Domesticated!!!

School is out!!-   Yipee is all that  can say and no summer school.  I am sure by the time the fall rolls around then i will be ready again.  I will get my degree.  I am sure most eveyone is wondering what in.   I want to be a dietician…….   Or if i was stupid i would switch to horiculture or landscape architect (probably spelled wrong).   What happened to fire fighter/ paramedic?  hmmmm perhaps i figured out my life was pretty darn good after all and i did not want to sit in a station all day around some negative dude that i needed to prove myself to.   To bad i figured it out after getting all the creditials but it I did learn.   The truth is that i am ….or at least i think i would be….better as a dietician and wellness coach.  I also enjoy it.  I get asked over and over again what to eat or what to do.  I have tons of certifications and would love to help the non  athlete take some steps in the right direction.   I already do that but want some nice letters behind my name to support it.   Hopefully i dont hvae to worry about getting rich….Markus (the finance) can do that…hahaha…just kidding..not really.

Domesticated-  i am totally enjoying my week.  the best thing about racing is taking some time to recover.  i used to not do this but after tons of really hard ultra races i have learned to savor the moments i have some time to myself.  I am doing a 600k next weekend that i ahve not really trained for so might as well rest up now.   I have  race called Tortour (1000 km around Switzerland) and ultraman ….resting wont happen again until December after ultraman and school is out.

So i am so domesticated compared to a few years ago.  I suppose it started just before gramps passed away and now that i have moved in my new house ….I am turning into some kind of foofooy woman.   I actually love it!  If you would have met me a year ago you would not have thought i would be doing the things i am doing now.   I used to say i was married to triathlon or ultraman but now I will just marry another one instead.  i like this idea better right now.

Gardening is my new passion and today all i did was work in the yard….ok a quick run, some massages but the rest was just catching up on my yard work.   I was moving fast and filled up three bags of weeds from the alley and behind my house.  I trimmed trees, repotted some plants, spread fertilizer, mulched, cleaned the deck, and even more then that.   i must be sick cause i loved every minute of it.  This is why i was mentioning the idea of horiculture as a degree…no worries that will be in my next life.   In my next life i will most likely be married to a farmer so i can raise animals too.  Farmer Markus …of course.    If you were a fly on the wall watching me then you would have caught a show this evening.   I repotted some very large plants.  I should not have done this myself and was wondering what i was thinking in the middle of the project.   I put the plant in the pot but needed to hold it there while putting dirt in around it.  This did not go so well and everything tiped over.  Later i washed the dirt from myself by accidently spraying water all over me.  I put the sprayer down thinking it was off and just as i was right over it …it launched up my nose.  i needed the shower.  What a day..a good day in a way.

Back to training–  so next week the real training will start and i am not sure if i am looking forward to it.  It will be much easier now that school is over and i will have some time to train with a free mind.   I will start off with a 600k over the weekend.  It has been a while since i hvae done one of these.  the race i am doing is called  Tortour.   Wonder why it is called that?  The training for this is much harder then training for ultraman.  It takes so much more time.  the race is early August so i have 6 weeks of hard training around me…..i better find some climbs to do.

The Weekend–  Still taking it easy.  there was a 100 mile ride to do but my coach said to chill and he would give me an easier ride.  I am planning on shopping for wedding dresses while i have the chance and finishing up some of my house projects…including finishing some painting that i started on the snow days.

Sore!!

This morning i got out of bed and felt like i must have been riding a horse last night.   I was sore in my hamstrings and aductor muscles.   what did i do?  i figured it out.   it must have been from dragging the pots out of the house last night.  the pots were so heavy.  i could only move them about a foot each time i pulled on them.   I must have been doing something right…using my legs instead of my back.

Biking-  bike is at the shop now.  i did not have time to pick it up today so it looks like i will be on an old bike tomorrow.   Just and easy 50..  it will be so nice to have an afternoon to play around my house.

Race Report

Home Sweet Home-  i came back from Vegas…and had one of my usual travel days of chaos.  i got lost going to the airport so that made things a little nuts at the airport.   i made it home safe and sound and had my friend Christie pick me up to bring me home.   Massages started right away until 830.   Needless to say i am a little beat but mostly from staying up late last night and hanging out with some of the organizers of the leadman

Leadman 

Wow!  What a race.   The race was nuts but I had a great time despite my problems I will go into shortly.  First of all this race is a 5k swim, 138 mile bike, and about a 14 mile run.  It is put on by lifetime fitness and they really did a great job.   The leadman has more perks then ironman and the race really did a wonderful job at making the athletes feel special.   The race was announced 3 months ago and so there were only 50 people entered in the race.   There were some pros at the race to check out the leadman and test the course.

The race was hard!   The swim was not so bad but the bike was probably a harder bike course then the 171 mile bike at ultraman.  It was over tons of climbs and in the dry hot desert sun.   I had a bike issue starting from early in the race.   My bike would not move out of the big ring.  I was in my harder gears and needed some smaller ones for some of the climbs.  I asked for bike support early but did not see him until after 100 miles.   By this time my bike was trying to shift some but the chain was coming off.   I had grease all over my face and hands from messing with the chain all the time.  Anyway back to the bike course.   I still loved it and it was gorgeous.   It was my kind of course and riding through the valley of fire was the highlight.  While I would slowly mash the pedals I would be looking around wondering where I was going to be getting married at.   This kept my mind off the bike not working.  All was great until the turn around.   Shortly after the turn around the wind picked up to 20 mph so the big ring with the hills and wind was too much for even me to handle.  I kept riding until over 100 miles…not sure what mile I stopped since I did not start my GPS at the start of the race.   I am not sure when I turned it on.

So the bike mechanic finally found me and when he looked at my bike the first thing he said was “uhh ohhh.”  He did not know how to do anything with electronic shifting.  He did however notice that my rings were bent.   This must have been from traveling in a bike box.   I have been messing around with bent cranks and rings since I got the bike. I finally get the bike working and then travel once with it and I am back to square one.   So it was not hard to make the decision to hitch the ride in and cheat a little.   It was going to be my only chance to beat Hillary.   I was upset for about a minute when I got in the car but after that I was hanging my head out the window wooping and hollering at the other athletes cheering them on.   What was I going to do…pout? 

Once I got in the transition I racked my bike and grabbed my run bag.   I was not going to just quit…the bike thing was out of my hands but I did not see any reason as to why I could not run anyway.   I did not have a speedy transition but I did do the run.  I wanted to see if I could still run after such a bike.  I felt pretty good and was enjoying the run.  Some of the run was on some old train tracks that went through tunnels.  There was only 4 easy miles and the rest was all up hill.   Some people commented it was the hardest run they had ever done.  I will say it was tough.   I crossed the line 3^rd women above Hillary but only cause I cheated…hahaha.  I was really not official and knew this but still proud that I did not just quit.     When I was in the van driving by Hillary I could see how far ahead she was and knew I was never going to catch her…nor was I trying.

Only 17 athletes finished the leadman.   3 of the pro men dropped and many other racers did not make the bike cut off that was extended another 1.5 hours.  Just to give you an idea of how tough the bike course was….the lead man was just over a 20mph average.   The pros were expected to do 25mph according to the race director.  Matt Lieto collapsed once he got of the bike and did not go on for the run.   It was just a brutal day all together.  I would say this race is harder than an ironman but better for your body.    The run is short enough that you can still function the next day.

I love the leadman race and next year there will be a series.  They do plan to make some changes so there are more finishers.  Either way I will be back to leadman and will most likely start racing more leadmans than ultraman.   The wear and tear is not so hard on the body. I was so stoked when I woke up the day after the race and did not have any real soreness to talk about.  Lifetime Fitness also put on a great race.  The venue was a terrific place and the host hotel was soooooo nice.   I enjoyed relaxing and hanging out at the nice pool.   Leadman rocks!

I wish I could say I am an official leadman but I will be next year…………

Leadman

The Funk-   yesterday always reminds me of why i might get into a funk about racing sometimes.   I have to leave my dogs frist of all…..and that really kills me.   Not just that but the bike fees and lugging the bike box around are what i hate most.   i have three bloody toes from smaching my bike box into them….it hurt.  got a picture but cant post it…dont know how since the file is too big.  so the bike was 225 dollars on U.S airways.  the bike box costs more then my flight.  i dont care how much money a person might have but it is really rediculous to charge these fees.   ok i will get off the soap box about that. 

I still love airports once i get past security. i love to people watch and get my smut magazines and read about how bad the movie stars lives are…that would be the cheap magazines like Star.   The flight was nice but i got to thinking about my doggies and sort of in a funk…..next i got the rent car and came to the hotel.  I was supposed to get this free and showed up to no room in my name.  all i could think was ….ohhh gosh…should have stayed home.  

I was not left hanging long.  My info was passed on and lost in the shuffle.  the race organizer had not arrived yet but the assistant got me taken care of.  i am in a very nice room now.  

The funk is gone-  i have had a really nice time since getting checked in and now i know why i do these things.  Other then missing my doggies i am very glad to be here. i have bumped into so many people that i know.   My favorite pro is here…Hillary biscay and i actually got to spend a little time with her.   i got comped a massage and spent about 3 hours in teh spa milking them for anything else i coulld get.  i got all kinds of free food in the spa and felt like i was in heaven.  i then laid by the pool and relaxed.  i do love vegas and just chilling out.  PF changs fried rice was my dinner.

The Race-  the leadman course is pretty and so nice.  it is going to be a hard course in hot dry wind but i am looking forward to it.  i will do well even though i have not been training for it.   it would be another story if it was a marathon at the end.  i am not sure if i will screw my nutrition up since i am so used to having a crew feed me all the time.  I have milk on occasion when i race.   After a visit to whole foods i found some milk in a carton taht does not have to be refrigerated.  People were looking at me funnt when i was trying to see if one would fit in my pocket.  now i have some milk…just in case.  it seems to settle my stomach when i get sweeted out.   My main source of nutrition is hammer but i just need something else around my meal times and dont like food.   milk is the food.

Valley of Fire-  we will be passing though this pretty place.   i will be getting married in the Valley of Fire so I am excited about riding through it.  i will get to see my weddding place.   Next time i will be here Marcus (the fiance) will be with me.  Cant wait.

Tomorrow will be a good day

Leadman

School-  today was my last final.  i am exempt from one of them since i was going to have an A anyway.  i had a pretty cool hard English Comp teacher that sort of motivated me on my last papers by letting us know we would not have to take the final if we did well.   It paid off.   I ended up with a B so my 4.0 GPA is no longer.   We had a crappy lab teacher and only a few people passed the lab.   The lab brought my high A down to a B….shucks!

Leadman-  so I leave for Vegas Thursday.   I race on Saturday and had some flights on Sunday morning at 8am.  what was I thinking?  i was trying to stay in my budget given to me.  i also wanted to come home to work on Sunday…yeah right?  i can be such a ding dong.  if you know me then you know this ding dong thing is true.  i seem to be going a million  miles an hour sometime and never really sit down.  

I got the flights changed for free playing ding dong and it ended up saving me 100 dollars so now i can stay another night in the hotel and lay in bed the next day…cant wait.  this is my treat for doing the race and what i will most be looking for….hanging out in a nice hotel room watching TV and not worry about some paper or assignment due for school.  i would top the day off with a massage but i can get 3 for that price at home. 

So what is the plan for the race?  dont have one.  i got a plan from the coach that basically says..swim the swim, bike but not to hard and then do as best as i can on the run.   When i asked him about using some aero wheels he sort of mentioned that my training has not been there so I should just race with my heavy power tap wheel to keep from blowing up my legs.   He gave me some watts to go by and it is not very high.   It will be interesting racing with a new strategy.  i asked my swim coach what i should do and even he commented there was nothing to taper from so just try to swim every day before the race….hmmmm

I would love to think i could go and do really great at this race.  i know it is a possibilty but what sort of frustrates me is that this is a race i could really do well in and when i am not focused on Ultraman or school.  i think this is a race i would really enjoy and love to do.   I am not sure if i blogged about how i came about this race but to make a long story short i was in it before i knew the distances….now it will be my training day…i will do my best to compete well at.   It wil just be a gage as to how well i am doing for ultraman.   I am excited about it now and even washed my bike up.   wonder if they entered me as a pro or not…please tell me they didn’t. hopefully  I will find out everything once i get to the hotel.

I am in good spirits now and so glad school is done and behind me.  i can go back to my old ways of playing all morning and working all afternoon…and evening now.   More money in the pocket and more time to train.

Summer

Ok it is not summer yet but to be it will be next week.

Finals-  so next week are my finals and I will be out of school finally.   I am really looking forward to it.  I am not going to say that i hate school but there are some things that i dont like.   I have been trying to make As and i think this semester i might get a B or two.   It is mostly because of my A&P II lab.   I love lab but we have an instructor that has been determined to flunk the class.   I think that there have not been many that have passed the exams.  Teachers like this sort of make you quit trying.   I was determined to work harder in the beginning but after i saw it was a lost cause I sort of just started going with the flow.  We have a test tomorrow nad i have studied but i can also bet I wont know a thing when i see the test…life goes on.

Leadman-   I am starting to get excited about this race even though i know i am not prepared.   I was not all that excited about it when i booked my flights so taht i would be flying out at 830 am the next day.  i booked them one evening before going to bed.   I was trying to get home so coudl work some….on Sunday?  what was I thinking.  True-I do work on sundays but what is wrong with just taking it easy after a race?   I decided to see about changing my flights and to my surprise there was no charge.   I now am flying back on monday and will get to lay around and be lazy for a day.  Changing my flights saved me 100 dollars so now i can use that to stay the extra night.   Yipee!  now i am excited.   I would have been yoyoing my head on the airplane falling asleep coming home the day after a race…not now.

Puppies- i have my hands full with these so called teacup pomeranians.  They are so huge that they can jump on everything.  They were not chewing things up but lately they have decided couches are nice.   i decided to get them some stuff to chew on and i know that was a mistake.   I got them some huge bones that I figured woudl take them a day to chew on at least. i came home and discovered they had both eaten one in about an hour.  the bone was almost as big as them. 

WEll this morning I woke up to messes in teh house.   I looked at the package the bone came out of and it said “yogurt dog bones.”  Well the yogurt did not agree and so I woke up to some sick little doggies.  

I love all my doggies and we get along ok.   The best thing about working at home is hanging with the doggies.   You ahve to be a dog lover to come to my house.  I had a new client yesterday open the door and one of the pups ran down the street like a maniac.  the little shit was “free” and sprinting.   It took me about 10 minute and a few neighbors to round him up but I got him.  In the meantime this was my new clients into to me and the pups.  It all worked out….they were quite in the massage.

Caught!!!

Last night it was raining cats and dogs…or more like doggies in my house.   All of them were scared and kept me up most the night…they were so cute.   At 330 am this morning there was thunder and lightning.  The swims are usually called off even when the pool is indoors for some reason.  i think a guy died a few years ago.  Anyway…I decicded to sleep in and go the the pool at my gym that never closes.   I was probably snoring and my phone rang.  It was “the coach” so i answered it thinking i might be in trouble.  He busted me red-handed sleeping and was laughing at me.   He probably knew i was going to be sleeping.  i am not always jumping out of bed on monday mornings after long hard weekends.   It is a recovery day usually with just a swim or something easy. 

Galveston transition-   so not sure if i put it in my race report but i sort of had a really slow  transition in Galveston after the swim.   I came out of the water and there were 2000 bikes in the transition area.  i dont think i ever counted what row mine was on so i just ran down the one i thought was it.   I did not even check to see how far down my bike was either.  i ran half way down a row and did not see my bike so i ran around to the next row and still did not find it.  i think i hit one more row before i thought i would use some common sense and look for my number.  i had to  look at my arm to see what number was written on it.    i was wondering what teh spectators were thinking wathcing this transition.  i even made comments when i would round the corner making jokes.  This is one of those moments i was hoping no one would recognize me.   Nope….today i got facebooked by someone that knew me and they recognized me from running around in the transition area.  they were one of the spectators….so i am busted.  It has been a long time since i have done a triathlon with so many people.  i sort of just show up at things now and go with the flow.   Perhaps at this next race i might take some time to look and see where the bike is racked.   i was laughing when i was looking for my bike.  At least i dont freak out.

Training

Saturday

swimming -  I woke up in an anxiety attack dreaming about a bad swim in a triathlon.  It was a strange dream but they all are.   i guess signing up for this long race might have bothered me.   I went straight to the pool to swim with the team,   It was goinng to be a tri day.  i missed the swim yesterday so it was time to make up for it.  i think the swimmers were startled to see my on a saturday.  i never show up on this day but i dont have much time to get ready.   My arms were weak from puking on Thrusday night…legs were not so bad.   I also did not eat much on Friday.  i was afraid is was going to a a long hard day.   Why is it that when you puke you feel so sore and weak?

Biking-  yesterday was a succesful day.   I did not go out and ride a million miles even after finding out about leadman triathlon.  i still need to look up the distances and will get to that tomorrow.    i biked with my buddies johnny and Author.   most of it was supposed to be easy but with some hard stuff in the middle of the workout.   Just like always I acted like a baby getting dropped by johnny most the way out.   i take so long to warm up and johnny always seems to be able to get on his bike and go.   I have a power meter now and am sort of playing with it.  i wanted to be able to give my coach some good numbers.  i have not ridden with a speedomter or anything in years.    The good thing about having the power meter is i could tell when johnny was having a surge.  i think he wanted to take it off and throw it in the river.   We had some hard winds yeterday and johnny would push into it.  My power would go over 200 watts and i would slow it down and let him go.  i dont know much about power but i do know that 200 watts is not an easy pace.   Once i got warmed up then we were able to push some.   We all had fun but did make ourselves hurt.   We sort of dropped Author and Johnny and i rode almost the same pace.  i got ahead of him once and got cut off by a truck driver cutting me off.    He had almost run us off the road earlier in the ride so i was not a happy camper when he pulled out in front of me.  i actually rode up beside his window and was signing to him to role the window down.   Johnny caught up to me in this time and the truck driver took off.    I was not going to pitch a fight….i was just going to ask him if he knew we were on teh road or if he was really blind.     i guess i should not be taking truck drivers on….i was going to be nice about it.   The truck driver did seemed surprised to see me waving at him in his window.  i was not pissed or anything and it did not mess with my riding.  i get sort of excited when given the chance to confront the drivers these days

Anyway the ride went great and all of us were sort of tired after the fast stuff.   After this johnny was not dropping me so bad on the way home.   We actually chatted some and had some fun.   We ended the ride with a slurpee from 7-11 and i did a run afterwards.  i felt great on the run…sure wished i felt lik that in galveston.   I am getting some of the fitness back.

Sunday

Running-   today was not a long run.   it went great and Author was going to run it with me but bailed on me after 8 miles.  i was looking forward to my pancakes since it has been a while but i understood.  The rest of the run went great but i, too, had some tired legs.

Had some pictures to post that had a tree that had fallen down on a car just down the street from me.  For some reason it does not up load but it wold give you and idea of how bad the wind has been here.   It is still nothing like West Texas.  i know if it is blowing here that is is blowing worse where i used to live….and with dirt.   Looks like it is going to be a windy year.  Lubbock followed me.

poisened

yikes-  last night i must have poisened myself.   Well lets just say taht i know that I did.  I could not get comfortable last night while trying to go to sleep.  i just started feeling soooo bad.  Next thing i knew i was in the bathroom puking my steak up.    i wont be eating steak for a while after this horrible experience.   this morning i had other problems that i wont go into details on.  I did try to do my run but felt so weak and ended up coming back home.

The Things I Get Myself Into-   after coming back home I got a call from one of my buddies asking me to do a 5 k swim on a relay for a triathlon.  The tri is in Vegas and i would not pay a thing.   My next question was when is the tri?  The tri is on May 14th or something like that.   I was reluctant to say i could go since i was planning to do a 600k that weekend to start training for Tortour ( race around Switzerland).   I then found out the triathlon is called leadman (5ks, 142m bik, 15 mile run).  not sure if those are the distances but i will look that up.   I then told them that if i could do the hole race as well that i would consider it.    I am not sure what i was thinking and did  not think anything woudl really come out of it.   I got a call this afternoon that the deal was on…….ummmm…….only problem is that the race is 22 days away and i am not trained for it.   I was sort of waiting until i got out of school to start pounding in some miles but it looks like i am going to have to get with the program now.  i dont really even think that two weekend of training is going to do the trick but i can survive the race.   What i hate about jumping into this thing unprepared is that i do think this is my kind of race….lots of swimming, biking, and a little running.  

i got to tell the fiance, Markus, now before he reads about it in my blog.   the original reason for pulling out of France was to save funds and to take the pressure off of training.   I did not want to be away from home so long and away from my business.   I dont guess there is any real stress in training since i will only be training two weeks for this race but still I am doing something as hard as an ironman a month earlier.   I felt like i was off track to have a good race in France…so will i have a good race at Leadman?  who knows.  All i can say is that i seem to get myself into these things.   I dare not walk away from an oppertunity like this either.  i am smiling about this…but also a little nervous.

Whats up?

The Wedding-    sorry for not blogging but Markus was in town for a while and i had better things to do.  He has been gone for a week but i have been busting my butt to make A’s in my classes in college. 

Wow so i had to go and find a German guy to get married too.    I dont ever do things the easy way but it iwll be worth it.  We met with a fancy attorny and got lots of details that were sort of depressing but at least we can make plans now.   Looks like the wedding will be on April 1st of next year.   We gotta save money.   Las Vegas will be the place.  why not it is cheap and a fun place to go.  We are on a budget these days.    Markus wont be able to work his first few months here so we are saving funds to live on rather then blowing it all on a wedding.   My dad is a CPA so the date was iffy but I talked to him today and he can swing a weekend to come to the wedding.   He has been the man in my life so no weddings without dad.

Health-   Gosh.   i finally got some injections in my back on Friday and got to see talk to the doc as well.   Not sure if they are really working and we only did half of my back so we have something to compare to.    I went to get my meds and found out they were going to be 300 dollars so i did not get them…yet.  i have some doc friends that might be able to keep me supplied in samples.   either way i am back to training.   Galveston was not a bad race but it was a wake up call for me.  yikes have i got some work to do.   Here is my race report

Galveston Half Ironman

Wow what a wake up call!   I always have to jump into the season with some hard race instead of working up to it.    I signed up for this race to help a friend out with his nutrition…not to race it.  I was thinking it would be a nice training day.   As the weeks got closer and I knew I had not been training I started to dread the race.   I did not train a bit when I  went to Germany and was off another weekend due to my back problems.   Come on……I am not going to train when my fiancé is around.   He lives in Germany so our time is short.   I don’t want to spend it looking at his butt….well he is actually looking at my  butt.  I like to think I am faster then him.

Markus, my finance, also signed up for Galveston since I was doing it.   He has not been training much either….we were both wondering how it would go.   WE drove up the day before and did not make a big weekend out of it.  My buddy Tim is 49 and getting ready for Ironman Lake Placid.   He came to Fort Worth from Midland in his airplane and we drove to Galvestion together.  We had a nice trip.

I dropped my bike off to Phillip Shama so he could stick some aero wheels on.  I wanted to see how I could do with some deeper dish wheels and might ride some in Ultraman this year.   They looked so great on my Guru and really made the bike look even cooler.  I knew it was not going to make a huge difference in my racing.  I was at this race for survival and  my goal was not to walk.

The swim went great!   My back always gets aggravated with swimming but it was not too  bad.  I had to adjust the goggles 3 times.   I put my cap on and it came down to far on my forehead so my goggles were sort of on it and not sealing.   Did not figure this out until the swim was almost over.

I got lost in the transition.  I ran down the wrong row looking for my bike.  I then forgot my number and ran down another wrong row.  There were spectators watching me look like an idiot.   Hey what can I say….it has been 6 years since I have been in a transition area with 2 thousand bikes.  I eventually got my butt on the bike but did not rush.  I wanted to make sure that I had everything.  I don’t usually do transitions without a crew.

The bike was great…well could have been better.   I was flying at first passing people left and right.  The girls started last so there was lots of people to pass.   I was sort of enjoying it and getting a little crazy but then came to my senses.   I was not sure if I  could finish this race without walking and did not want to go nuts on the bike so early in the season.  I eased up and that was when some  girls began to pass.  I debated about taking off with them but was not sure if that was going to be so smart.  I am not going to say I could have kicked all their butts but I could have moved a little faster….just not sure if it was the thing to do.   I got off the bike in 2:54….one of my slowest bikes ever in a half ironman.   Had no idea of this time until after the race.

The run was….well….not so good but I survived.    I had a running stitch for 7 miles of the run.   I used to get this all the time when I raced panama city half ironman.   My first run in humid conditions I always get this pain.  I should have ran the day before and I don’t think I would have had this problem.  I did not stop but did not hammer either.   It was a 4 loop course and half way through the 3^rd loop I was starting to feel like a runner.   I could have walked but did not.  Everyone was running and I was so impressed at all the chunky people giving it all they had.   They inspired me to keep going.  The ultraman world champ could not be caught walking.    I still a cheer leader and my last loop I think I cranked it up….it was not flying but was a little faster.

I crossed the line with a time of 5:30.  Markus beat me and did a 5:13.   We had the exact same swim time……no we were not holding hands.   Tim had a great race too and they had both been waiting for a while.  I was still wet with sweat and light headed.   They wanted to take a picture but I wanted to sit down.   The race still kicked my butt.    Ha Ha …funny….my ultraman pace is faster then my half ironman pace.

Glad I did the race.   Training will fire up as soon as I am out of school.  I also will be getting some nerves severed in my back soon so the back wont  be a problem.   The back did not slow me down.  I just have not had time to train.  School is my focus till May.    I ended up being glad I did it.