So I finished it. Without crawling! It took 6 hours, 47 minutes, and 33 seconds. Which was longer than it took me last year when I was all hypothyroid. But I guess there's the mitigating factor this year of being unable to train on my sprained ankles, as well as being in the process of healing (or I guess setting back the healing of) my sprained ankles during the race. Also, I went rock climbing the day before, and I like this excuse the best because it makes me seem badass.
And at least I did feel much better during this race than last year.
Swim 51:53
I'm a terrible swimmer. I'm even worse when I'm refusing to kick in order to save my ankles for the run (imagine that!) I went with my old standby of starting way off to the back and side. Unfortunately, I ended up next to a (faster) swimmer who couldn't sight at all who kept crossing in front of me. I did briefly entertain drowning this person the 7th time she crossed my line, but figured that would get me disqualified.
T1
It took me forever to get my ankle braces on because it HURT! All in all it took me about 8 minutes, but I never really cared much about my transition times. I mean...sure, I could strive to be the fastest stripper ever, but why?
It was a little disheartening being one of the last three bikes out of the transition area, but being in the 3rd to last wave, and being the slowest swimmer in the history of mankind, it was expected.
Bike 3:00:58
I really enjoyed the bike.
At first I felt like I was really far behind. It felt like everyone was already on their 2nd lap when I was one my first. I was a bit worried I'd be the only one left on the course. And that the dreaded sag wagon would come up and tell me what a failure I was.
But then I hit lap two and realized that I wasn't alone and felt like less of a failure. I did hit a wall at about mile 50 and ended up pulling back a little to recover, but 18.53mph for 56 miles isn't bad for me.
Run 02:41:50
Okay, so I went into this with a secret hope that I was going to be miraculously cured and be able to totally kick ass on the run, all the while knowing I was really going to suck. But then the 96 degree heat and my general lameness took my delusions and stomped them into the ground.
Having only been given the go-ahead to resume running by my physical therapist 2 weeks ago, I ended up walking the aid stations and a few hills between, running more than I thought I could.
I didn't have too hard of a time staying cool, thanks to all the ice I dumped down my top at every aid station and the sponge I kept in my visor. I sounded like a martini shaker with every step, but at least I felt okay.
I spent most of my time staring at the ground so I wouldn't sprain either ankle again, which made for an incredibly boring run, but oh well.
Afterparty
So when I finally got to the food tent and found they had run out of food, I nearly had a complete meltdown. This seems to be a theme for all my races. I should probably start baking cookies or something on the dashboard of my car during all my races so I can stop devolving into a raging bitch after every race.
