past T1 (6 miles away) grouped together.  Twice.  They came off the bike and started the run grouped together.  They accepted their awards with what appeared to be no shame.  How can you accept an award with pride after cheating?  How can you hold your head up and smile and accept the “congratulations” when you know that you did not earn it?  Just because an official did not penalize you does not mean that you did not cheat.  It’s not the fact that these athletes get away with drafting that breaks my heart, but the fact that they do with it with no shame.  On the bright side, it shows the true strength of Van Vlerkin, who dominated the race despite soloing the bike while being chase by a group.

I had plenty of time to relax before the swim start.

I got into the water about 20 minutes before the start, warmed-up as the Navy Seals parachuted out over the pier, and lined up right behind the group I was shooting to swim with.  A bunch of lifeguards on surf boards circled in front of us marking the start-line and keeping us back prior to the cannon shot.  A few pros were having trouble following instructions and kept pushing forward.  Well, let me tell you, those lifeguards did NOT like that!  They kept shouting, “Get back!  Hey you, back!”  Then one of them had had it.  This is what I heard as I tried to prepare for the start: “hooooome of the braaaaaaaaYOU!  Get back!  Do not f&$%ing move!BANG”  What the?!  GO!  Did that just happen?!  Where’d they go!  I was just behind them!  Did that guy really swear?!  Swim harder!  You’re right in the mix!  Keep pushing!

I wouldn't mess around with these guys on their way in!

Somehow I recovered from the pre-cannon profanity and was able to hang in with the group I was hoping to.  I had feet the WHOLE time.  My cap, on the other hand…  Well that slid off a bit before the first turn buoy.  Luckily my hair was braided.  For a little while.  About halfway back to the pier I lost the elastic that was holding my braid in place, and swam the rest of the way with the salt water flowing through my hair.  Sweeeeet!  I made my way up the stairs, through the hoses, and into the change tent, shouting, “Hair elastic?  Rubber band?  Does anyone have a hair elastic?” the whole way.  Just when I thought I was going to have to complete the rest of the race Fabio-style, some saint of a woman pulled one out of her fanny-pack, and I twisted it around the knot that my hair had tied itself into.  I shoved my helmet on my head, clipped my race belt on, rubbed in the sunscreen that wouldn’t mist out of the bottle, grabbed my bike shoes, and ran to my bike.  Last year I made the mistake of attempting to run through transition in my shoes.  I wiped out and slid into a porta-potty.  Lesson learned.

While I was making my way through transition, Mikaela was making her way up to her prime cheering spot.

I headed out on the bike, not at 34.99 mph (sorry athlete-trackers!), but nice and steady.  I felt strong, even while being passed by hordes of age-group men.

On my way up to the Queen K.

The wind was pretty calm, but began to pick-up as I approached Hawi.  I was pretty certain that it was a slight head wind, so I held back a bit and got ready for the return trip.  I hit the turn-around excited to push the power on the way back, and bombed out of Hawi.  Tucked into my aerobars, I kept the cadence up around 98 and the speed as high as possible to maintain stability through the cross-winds.  I felt great!  Then I came up to the right-hand turn back onto the Queen K and saw the flag on the corner.  A head-wind??  How is that possible?  Didn’t we have a head-wind on the way out here? I spent the remainder of the ride trying to ignore the thoughts of how I had mis-read the conditions so poorly, and focus on maintaining my power and cadence.  There was still a marathon to run.  In spite of my pathetic sense of the elemental forces, I took 10 minutes off of my bike split from last year.

I hit T2 with a sense that something was off but uncertain how bad it was.  Just get out there and see what happens.  Things will come together like they always do. I switched into my run gear, and got a second dose of sunscreen on my way out of T2.  Contrary to how it felt, I was running faster than planned through mile 1, and needed to hold myself back.

Mile 1 - Just keep smiling!

As I made my way up and down Ali’i, the pace began to slip.  This was a tough run for me.  I struggled to keep it together mentally as I pushed my uncharacteristically stubborn legs through the marathon.  I used everything in my arsenal to keep moving forward: Less than a mile to the next aid station…  Just hold the pace as long as you can…  One step at a time…  The faster you run the sooner you get to finish line and there are cots there – you can lay down!…  Then you can have ice cream!  Oh, yuck! Yes, I said “yuck” to the thought of ice cream!  It was so hot that the thought of dairy made me want to hurl!   Well, I made it to the finish line.  While it was not the day that I’d hoped to have, I did learn a lot about myself out there, and was able to dig deeper than I thought possible.

Onward and upward!  From here, we will continue to work on my bike strength, make a few tweaks to the race-day plan, and take another crack at it in Utah.  For now, though, it’s recovery time!  No training for a couple weeks.  This will allow me to regenerate and be ready to hit the 2010 season hard.

Thank you so much to everyone who followed my race, whether it was in person, online, or via live updates from the support crew.  Your support means more than you could know!

Tim, mom, Mikaela, Gram, Karen, Mr. & Mrs. Snow, Jesse, Chrissie, the entire Snow clan, my fellow QT2′ers, all you Team Psycho folks, Saucony, Guru, PowerBar, Oakley, American Classic, Fuelbelt, Trakkers, every single person who has sent me a email/facebook message/text message/comment on my blog wishing me well!  Every ounce of support means the world to me, and, no matter what happens out there today, you’ve all made this experience possible for me and I could never find a way to thank you enough!

~

Ok, enough of the mushy stuff – let’s do this!  Check ya on the flip side!

This is a shot from the transition area - beautiful!

So, the only (and I mean ONLY) detail missed was the volume of the guy giving us the “GO” at the beginning of the race.  Apparently everyone up by the transition area (and all over the rest of South Berwick) could hear the guy yelling “3… 2… 1!  Go, go, go!”  Not us.  I just kept chatting away, fixing my goggles, being my usual oblivious-self, when I heard someone behind me shout “Go!”.  At the same time I saw a couple athletes jump and start swimming.  ”What?!”  I yelled, and then dove in.  Holy crap!  Are we supposed to be swimming!  Everyone else is going – just go!  What a lemming!  Focus! Somers Town buy Needless to say, the heart rate was up instantly, and didn’t fall again until the race was over.  Man!  Sprints hurt!  It’s a good time, though.

This (along with some other goodies) is what I got for winning:

The prettiest bouquet EVER!

LOVE IT!  It’s so autumn.  Thanks, Kat!!

Tim crushed it on Sunday, showing some of the progress that he’s made on the bike, while having his usual great run.

No, that's not mine - he has his own sports bra!

Then he ate enough turkey to put a three year-old on a sugar-high to sleep.  Three plates!  Yeah, yeah, he keeps claiming “It was only two plates.”  Just like when I cram 3 scoops of ice cream into a dixie cup – “What?  It’s just a small cup!”

Off to Maine again today for  our pre-Kona team training weekend.  Final big sessions before the “big dance”.  Woop woop!

I went off in the 6th wave, was anaerobic within the first minute, and kept the heart rate well above threshold for the remainder of the 70-minute race.  I got a nice, clean start, weaved my wave through bits of the earlier waves, and came out of the water ready to crush the bike.

Because it was such a short race, the instructions from Jesse were to go as hard as I could throughout, and try to average the highest wattage I could.  Alrighty! I ran out of transition and was about to hit the road when I noticed that my chain was off.  For the love! I grabbed the chain, fumbled with it for a second, got my hand nice and black, got it into place, and took off like a madman.  I stood on the pedals immediately, getting the power up right off the bat.  I never do that – it was fun!  I pushed as hard as I could, forcing my legs and lungs to burn, riding like there was no run to come.  Obviously, that was not the case, but I wanted that power number!

I ran out of T2 hard, right past Tim and Jesse, who were hanging out in the finisher’s area having started 25 minutes ahead of me.  Everything continued to burn as I forced myself to keep pushing.  It’s only 3 miles.  That’s less than 20 minutes.  Come on! I raced a guy right down the finish shoot – haha!  I love passing guys!

Tim won, Jesse got second, and I took 5th overall with the 8th fastest ride on the day.  Woop woop!

Tim and I got to give our speeches together. In leis!

QT2 rocked:

Wheeler – 1st  20-24

Molly – 1st  30-34

Chrissie – 2nd  30-34

Trent – 3rd  30-34

Rachel – 1st  35-39

Rob – 2nd  40-44

Nancy – 1st  45-49

GOOD DAY!!

More on the weekend to come…