4x and counting...

The further I get from the race the better I feel about it.

I had no idea what my times were.  Honestly.  People asked me this morning and I said, "I think 14 hours."  It turns out that I had a somewhat respectable 13:25 and if my marathon was only off 10 minutes from last year and 20 minutes from by best time.

To start, I woke up yesterday morning feeling worse than I felt the night before.  My nose was completely stuffed and I had the startings of a cough.  Keith picked me up at 5:00 am and drove me down to the race where I went about getting my transistion bags set up before putting on my wetsuit and getting in the water at 6:55.

The cannon went off at 7:00.  I had problems immediately.  I couldn't catch my breath no matter how slow I went.  My nose was clear but I was coughing up a storm.  I ended up breast stroking/dog paddling for a long time.  Then right before I got to the halfway point I all of a sudden relaxed and found my stroke and got through the rest of it pretty well.

I felt pretty bad on the bike from the get go.  I couldn't really get comfortable in the saddle (I keep adjusting the tilt) and my back and hips would really cramp up when I dropped to the aero bars.  I fought through it on the first lap but I dd the second on the top of the bars.  The third lap went better but my left leg was giving me some problems as well.  I just took it slow and steady.  I was off last year's time by about 25 minutes so that's not too disappointing.

The run started pretty well.  I held the 10 min/mile pace for the 1st 8 mile lap and part of the second.  Then I noticed that I wasn't processing any food in my stomach.  I felt like I was going to throw up so I started walking.  I walked/ran the second lap and then kicked it back on and ran most of the third lap.  I never really found my rhythm and I felt terrible every time I ate or drank anything.  Still, it turned out not be a bad run at all.

I don't know if I mentioned it but as usual I went to get a new pair of shoes a couple weeks ago.  What is wierd is that they told me that I was wearing the wrong size shoe so I moved from an 8.5 to a 7.5.  What's more I actually changed brands from the Asics Gel Nimbus to a pair of Nikes.  I was very worried about this but it turns out to have been a great decision because my feet feel fantastic today.  Normally I would have blisters all over and my toe nails would be preparring to fall off. 

So, all in all a pretty good race I think.  I signed up for next year so it couldn't have been that bad.