Sorry it took so long to post this.. life is busy lately! Anyways, here goes...
Newton 8 and 24 hour Tri: .24 mile swim, 11.2 mile bike, 2.6 mile run (roughly 1/10 of an ironman) as many laps as you can complete in 8 or 24 hours.
Woke up: 5:30. Had to be there roughly 6:30 to set up, body marking and race meeting at 7, gun off at 8. Since me and Molly (teamate) were not doing the race solo, we had to have our Transition Area(TA) at our car, instead of at the normal TA that everyone thinks of. Since this race is so long, you have so much more gear, we had a tent set up for changing and relaxing, etc, so only solo's get to keep their stuff in the TA. On to the RR:
Up pretty easy, slept about 6 hours which is alot for me before a race, I usually don't sleep at all from nerves. Picked up Molly and headed out to Cherry Creek Rez. It was pretty cold which was suprising being that it was supposed to be 90 that day.

Set up and ate my usual pre-race meal: Oatmeal plain, banana, and 2 shot skim latte... gotta get my coffee. I was feeling ok in the am and then the usual stomach "issues" start. I'm at the port-o-potty at least 3 times before the race started. I'm thinking, well this is normal, so no biggie.

I was swimming first, so off we go. The water was COLD and I was not wearing a wetsuit, so it took my breath away. The first swim was a total clusterf--k, to say the least. I got hit at least 3-4 times. Oh well. Made it through and back up to TA in about 8 minutes, then passed off the wrist ankle timing chip to Molly (we each had our own ankle chips for our indiv times), and off she goes. I go back up to TA to get my shoes on and get ready for my first run. Molly gets back in about 36 minutes and I'm off running. I feel good, the run is fast out and back, only one small hill. I'm feeling good considering running is not my weakest. Not too hot out yet so I get back in about 22 minutes?

Then Molly is off to swim 2 laps and I get ready to bike my first. Bike was pretty fast and flat. CC Rez is an awful place to bike though since there are divets in the road every 10 feet or so.. so bumpy! I get back in about 36 minutes also. Molly's off to run, then I swam my 2nd. I was nervous to get back in the water after the first time of it being so awful but it was much better! Since everyone had spread out I didn't have to swim next to anyone and it was a pretty easy and fast 400. Then Molly biked again, then I ran again, then Molly ran, then I swam again, this 3rd swim was not as good being that it is later, around noon-? I think, and the boats were in full force and the water was getting really choppy (little did we know this was nothing compared to what was to come!) I remembered this from last year though, and knew that the water was going to get more and more choppy as the day went on. But I got through my 3rd and final swim and handed off to Molly to go bike again, and me run again (which we repeated again) Yes I ran 4 laps by this point and she had only run 2. Unfair! The 3rd run was ok but my knees were really starting to hurt and I tried to run on the side of the path with grass which was kind of difficult but it helped, same but more with the 4th run and I just kept telling myself this was my last run. By this point (2 pm or so) it was hot! 90 degrees at least. I was cramping. Oh and I forgot to mention that in between almost every leg, I had to have some more issues at the porto potty so by this time I was SO depleted. (sorry to get graphic) It was a serious issue though and I didn't know what to do about it! I had to keep eating a little bit, but it would just go right through me! So in the afternoon I only refueled with Gatorade and water cause I just couldn't stomach anything else.

After my 4th run I breathed a sigh of relief knowing I only had 2 bikes left, but being at it was almost 3pm at this point, I knew we wouldn't hit our target of completing 7 tris. Molly went to swim, I went to bike and it was SO WINDY! It was awful. Actually I felt really unsafe being in Aero position so I kept coming out cause I just didn't want to be blown over at that point. That bike took me forever! 45 minutes or so, ugh. I had been noticing Molly's bike times get increasing longer as the day went on so I knew it would be windy and much harder than it was in the morning. I get back and by this point it is 3:45 which would have been just enough time for Molly to do one more swim, but she said that had closed down the swim for about 10 minutes cause it was so windy and one of the buoy's fell over! So she said she would try it but if she felt unsafe she would get out. I said ok and waited in the TA for her to come back, which she did 5 minutes later, saying she did not feel strong enough to do one more swim. At that point, I didn't care. We were tired, had done our best and we crossed the real finish line!

We ended up getting 3rd in our category (8 hour, female, 2 person). I was pretty happy with it, although I did alot better last year, with my friend Lauren. But considering the weather, it was good. We completed 7 swims, 6 bikes, and 6 runs.

A really fun day. The race was definitely more organized this year and went much more smoothly. The Race director really got his stuff together and I imagine this race will only become better and more popular as time goes on.