I was really excited when I signed up for this race. The area is flat as a pancake, the water is warm and fairly smooth, I figured I could really push myself and hit some goals with this race.

And then it just happened to be this weekend, during this "summer" here in the northeast (there was this splotch of blue and a big bright circle in the sky for about 5 minutes Saturday afternoon, anybody know what that was? UFO maybe?). I pretty much gave up on being able to really push hard a week ago. I didn't even wear a watch.

That morning, the alarm goes off and I get ready and it wasn't raining. Huzzah! My fiance and I drive the 8 miles from the hotel to the race location and guess what starts up on the way... a nice light drizzle and a decent breeze. Fantastic. I wasn't planning on wearing my wetsuit for this race, but it was a good thing I brought it anyway since the bay we were going to be swimming in got a bit more chop to it than I was expecting.

Put on the wetsuit and tried my best to cover my running shoes so they can at least start out dry, and off we go to the starting line while the wind and rain start to pick up. The water was pretty nice so my guess was right that I wouldn't have needed the wetsuit, but I was glad to have it just for the mental boost; never did get to do a race without a lake swim yet so I didn't really know what to expect with choppy water. Off we go and it's not too bad at first. Then I noticed the smell of the water, and then the taste. Mmmmm gotta love a mouthful of gasoline in the morning. BLECH!! Breathing became an issue as I kept getting swells in my face every other time I took a breath and decided to keep it to one side. Must've had some motivation to get out of the water since this was the first time I didn't get passed by half of the following wave.

Out of the water and through the parking lot, they set up some kiddie pools to wash the sand off your feet. Well, I'm not going to get any drier so splash splash and the grit between my toes is gone. The wetsuit came off faster than ever but my swim cap got stuck! Maybe I was just a little screwed up in the head for a minute, but the darn thing was vacuum sealed on! My fiance was laughing her @$$ off on the side of transition. SHHHHRRRLUCK! and it finally comes off, sunglasses (ha!), helmet, socks and shoes go on (yes, socks, I haven't trained without them) and out I go on the bike.

First lap included a loop around a little island in the bay and it was nice enough. Managed a decent pace and just watched the turns so I didn't slide out. Off the island and onto the main road I realized I was really moving. 21 mph? Really? Wow. I slightly missed the turn around point because it looked like every other hole in the center medians and the volunteer was standing in front of the sign. Nice. So around I go and I realized why I was moving so fast even though I wasn't pushing that hard. While out on the island the mild wind turned into a hard one that we were now riding right into. Greeaaaaat. Still held on pretty good and even passed a few people, I was really looking forward to the turn around though. Back around and weeeeee!!!! Holding 22 mph and still not pushing all that hard. So nice :-) Two more laps of this and by the last lap the wind was howling and the rain was driving.

T2 was fun and I ended up knocking someone else's bike over, so it took some extra time putting it back and making sure I didn't screw anything else up. My running shoes did manage to stay dry in my bag so that was nice, even though everything else was drenched. Of course as soon as you crossed the timing mat out of transition there was a giant unavoidable puddle, so bye-bye small comfort. The run course was one lap of the bike course sans-island and a guy I was running next to noticed the same thing I did that we didn't on the bike: bacon! The local moose lodge was having some kind of breakfast and the smell of bacon was overwhelming. More motivation to finish 'cuz now I'm hungry!

A couple miles later and right before the finish I'm winded. Right now? Come on. I walk it out and turn it back on to squish my was through grass to the finish line. Amazingly enough I came in only about 2 minutes over my goal time for the race (when I originally had one)! By now I think I'm actually more wet than when I was in the bay and my fiance is soaked even though she had an umbrella so we take off for the hotel. She got some good photos in there so maybe I'll post a few.

My goals for the race were a 2:20/100m for the swim, 19 MPH on the bike, and better than 10:00/mile on the run. Ended up with 2:22/100m, 18.27 MPH, and 9:19/mile so I was pretty happy given the circumstances.

And sure enough, after we got back to the hotel, showered, changed and walked out to the car to head to breakfast the rain and wind had stopped. Mother nature has some sense of humor ;-)