Wowzers that was hard. Very windy and a long run course but I did it and finished... Go me
I slept fair for a night before a race. Woke up at 4:30 ate and loaded our stuff in the truck, drove the 30 mins over to Highline lake state park and got all of our stuff set up, used the bathroom about 10 times and before you knew it we where getting our wetsuits on and heading to the water. Eeeekkkk was I really doing this. Thoughts if self doubt flooded my mind, can I really do this, am I going to be cold in my sleeveless wetsuit, can I swim strait, how am I going to swim with all these people, will my wetsuit feel like it's choking my like in practice.... Deep breath stop it I told myself you've trained hard now get through this swim and you'll be fine. The gun went off and we where all off. The swim went perfect, I couldn't have asked for anything more. I swam strait as an arrow, my wetsuit was not even a concern, I was not cold and it all felt so natural. I loved it! Before I knew I was exiting the was and getting my wetsuit pulled off me. Wow that was amazing!!
Swim time 35:24/ T1 time 6:29 ( way to long but we did have what felt like a mile run up to the trasition area, really only about .2 miles)
Bike- got all my bike gear on and fuel and was off. Wind was starting to pick up more we had bad wind 20-30 miles at times and was constant head or cross wind with an occational tailwind but this made the rolling course seem even harder. With 1411 feet of climbing over the 56 miles it wasn't a fairly hard course but the wind made it brutal at times. I took in fuel about every 40 mins, my sis made this sweet potato/apple purée with salt coconut butter and butter that I had as well as UCan and they worked splendid. I felt good on the bike until the last 6 miles and my quad began to cramp, I was worries I wouldn't be able to run on it. So I eased up on the bike and before I new it I was back to the small fields surrounding the lake and back once again. I did take about a 2 min potty break around mile 40, I could hold it any longer.
Bike time 3:11:17/ T2 2:17 getting faster:)
Run- now in all my training I have always been able to run strong off the bike and as I was not as fast as I would have liked I did pass the entire time, not once was I passed. They had chance the run course last minute so we had 2 out and backs with quad killing downhill on the way out and super fatiguing uphill on the way back, just under 900 feet of climbing. Plus the course ended up almost 14.5 miles which I knew it was going to be long when we got to the 1st turn around:/ that was upsetting. The fun thing about this course and the bike course is I got to see my sister a bunch of times, as we'll as cheer on people going the other way. My legs toon about a mile to ease into running and then I felt great, while not as fast as I wanted I felt good. My stomach was feeling iffy but okay at this point. Turn around #1 the up hills were brutal it was defiantly a speed zapper and I felt awful a my lung fatigue was unreal. Got back for the turn around and I was feeling mad that this course was going to my long. I was tired and didn't want to run over 13.1 miles. But I started to feel good again because it was downhill. Still passing people and cheering on the people going the other way. Last turn around I took my 2nd gel and it made me SICK! Oh my I was nauseous and starting to get light headed, it was warm out and I was worried. My body sort of shut down but I made it through and only walked a tiny bit. After climbing the last hill and looking across the dam to the finish line I wanted to cry, in was so over come with emotion and I knew I had my son, mom, and brother in law, and sister (who already finished) there at the finish line. I picked it up and put on a super smile and ran up the grass hill to the finish. IT WAS AWESOME!! 6:10:57 was my final time and I was 9th overall in the women's and 2nd in my AG. I wanted to come in under 6 but with the wind and long run course this was good.
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