Tri-Utah Echo Triathlon 2011 - I.AM.AN.OLYMPIAN.DISTANCE.TRIATHLETE!

Or you can call it HALF of a half IRONman.

Oh yeah - not gonna lie, still riding high on endorphins.  I've decided endorphines are nature's crack.  Serio.

I've done Tri's before but always the sprint distance.  Women of Steele 2009; Jordanelle 2009; South Country Tri 2010; Jordanelle 2010; Women of Steele 2011.  All sprint distances.  All great tri's.  All lot's of fun.

Call me crazy (I heard that), but I wanted to step it up a notch this season.  I have more than proven I can do the short, sprint distance.  I wanted to prove to myself I could do DOUBLE the distance which is the Olympic.  1500 meters in the open water; 26 miles on the bike and ending with a 10k run.  I had wanted to do Jordanelle's version, but since it's the same weekend as a different event on the calendar, I opted to try Echo reservoir.

I got up BEFORE the butt crack of dawn (4:40am) and since my bike was always loaded in the back of the Pathfinder, I grabbed my pre-packed bag, purse, keys, and headed out the door.  Since I had slept terrible the night before, I stopped at the Sev for my pre-race high performance breakfast.  A low-carb Monster, Maple bar doughnut and a bag of mixed nuts.  Perfect combination!

I watched the sun rise as I headed east up Parley's canyon to the little town of Coalville. 

Found a parking spot, unloaded my bike, grabbed my bag and headed to the race start and transition area.  I quickly discovered that I forgot my water bottles in the freezer.  Two for my bike and then my running hand held one.  CRAP!

I got body marked, found my transition spot and got all my gear laid out and ready to go.

I pulled on my wet suit, called Splenda to ask him to grab my water bottles and then headed for the lines at the porta potties.

As I stood there, I looked out at the lake and reviewed in my head my three simple goals. 
Don't die in the water
Don't get pulled and DQ'd from the water.
Finish
Don't be last

Pretty simple goals really.  But looking at the water and noticing how cold it appeared, my first two now seemed highly likely.  I did some self talk, took care of business, grabbed my cap and goggles and made my way to the beach start area of the swim portion.  Others were getting in the water to warm up and my first thought when I stepped in was that it wasn't nearly as cold as I had expected.  Perhaps, this was going to be okay.

I submerged myself, and toddled around for awhile warming up and then reviewed in my head my strategy for the swim.  Slow and  steady.  Hold back to the end of the pack so that I don't waste energy treading water waiting for the horn.

Soon enough the horn sounded and the swim began!  The process inside my head -
"Okay, here we go, this isn't so bad.  Crap there are a lot of bodies.  Keep with the bubbles so that you don't go off course like you did last time.  Swimming, swimming, swimming....... hey, it's kind a flat around here, CRAP!  I am WAY off course.  Like 25 yards off!  Dammit.  Swim back and check more often you loser.  Swimming, swimming, swimming...... don't swallow any water.  You remember what Chief told you.  Disgusting.  Hey, is this a cigarette butt I am dodging?  Sheesh it is!  Swimming, swimming, swimming.  Concentrate on stroke.  Remember what Stewy and Tawny taught you.  Gosh that buoy is sooooooooo far away.  Gosh now we headed straight in the sun!  I can't see the buoy very easily.   So sorry Lady, didn't mean to swim on top of you.  HEY!  Sneering at me while I apologize completely invalidates the apology.  It never happened.  I hope you choke on lake water.   *Choking*....breathing all off - dammit!  I swallowed some water!  I want to throw up.  Swimming, swimming, swimming...... FINALLY - time to do it the second round.  GOSH!  I'm bored of this.  Swimming, swimming, swimming......lookie I am rounding the first buoy.  This means I am almost done.  Well, not really, but I am getting closer.  GOSH!  THE SUN!! I can't see the next buoy very well.  GAH!  I'm off course again!  Not too far, get back in line.  At least I'm not alone in the water and not last.  This is good.    Rounding second buoy.   Where is everyone?  I don't remember getting passed.  Well, I am not gonna stop and look to see if anyone's behind me.  I just need to finish this.  There it is...there's the end.......it's HERE!  I can't touch bottom, keep swimming.......try again, nope - keep swimming.  Try again.  THERE!  I can touch!  I actually did it!  GOSH!!!!!"

I turned around but by now I was in the trees and all the Sprint swimmers were lining up.  I said to them as I plodded past them to shore, "Please tell me there are more blue caps in the water"  "Sure, sure", several of them said.  I replied, "Thanks for making me feel better about myself"  And the one man said, "No really, there are like  6 or 7 still out there"

Okay, YES!!!!!  I showed YOU Echo reservoir!  I won't repeat what I said to another gentleman as he cheered me up the ramp and to the transition area.  I said it last year at Jordanelle.  I don't need to brag about saying it again.

I raced to the transition area and by now was feeling my bladder FULL.  I even thought to myself, shoulda just peed in the lake.  But as I was peeling off my wetsuit, I was grabbing some water and telling myself that I would take the extra few minutes and hit the porta-potties as I headed out with the bike.    Making this transition was a little harder since I was trying to get out of my wetsuit, dry off, get my clothes on, shoes on, helmet and gloves on and NOT PEE MY PANTS.  Tricky.  I'm pretty tricky.  I grabbed my bike and ran for the OUT area, sadly, it didn't go NEAR the porta potties.  I had no choice but to wait.  Once I got cycling, I figured I would be okay. 

I quickly downed a Hammer gel and wished like crap I had water.  Usually I carry two on the bike and use this portion to fuel, hydrate and make up some time.  Fueling happened, but no hydrating and no catching up time.  The first 6 or 7 miles of the course was the same place I ran in Ragnar 2010.  My nighttime/second run.  It was beautiful then by moonlight and beautiful now with the sun high in the sky.  Beautiful course.  The bike portion was pretty uneventful.  I played leap frog with an older gentleman a couple of times, but because I was at the back of the pack, it was pretty lonely.  No music, no people, just riding.  It was an out and back, so it was easy to gauge where in the race I actually was.  I knew my position wasn't good, but I kept reminding myself of my 4 main goals.  Two had been accomplished already.  I pushed as hard as I could, but the reality was my dehydrated muscles were rebelling.  They weren't functioning like I know they can.  They wanted a drink.  My bladder wanted to be emptied. 

As I was approaching 3 miles from the turnaround, a frustrating thing came into sight.   Some clarification first.  This is a USAT sanctioned Tri and they are extremely specific with the rules.  I love rules and I will make sure that I follow every single one of them.  I don't want to be DQ'd because I didn't obey the rules.  One of the biggest rules in the bike portion is NO DRAFTNG.  NO IPODS OR MUSIC.  Very clear about this.  So what do I see coming the other direction?  A huge draft line.  8 -10 people, with the last one blaring music from an onboard ipod player.  REALLY?!?!  I was seething. Here old man and I were leapfrogging and changing our paces to stay out of the draft zones as we were passing one another, and here was  a whole group blatantly doing it.  At the start of the race, the reviewed the rules, so it wasn't a matter of they didn't know them, they were CHOOSING not to follow them.  And the kicker?  The top finishers qualify to go to Nationals in Vermont and represent Utah.   I hope if any of those people qualified, and go, that they can feel good going as CHEATERS!! (If they weren't all hunched over hiding their bib numbers, I would have reported the ones I could have seen and remembered)

I ate another Hammer gel on the turn around and with 10 miles left, called Splenda to let him know and to tell him where to meet me so that I could give him my camera and he could give me my water bottles.  Those last 10 miles were hard.  I was so thirsty, my muscles were screaming for water, and my bladder was extremely unhappy that it was forced to carry the extra weight and be held in for proper body mechanics.

I finally reached the transition area and spotted Chloee and Splenda.  I grabbed some water and guzzled it as fast as I could.  Then grabbed my hand held water bottle.  I made the transition pretty quick, and off I went.  This time the run DID go out by the potties so I made a quick detour and took the 2 minutes to make my bladder like me again.

By the time I hit the trail, my legs were working albeit a little slower than I had hoped, and gauging by how many bikes were left in the transition area, I knew I was one of the last people to finish.   

I realized that perhaps my one goal of not being last might not get realized.  I decided that since I was not going to go home with any formal medal or award, I was going to be the BIGGEST cheerleader!  From that moment on, every single person I passed, every volunteer I saw, I thanked them, told them good job, gave encouragement, whatever seemed appropriate. 

The course was another out and back and again, it gave me a sense of where I was in the pack, but now we had Sprint runners with us too.  It was hot, dusty and hard.  Even though it was fairly flat, it was on packed dirt (good), but uneven in many places (not good).  I could feel my ankles and shins kicking in to help stabilize my feet. By the turnaround, I was dumping cold water on my head, drinking about every 2 minutes and thinking about the massage that I knew I was going to get later.  It helped me to ignore the shins and ankles, because I knew Cass would work them all out.

As I neared the 4 miles mark, the medics came by on their bikes. I thanked them for their service and we began chatting.  It helped a mile go by faster.  It was awfully lonely by now.  I finally rounded the bend and could see the balloon finish line. 

In my head, I was ecstatic!  I did this!  I really, really did it!  That euphoria gave me enough to sprint the last half mile in and as I crossed the line, I frantically looked for the clock.  No where to be found.  As the volunteer was removing my timing chip, I asked where it was and was told that they had already taken it down.  SERIO?  I'm THAT slow that they have started to dismantle everything?  I found a cop standing nearby, asked the time and did the calculations.  3 hours and about 40 minutes or so. 
I didn't even care.  I was just so happy that I actually had done it!

I found Splenda and Chloee and grabbed some water and some food.  We watched the remaining few people come in and the awards ceremony get underway.  I checked the results table and in my age group 5 women had already come in and I obvio wasn't one of them.  It was getting hot now, so I grabbed all my crap and we caught the shuttle back to our cars.

Euphoria
Ecstasy
Pride
Exhilaration
Happiness
All appropriate adjectives to describe how I felt.  This was big for me.  Maybe not for others, but for me it was big.

On the way home I had lots of time to think about it all and the lessons learned.

Rules are good.  I love rules.  I love to follow them and I get ticked when others don't.  I like competition to be fair.

I can do hard things.  I can do things with my body that I don't give myself credit for doing.

I will never tease Ana again about packing for an event.  Not only did I forget all THREE of my water bottles but also my sunglasses.  Which was fine except for the bike portion.  My eyes are KILLING me right now

Humility.  You know for all intents and purposes, I should have died in February 2008 (I discuss it slightly here).
But I didn't. I am alive and in better health than I have been in years.  Although lately that seems debatable since there seems to be one strange thing after another, but overall, I am doing things I never dreamed of doing before.  The fact that I am alive and competing in all kinds of different races just makes me absolutely grateful.  Beyond Grateful.  Not sure I have the right word(s).    So today, when I finished something that was new, hard, and never before done by me, I was awed and humbled to be here to do it.  I will never take for granted the desire, and drive I have for these kinds of things.  Or the fact that I wake up every morning alive and able to enjoy another day.

Gratitude.  Splenda wasn't able to get up there for the start so hence the lack of picture, but darn if he and Chloee aren't at my every finish line.  I am so thankful for that.  Even when it's hot and boring waiting for me to come in.  They wait.  They play.  They wait some more.  For me.  I love them for it!

So final stats:

Total time:  3:33:42

Swim: 42:07

T1:  6:25

Bike: 1:35:23

T2:  1:09

Run: (not posted but if you do the math): 1:03:37 (but I don't claim to do math well - feel free to correct me)

Out of 6 women in my division - I took 6th place. 

Out of 72 women who finished the Olympic distance, I was 67th

Out of 197 overall competitors in the Olympic distance I was 190

Dead last?  Okay FINE - in my age group.....but overall - no so my goal was achieved.


So now what?   Looking to do a Half Ironman next season.  That is DOUBLE the distances that I did today.  Can I do it?  Yeah, I think so.

Tri-Utah Jordanelle 2009 - Chapter 5 - Lessons Learned

How is a Tri like life? Let me count the ways.....Insights from an exhausted, but inspired triathlete.

1. Encouragement - While calmly treading water and waiting for the horn to sound, all the ladies were talking to each other. At one point behind me, someone hollered out, "Good luck everyone! See you at the finish line!" Several calls of Good Luck went back her direction and then around to each other. I thought of that later in the day. I thought about the pre-existence. Did we call out "Good luck! See you at the finish!"? Did we send each other off to this big bad world with smiles, hugs, high fives, and words of encouragement? I like to think so. And if we did, what happened? Too many times we are quick to be critical and disparaging in our comments. Why didn't you? How come your aren't? You really should... You really shouldn't......Instead, of cheering each other on, oftentimes we find ourselves bashing, judging, criticizing and outright holding each other back. We gotta get out of that mode friends. We have to get back to cheering each other on and offering a whole lot more encouragement.

2. Support - In the swim portion, there were many support people. Lot's of Mr.Canoe's I call them. Just staying close by in case you needed them, but they were not allowed to help in any fashion. A swimmer had to complete the swim unaided or face a penalty or disqualification. Isn't life like that? We are here to do this journey for ourselves. No one can do it for us. However, we have lot's of resources at hand. People close by that we can call for assistance. Even if it's just to hold on for a second while I catch my breath. And then we can keep going on our personal journey's.

3. Seeing to the needs of others above our own - Splenda reported to me that in an earlier wave in the lake, a gentleman came ashore very pale, shaky and in obvious distress. Two fellow swimmers STOPPED to assist him. Remember this was a race. They gave up their precious moments in their times to make sure this man was okay. Once the EMT's reached him, they quickly hurried on. I witnessed a biker stop to help a woman with a flat. Who knows how many minutes that cost him. But I am inspired by their acts of unselfishness. They saw the bigger picture. They put themselves aside to care for the needs of another.

4. You never know what's around the corner - During the run portion, I mentioned hills. Well, one particular hill was not to be seen until you turned a corner and then there it was! No time to look ahead, see it coming and step up your game to tackle it. Isn't life like that? We just never know what is around the corner. We have to stay ready for anything. Both physically, mentally and spiritually. Some "hills" in life, we get the luxury of a glimpse or some sort of knowledge that it's coming, but others hit us blindly and hit us hard. We gotta stay on our toes and be ready.

5. A well balanced life - In a Tri, there are three portions. The swim, the bike and the run. One has to be prepared for all three. A participant HAS to train for all three. Life certainly is a balancing act. We need to keep all aspects trained and ready. Our physical selves, our mental selves and most importantly, our spiritual selves. A triathlon isn't a triathlon without all three portions. Our lives are more complete when we learn to balance our three selves.

6. Extra baggage can drag us hold us back - Okay, little TMI here, but when I started the run, I needed to poop. That just added to my already difficult situation with having jello for legs, and physically nothing left in me. Having that extra (I'm sure 2 lbs) of crap in my gut really did affect me. It's the same in our lives. If we have unrepented sins, hate, grudges, all those things will hold us back in our progression. Sure we might move forward but certainly not at a pace or gait that we are capable of. We need to unload that baggage so that we can our optimum selves.

7. Too often we are quick to judge others and ourselves unfairly - During the waiting period for the swim, Splenda and I both noticed a woman who seemed out of place. She was quite large, and instead of a wetsuit like 99% of the other participants, she was in a sports bra and swim bottoms. Though neither of us said anything to the other at the time, we both had the same thought "She seems ill prepared." Well guess what? She KILLED the swim. She did it, came out of the water as one of the first ones and seemed to be just fine. No wobbling around for her! We gotta stop the quick judgements of each other. You know, those judgements where we find others lacking?

By the same token, what about ourselves? Just as I was finishing the bike portion, I heard "on your left" so I knew I was getting passed. I glanced at the passer, and noticed that on his leg was 62 (age) and an O for Olympic distance. I.was.deflated. Not only was I getting passed, but by a 62 YEAR OLD MAN WHO JUST BIKED TWICE THE DISTANCE!!!! I came into the transition area and passed his station. I made the comment, "Wow, I can't believe I just got passed by a 62 year old dude! Man you rock, and I clearly suck!" He looked up at me, smiled and said, "Don't worry about it honey, I got DQ'd from the swim." Wha?? He didn't finish the swim? But you know what? I did. How's about we cut ourselves some slack once in awhile instead of the constant self destructive talk that we as women especially like to do?

There are lessons to be learned. Every day. All around us. We just have to look. We have to be in tune with our own personal spiritual self to learn just the lessons that we individually need. For me, I have come to realize that the adrenaline rush, the people I meet and the lessons I learn while competing in some event or another is the way I gain truth. Yes, I gain it as well with my organized religion, but I also think that life is full of opportunities to grow, gain knowledge, and become better people, if we will step and and take them.

PS -
My final stats (Sprint Division):
Total time: 2:05:27.59
Swim time: 32:04.187
T1 time: 5:01.884
Bike time: 54:24.412
T2 time: 1:54.341
Run time: 32:02.772
Roadkills: 26
26th out of 29 in my age division
172 out of 192 overall women
369 out of 401 overall participants (not counting DNF and DNS)
44 people either Did Not Finish or Did Not Show

Was it my best showing ever? Hardly. BUT, the lessons I learned today, will be with me forever, and really, that's what counts right? I can live with this.

Tri-Utah Jordanelle 2009 - Chapter 3 - I'm supposed to RUN?

I am now heading into my final stage of the tri, which is the run. Since I am only doing the sprint distance, the run is a 5k. No biggie right? My strongest event right? NOT.TODAY!

I had nothing left. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Goose Egg. I was beyond tired. Beyond exhausted. I really didn't know how I was going to do this. And if you've ever done cycle to a run transition, it takes a bit to get "your legs" anyway. Right now, I couldn't see it ever happening.

Not long into it, I had to walk. I couldn't even trot! For the next two miles I did a combination we like to call "wogging". Walking/Jogging. The nice thing was though, I was not alone. Most folks around me now, were just as spent. I managed to pick up several road kills just in the times I was jogging.

We headed back out to the highway, but this time, turned right. OH.MY.GOSH. This is the same darn hill I ran in Ragnar! Flashbacks came flying at me.....and they weren't pretty.

We stayed on the highway, and I tried to stay mentally in the game until we turned off onto trail. We weaved our way around the campground. HILLS my friends, HILLS!!!!

By now, it was getting hot, and so the water stations saved my bacon. Each time I could drink cold water, I felt a boost and could run a little harder and a little longer before I had to walk again.

I finally saw the sign that told us that there was just shortly over a mile left. I decided I was going to run the whole thing. No walking this last mile. We turned onto a boardwalk that included sharp turns. Luckily, I wasn't having any knee pain so the turns were welcome in that it kept me focused on the route.

I finally turn onto pavement and see the crowd up ahead. There's Splenda!! At my every finish line, that man is! I pick up as much as I possibly can with every ounce of energy left in my body and finally crossed that blessed finish line.


After grabbing some light nourishment, making phone calls, finding some shade and stretching, we headed back to the transition area, gathered my gear and bike, and then waited in the freaking long line for the shuttle bus back to the parking area.




The ride home was my chance to review the experience and let all the lessons sink in.......

Tri-Utah Jordanelle 2009 - Chapter 2 - The bike adventure

Once I got to the area, where I was told to mount my bike, I quickly noted a few things. One, my legs were jello. Two, there was someone behind me after all!


You can see, I am totally stressed. My body is shaking so badly, I can't even get my foot secured in the toe cage! Once I finally got going, I felt a little better and quickly got into a quick groove. I immediately picked up a couple of roadkills, and that gave me some extra punch.

I turned onto the highway, and thought I would like to finish up those shot bloks and get another drink. While maneuvering around to do this, I knocked my computer and off it went! Flying onto the road. CAAAARRRRAAAAPPPP!!!

For a nanosecond, I considered leaving it. But the smarter side took over. I pulled off, laid my bike down, and trotted back to retrieve it. Rather than lose more time trying to figure out how to get it back on, I tossed it into my saddle bag and got moving again.

This part of the highway I was familiar with. I ran it during Ragnar, but doing the opposite direction. I knew there was a HUGE hill going into the town of Francis and I wasn't sure if we were going to head up it or not. I was praying for NOT.

I managed to get a drink, pick my pace back up and garner another road kill. They turned us off right at the bottom of the hill and I said a LOUD thank you to the volunteers who pointed me that way! : )

The route then became a quiet two laned road through the countryside that I am sure was pretty if I wasn't concentrating so hard. I now decided to attempt getting the shot bloks again. I struggle with the package several times, when all of a sudden, they fly out of my hands and onto the road. CAAAAAARRRRRAAAAPPPP!!

This time? No way in Hades am I stopping for them. Nope. Don't need them that bad. I swig more water and keep pushing. I was able to make up some time, and get more road kills when the route took a sharp turn and headed up a pretty good sized hill. I quickly jumped out of the big ring and shifted to my granniest granny gear. My legs felt like cement.

Up ahead I see a gal pulled off with a flat tire. A dude has stopped to help her. I ask if all's well as I go by, but I really didn't have any intention of stopping. She had help, I knew if I stopped, I wouldn't get started again.

We pull onto a main road, and I look around. I RECOGNIZE THIS!! We did this in Ragnar. That means, the huge hill? We get to go DOWN it! I pick up as much speed as I can, and at the top, tucked in and flew! A couple more roadkills later, I hit the flat at the bottom and feel exhilarated! Just what I needed! Last mile and a half in and while I am still winded, heart rate sky high, legs complete jello, I am mentally feeling good.

I roll in, give Splenda a high five and make my way to my transition station.

I racked my bike, ditched my bike gloves, swapped my helmet for a baseball cap and headed out for the final portion, the 5k run......

Tri-Utah Jordanelle 2009 - Chapter I - I almost died.

This one has been on my calendar for months now. Looming. Like a dark cloud. On one hand I anxiously awaited and was excited. On the other, I was dreading it and worried about the unknown. I didn't sleep at all last night because I dreamt that I was late to the race and they wouldn't let me participate. In my dream I was terribly disappointed. Like a disappointment that felt painful. So I was stressed the minute I woke up.

Now, I've done a triathlon before. And admittedly, I am hooked. Just never an open water one. I trained a little bit more in the pool, secured a wet suit and prepared myself mentally for cold water.

This tri was held at Jordanelle in a small cove next to Rock Creek campground. Splenda and I got up early and headed east up the canyon. On the way up, I reviewed my goals.
1. Don't die.
2. Don't be last.
3. Finish in 2 hours or better - NOT counting transition time.
He dropped me off on the side of the highway, right next to the sign that said "No parking or drop off's". We are rebels. I rode my bike into the campground, hit the set up area, got body marked and waited to meet back up with Splenda.

I found my transition area marked with this card. I had forgotten I had even filled it out.

I racked my bike, laid out my stuff, made some small talk with the lady next to me, got my wet suit on, and then walked to the fence to talk with Splenda.

My wave to hit the water was the last one, so it gave me an opportunity to watch what was happening and get a little oriented. As my time neared, I headed down to the water, ventured in and got warmed up. It really wasn't that bad! Yes, it was cold, but once I started moving around, it felt great.

Did some swimming, treading water, etc. Felt good. Even got back out of the water, stretched my body and tried to quiet the butterflies that had steadily grown.

Finally, they announce our wave start. There aren't many of us. Females over the age of 40, all Athena's and all Relay participants. I doggy paddle to the start line (between two buoys) and calmly tread water with the other gals while they counted down. At last they sounded the horn and off we went.
Funny thing, the man you hear telling some lady to hurry up so they could go boating? Told her again during her run. She dumped her water on him as she passed. I think I love her.

I started a nice freestyle stoke, easy, not fast, calm and controlled. 5 minutes in, I am wiped. WIPED. What the crap??? I'm not even close! I also notice some others around me have stopped the crawl and are breaststroking or have flipped over on their backs and backstroking it. At least I am not alone.

I take a note from these women and for the rest of the entire time in the lake (750 meters total), I do some form of forward motion while trying to keep my head above water, being able to breathe, and keeping water out of my mouth and nose. It consisted mostly of a very modified back stroke. There were support guys in canoes all around, and I quickly noticed one by my side the entire time. He could see I was not doing well, and I was grateful that I could see him in my peripheral vision at all times.

I round buoy one and realize that I am in trouble. This is HARD. I don't know if it's the depth, the current, the cold, the waves, or a combination of all of them, but I was scared. I saw one lady hold onto a canoe and rest. I wanted to so badly, but I thought I would be given a penalty so I just kept going.

Every so often I would flip over, doggy paddle for a second to see where I was, and then roll over to my back again. Mr Canoe was right there, and had now begun to guide me. "More to your right." "More right...there you go". That saved me the precious energy it took to roll over and see where I was.

Just before I rounded buoy number three, I was pretty sure, I was done for. I really didn't think I could finish. But then once I rounded it and took a sneak peek, the distance seemed manageable, and I SO.DIDN'T.WANT.TO.QUIT! I wanted to finish this more than anything ever. I had no choice but to keep going.

By now, I have realized that I am alone. I don't see anyone else out there. I'm just surrounded by guys in canoe's guiding me. They offered so much encouragement, but at one point, I was having trouble keeping my head up and face clear and one of their oars sent a flood of water right in my mouth! I was pretty sure I was going to drown right there and then. I sputtered, coughed, and could tell now that I was completely in lung burn and would have the wheezers cough.

I FINALLY heard them say, "You're there!". I put my feet down and felt the mushy grass lake bottom with it's gnarled weeds. I flipped over, slowly stood up, looked back and begged someone to tell me that I wasn't the last one out of the water. I was assured no, but to be honest, I didn't see anyone else.

I attempted moving myself forward and I was wobbly, dizzy, and completely weak. I hobbled up the ramp and right next to me was a stretcher with EMT's. No one was on it and the thought crossed my mind, 'Did they think I was going to need it? Was that there for me, just in case?'. I looked over to Splenda to tell him how hard it was and then tried to run to my transition area. Tried - is the key word. Couldn't get my body to move!

I slogged over there, picked up my towel and started to BAWL! BAWL I tell you! Looked over at Splenda, buried my face in my towel and let it go. I'm not sure if it was the adrenaline, the exhaustion, the physical toll, I don't know, but I couldn't stop.

I let myself boob for what felt like a few minutes but in reality was only a few seconds. Then, realizing I am all alone in the transition area, the thought occurs, that I have some serious time to make up. I had set a goal for 30 minutes for the swim. It felt like an hour, so I was desperate to make up time.

I quickly stripped off the wetsuit (which I did NOT pee in BFF's TNT - thanks for loaning it), threw on my shorts and tank top, socks, shoes and gloves, helmet and unracked my bike. I grabbed a quick drink of water and gobbled a couple of shot bloks, keeping the package in my hand to finish once I got on the road and made my way out of the transition area and onto the bike route.........