Whew. I am wasted. What an experience.

As expected, I did not sleep well last night. Actually had a dream that the race was starting and my front tire was not on my bike. Very restless night and 5:30 came early. The kids were all troopers and came to support me, and Dave returned early from his 50-miler last week to be there. K&B also came and cheered me on - I am a lucky person.

The swim was tough. And I consider myself a fairly strong swimmer. They started the race in waves - I was in the third leg, following the elites and the age group just under me. The group right before me was in orange caps and my personal goal was to pass up as many of them as possible, even though they left 2 minutes ahead of me. An open water swim is a different animal than the pool swims I did to train. You get kicked and bumped into a lot and it's hard to stay on course. You don't want to waste a singe stroke. At one point, I passed a buoy on the wrong side, and had to swim back around it the right way to avoid the risk of disqualification. I was so relieved to see the beach. And I passed plenty of orange caps, so I was happy. I think I came in about 12th for my age division on the swim (out of 74).

The transition to bike wasn't too difficult. But my transition times were not the best. I attribute that to it being my first time and not really knowing what I was doing. The ride was flat, a bit windy, and felt good. I think I got passed by about 6 or 7 people. I got passed by some ladies in the Athena and Clydesdale divisions - they can haul - but I did plenty of passing myself - at least 15 or so bikers.

The transition to the run was the toughest. Yes, Peter, you were right. My legs were tight from the ride and felt like lead. It really felt like they weren't my legs. It took me a good mile or so to start feeling normal. And it was quite possibly the longest 5K I've ever done - I was so tired. But I was so inspired by all these women out there - all shapes, sizes, ages - doing this really hard thing. I don't know - that kind of sight really moves me.

Overall, I feel really good about the experience. I'm hurting now, but I know in a few days, I'll likely be signing up for some new challenge. Mid-life crisis? Maybe. I don't care.

Some pics and video attached...
gallery.me.com/taysaac#100242

And if you're into numbers...
Overall time: 1:33:37
Overall place: 82/359
Division place: 21/74
Swim time = 16:25 (60/381)
Bike time = 43:27 (149/377)
Run time = 26:13 (61/376)

Adina