I've never been more prepared. With well over 300 hours of training since January, when I reached Coeur d'Alene, I was ready race. For me, the race is the reward for all of my hard work. And it was rewarding! Obviously things went wrong... getting kicked in the face in the water, a positive split swim, slow out of T1, and wind on the bike, but those are the things you have to deal with in a race. The best part of the race was waiting patiently to drop the hammer on the run.

My plan was to set an 8:45 pace until I reached the halfway point. At that time, I would determine how much gas was left in the tank and determine how close I would be to the 11 hour mark. I'd been waiting for this moment all day and when I reached that point, I became very excited for two reasons:

- I had gas left in the tank.
- It was so close; I couldn't do the math in my head.

Granted, I have math issues that late in the day anyway but it was going to be really close. I tested my legs to see if I had any acceleration and I did. With that, I picked up the pace and headed for the turn around. On the way back into town, the excitement grew inside of me. Heading through the streets, the crowd cheered me on and I could hardly contain myself.

On the final turn, I could see the finish line banner at the far end of town. I looked down at my watch and I knew it would be close. I could hear Mike Reilly telling the crowd that I could be the last to cross the finish under 11 hours. The cheers from the crowd became deafening. I hit the chute and I started sprinting which excited the crowd even more. When I crossed the finish line, their cheers were so loud I couldn't even hear my name being called. With a 3:46 marathon, I crossed the finish at 10:59:44

It was a good day.