Audrey is couch-bound

Unfortunately for my GRR teammates I am never exercising again. No more. I am completely exercised out.

1.2 miles of swimming, 56 miles of biking, 13.1 miles of running. That about does it for me.

To set the stage, when I awoke this morning I had never swam 1.2 miles, had never biked 56 miles, and hadn't run 13.1 miles in almost exactly one year. I actually hadn't run or biked at all in the past 6 days to appease the foot gods. I was READY!

Pre-race
My time goal was 7 hours. I carefully made this goal using large amounts of data by allocating 1 hour for the swim, 4 hours for the bike, and 2 for the run. I basically needed to give my parents a time they could start looking for me in the results (remotely, from NJ).

Do not stand near me at the start of a big race. When I mentioned I was worried the bike portion would be cold b/c of the wind, a friend said, "Hey, if you're working hard it won't be cold!" This is in contrast to me who is telling people, Um...those buoys look far away. Also, I heard the bike course is hard. So, for your own piece of mind, avoid me.

Swim
The swim was fabulous. 74 degrees. Pretty calm. The guys started in waves AFTER us and a bunch of them caught up to the women. While I was not amused with getting kicked by huge guys, I think I overall liked not finishing even further back from everyone as I would have if the guys had started ahead of us. I actually did pretty well on the swim. 45:34 (37:58 mile pace). Really, the swim was gorgeous. I LOVE NEW HAMPSHIRE. LOVE IT.

They had wet suit strippers who take their job super seriously. LOVE THEM.

Bike
I passed 30 people and got passed by about 1,200. Hey, I suck at biking and almost every other wave was after mine! I amused myself on the 56 endless miles by looking for people I knew. It was an out and back course (one loop) so I had a good view of everyone. 3:37 (15.4 mph). This is actually a good pace for me for long rides.

Run
I have never felt jealousy like I did 1/2 way through the run. The run course was two loops which meant I had to run directly next to and past the finish line before heading back out for my second loop. The finish line was so close...yet so far...and boy, was I super-jealous of the people heading to the finishing shoot. During the 13.1 miles my pace deteriorated from ~9:25 min/mile to ~12:00 min/mile. I was doing crazy math in my head to figure out what pace I had to maintain to break 7 hours. In retrospect, however, I could not have gone any faster so the math was merely a mental exercise. 2:19:13 (10:38 min/miles).

Final
6:49:40

1271/1491 Overall; 69/79 Age Group; 364/475 Gender

Despite finishing very close to the end I was beyond thrilled. I got teary-eyed at mile 11.5 of the run. I'm not entirely sure why. My emotions were probably tied to having worked hard for something athletic-related and having it pay off for the first time in a long while. With so many years of injuries behind me and so many un-run races, it was momentarily overwhelming to be so close to the finish line. Plus, my 12 month school year-filled with the dramatic highs and lows of being a law student-finally ended Friday. All of my accomplishments for the entire year basically culminated in the past three days. Henceforth, the teariness.

[and I am hoping to regain my mojo by Friday's GRR. until then...i'm not doing much!]