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.