C'est Fini!! (It is done)

Hard to believe that 15 or so months after deciding I wanted to complete this race, it's over :)

Somehow I was talked into the idea of camping the night before. We had to drive down friday night anyways to check in, and this way we'd already be there saturday morning. Sounded good ;) This tripled prep/packing. Thanks R and C for lending us camping gear! Of course due to quality planning we didn't get on the road til 5 on friday, complete with two bikes and canoe on board. (pic soon) (So glad I got those long bars for my Yakima ;)) By the time we checked in, unloaded the canoe, and set up the tent we were starting the fire and cooking in the dark :)

The camp site was actually pretty sweet. Right on the river. Picnic Table, Fire Ring, Lantern Hook (note to self, buy lantern). 25 cub scouts at the nieghboring sites :) Cooking spaghetti on the camp stove and clean-up was actually quite easy. Then J and I tried KK Smores. (Stuff the hole in a KK donut with a marshmellow, skewer and toast, let glaze sizzle, top with chocolate and let cool a bit) Yummy!

We made it to bed around 10 and set the alarm for 6. (Had to be at the race check in at 7:45) Of course I didn't sleep great. Tossed and turned some. Looked at the clock at 1.. ugg! I guess I finally got some sleep cause I had another crazy dream... it was pretty long and I don't remember all the details. I do remember my bike was messed up. The rim was bent and all the spokes were broken. On top of that it was the realization I only had one week til the race and would have to take the bike into East Coasters to get fixed. (I'm not an EC fan, in fact just last week was reminded how much I don't like them :)) Then my alarm went off and I woke up :)

Morning consisted of making coffee and oatmeal, rolling sleeping bags/mats, taking down the tent, packing up everything at the site. My goal was to be at the car by 7 filling water bottles/blatters, changing clothes and head over to the canoes by 7:25 or so... well yeah... didn't quite work that way. Made it to the car by 7:15.. started freaking out more and more as I watched the minutes tick by and realized how unready we were. ACK!! Very intense!! Made it over to the canoes by 7:45... put our food in them, shoes on, got the bikes off the car... biked over to the start line and made it just in time to check in and start. So much adenaline I didn't have time to worry about the race :)

And we're off :) J and I had no problem starting at the back of the pack. We set into a nice spinnin pace of about 15 mph. Passed our first guy.. he was prob 60 years old. About 3 miles in we came up on another guy and rode with him for a couple miles. Turns out he's got a blocked artery and his doctor said he could do the race as long as he kept his heart rate below a certain number. We passed two guys with flats tires. Kinda like beating a 5 year old at soccer.. not very fulfilling :) We did end up passing a handful of folks during the last 25 miles. We spent lots of time chatting and joking. It was nice to have the course marked every 5 miles and mentally know how much further. It did start to seem like forever but really wasn't bad. We must have seen 7 people with flat tires and I'm soooo thankful we didn't have to deal with that. You realize while you're racing that you're at the mercy of the trail and you have no control or power over getting a flat... and just pray it doesn't happen to you! The bike portion was an out and back.. so the leaders started passing us around mile 16... in packs! Apparently drafting isn't illegal during this race!! Good to know :) So we practice riding in a pack this year so we can draft next year! We finished the 40 miles in 2:45. The race support was awesome! At about mile 35 they start radioing ahead so your canoe is in the water and ready to go. A volunteer takes your bike and helmet for you. She even followed me to the water to take my bikes shoes! This was also my first pee stop :)

Canoeing down the river was beautiful. Some of the leaves had started to change colors. The water was pretty low so there were many more rapids then I remembered last time we were there. Thank goodness I'd practiced at least once and was less scared of the rapids!! The biggest challenge was reading the rocks and avoiding getting hung up on them. Some were sticking out and easy to see, some you could tell by the flow of the water, others seem to goose you out of the middle of no where. I got spun in a couple of rapids, pretty much freakin out when I had to go over them backwards!! Even did a full 360 in one of them :) Ok so it was slow motion cause that included a couple minutes of trying to figure out how to get out of the sideways position my canoe got lodged in! Unfortuantley we had no way of knowing how far we'd been and how far we had left. J was wearing a watch but we avoided knowing how long we'd been out there. We passed under a bridge which we thought was close to the end.. apparently not. About an hour later we finally saw the Allisonia boat launch and J must have turned on his engine, cause he took off! This section definitly seemed to take forever, it was also about 2:45. We passed 3 or 4 people? (2 of which pass us back on the run!) My source pac that was filled with Gatorade Endurance mix lasted through the entire bike/canoe, it was nice to be able to drink without slowing down.

The transition to the run was a little slower. I took my time changing shoes, putting my hair up, getting my fuel belt on, changed into my skirt, and ate a luna bar. My arse was in pain from sitting on the cooler for 3 hours (even though I'd left my padded shorts on!). We had to run one block to the left around a cone before turning around and heading back to Foster Falls. Kinda funny. Running on the trail was nice. The outside of my calves were instantly burning from having to stablize my ankles on the uneven ground. The hip/knee/foot thing started to be an issue. Couldn't feel my foot at all during miles 4 and 5. They had water/powerade stops about every 2 miles which was really nice. I felt decent during the run but definitly tired. We took a short (30 sec - 1 min) stop at every mile (after 5) to grab water from the air station, down a gel, or just catch my breath some. I didn't have to use the restroom at the transition, but right when I started running I regretted it. And the restroom wasn't til 7.2!!! My shins didn't bother me at all and my ailments settled down. I felt better during this run then I did at Va Beach. Even passed a couple folks during mile 12. The very end of the run had us run down this crazy hill... came up out of no where. Other then that the race was a gradual uphill the whole way.. but wasn't too bad.

It really felt like J and I were just out for a day at the park. Having fun, riding bikes, canoeing. Didn't feel like we were in a race. The bike and canoe physically were a breeze and were fun. The run, we've done it before, it's long and grueling but doable :) Overall it really wasn't that bad. I could see getting bored because it is so long, but luckily J and I planned to compete together, which made it a lot more fun. I know for sure I wouldn't have done as well in the run without him! Even if I was getting really cranky by the end and was pretty mean when he was being encouraging :)

The finish line wasn't quite as crowded as Va Beach but it was music to my ears to hear the cheers from our other friends who had finished before us and hung around to watch us finish. I think we came in around 8:30? I'll post the actually splits when they put them online. I was pretty darn spent. A park guy came over to tell me I placed in my age group. There were 3 women 18-29 that entered. Then they said I finished first. I was a bit confused cause I found out at the canoe transition one girl was ahead of me. So needless to say in the state I was in I got all choked up :) Reality the other girl in my age group got an overall award.. so I got the first place. Whatever :) I was excited!!! They took my picture.. not sure where it will be posted.

17 weeks of training really paid off. I finished under my goal times for each section. I feel like I ate/drank enough to stay energized for all 8+ hours. I'm really happy to have completed this goal I set for myself!! I'm looking forward to more triathons in my future and maybe even doing this one again!

Thanks Joel for being crazy and doing this with me! I had a blast!

Congrats also to Rocky (I think he finished 2nd in his age group? maybe 3rd) and Candance, Jess, Leslie, and Michelle who finshed 2nd among the ladies teams!