Hey ladies! Thanks SO MUCH for your positive thoughts. You are awesome.

The water was cold, indeed. I swam the day before, so I knew what to expect (5-10 minutes of OMGTHISISREALLYCOLD and then you get over it, but it does slow you down a lot). The bike was pretty relentless, but this isn't my first time on this course, so I saw that coming, too. And the run... they slightly changed it to go OVER a hill rather than stop halfway up, so you had the joy of climbing it twice (four times) at mile 6 and 20. To sum my day up, I was really just... tired. It was a really weird feeling. Previously in Ironman it was my physical endurance that held me back - I'd be sore and unable to run toward the end. This time? I wanted a nap.

I'll post a more complete report later. It was not my best day, but the last 3 months have been very challenging for me as we prepared our company to be acquired (I was intimately involved on top of my regular work). I had to fit training in on top of a lot of hard and exhausting work - exciting, but that's part of what makes it so exhausting

I am just happy to finish relatively respectably. Given my performance on this level of training and distraction, I learned that with focused training, I will KICK BUTT!!

PS: They are changing the bike course next year. I'm not really enthused. It will be virtually impossible to train on the course if it is what it's rumoured to be, since it's a highway.