MelR- congrats on you half Ironman
Carrie- Happy B-day!
Pungodingy- Well, I can tell you what not to do.
Apparently swimming 1.2 miles and then biking 56 while only drinking 10 oz of water(if you don't include the unmeasurable portion of Lake Winniepausakee), 18-20 oz of gatorade and 1 gel packet does NOT set you up for a very good 13.1 mile run. I got tired of my race reports being the tale of the porta potties or all about having to pee so I only drank when thirsty for the race yesterday- result was I still had to pee and seriously tanked the run.
It was the Timberman 70.3 race in NH. Started off the day w/ looking at the clock starting at 3 am waiting for the alarm to go off at 3:45 am. Got the stuff loaded in the car and it was still raining having began at about 8 pm the night before. Drove to the race site and was parked before 5 am. Wanted to be there early to get a good parking place for Mom and Grandma to be able to hang out in the car if(ha, ha) the rain continued. Set up my transition shortly after 6 am when it got light enough to see. It was mandatory to check the bike in the day before for this race so didn't have to worry much about it. Got the wetsuit on in the back of Grandma's Torrent(mom has photographic evidence of that little adventure as they are a real pain to put on a wet body.
Race was supposed to start at 7 but actually got delayed until about 7:40 for the first wave so that people caught in traffic could get to the race site and the visibility could improve on the water(insert Jaws or other ominous music here). The water was warmer than the air so I hung out in it talking to other racers until the start and then I was in the 4th wave of 11, starting 18 minutes into race time. The course was three sides of a rectangular that we swam in clockwise fashion. Headed out toward the first turn and noticed it getting pretty choppy- as in 2 ft waves choppy. What the heck? This is freshwater, lake swims aren't this rough- umm, yeah it was. Almost all 1.2 miles of it- result was a 41 minute swim or my slowest half distance split so far this year. However, everyone else was getting beat up just as bad so my position coming out of the water wasn't too bad. It had stopped raining about 20 minutes or so before they started the race. Exited the water at the end of transition that my bike was racked at but the entrance was at the other end so ran the length of transition on the beach and then the length again inside transition. Doesn't make for a stellarly fast transition time.
Bike went well. The course has a some significant climbing totaling about 3500 vertical feet but I was happy w/ my effort and w/ my split. It was cool at about 65 degrees, a bit windy(that's where those stinking waves came from) and it decided to start raining again for about the last half hour I was on the bike. The course(for the NH people) starts out at Ellacoya State Park, down 11 to 11B, up by Gilford, onto Hounshell Rd, onto 107/ Marsh Hill Rd, Leavitt Rd, then onto 106. The turnaround was out by Loudon Village. Then it was reversed except for taking Frank Been to Country Club rather than Hounshell. It goes by the NH International Speedway. I was running a set of Zipp 404 tubulars that I've rented from Fitwerx for the next 3 weeks. Very sweet set of wheels, much nicer than the Blackwell clinchers that I used for FL 70.3. I split 2:58 for the 56 mile bike. It was the 568th fastest split for the day and the finishers were 400 women and 968 males so it was pretty respectable for the course.
The run- it was really bad. Transition was again pretty slow because my feet were sopping wet so I used a towel to dry them before changing into running socks and shoes. Those things were still dry because I had used my 13 gallon transition/ trash bag trick again that I used for Mooseman HIM(also done in the rain). The course was 2 6.5 mile loops of out and back along Lake Winnie. On the plus side it was nice and scenic by the lake, the down side was those where also the locations were the wind was most noticeable. I started off feeling okay but moving slowly and that was how the run continued. Never really felt awful but never managed to speed up either. It was pretty demoralizing because I know I can run faster- I've done it in both races and training. It was just like there wasn't another gear available to go up to- I was stuck in 1st when I wanted to be in Drive. I ended up running just shy of 2:18, or the 1079 slowest time in the field. I finished ahead of over 500 people timewise overall but only out ran less than 300 of them. It had stopped raining again by the time I finished the run and I finally got to try some Jordan's Ice Cream.
Post race I had the ice cream and a piece of pizza. We then went to Panera where I had half a Turkey Artichoke sandwich, a cup of chicken and wild rice soup, a baggy of chips, and a 20 oz fruit punch. Then about 1.5 hrs later I was feeling thirsty so we stopped at a Stewarts in VT and I got a 16 oz orange juice and a 16 oz chocolate milk. Mom asked which I was going to drink first when we had been back on the road about 5 minutes and I showed her that I already had half of each of them gone. So I thinked I tanked the nutrition for this race. It was cool enough to be good running conditions, I didn't overextend/push too hard on the bike, was fairly well rested muscular wise- I just didn't have it on the run. I've been faster in both training and prior races and the nutrition is the only thing I can figure out.
I was irritated enough at myself that we didn't even stick around for the 70.3 Worlds slot roll down because I didn't figure I deserved it even if offered. So my last triathlon for the year should be Ironman Wisconsin in 20 days. We are then doing the Army 10 miler Oct 8th in DC and then I suppose I ought to start training for Goofy at some point since my registration got straightened out.
I(Mom and Grandma actually) had turned in the DVC Goofy application in May to the Disney Endurance folks at the 70.3 expo but no one seems to know what happened to it or at least hasn't told us. I looked at the registration lists about 3 weeks ago and I wasn't on either one of them. I then started leaving phone messages, finally sent an email which actually got a response. They verified I wasn't registered and told me to call a certain person. After trying multiple times and leaving 2 messages on her voice mail, another person finally called back to get the details on the problem. He verified the information and I had to fax in a newly filled out application last Friday but I should be good to go for Goofy. They made it right since it wasn't my fault they lost it- I had turned it in before the Goofy category filled. It can't even be blamed on 'lost in cyberspace' because the DVC registration requires a paper application. The whole process took over 2 weeks to straighten out.
Doing Dermatology this week since they asked for me and it is technically part of the Family Medicine department at the Clinic. Was interesting today- more observation than hands on at this point but everyone, no matter what specialty, see skin stuff so some more knowledge of the topic will be good.
So for anyone who has read completely through this- you deserve an endurance award
Special thanks to my jockstraps- Mom and Grandma- who also braved the rain, the 6 plus hours of driving each direction, and the long days.
)
Will try not to let that happen much more, though, as it is time to get serious.)
Inquiring minds wanna know. BTW I got your email and I will respond to that too but yes that's exactly what we want. Thank you so much. I am shocked to read you were "never a runner". You are a GREAT inspiration to those of us who are "adult-onset athletes"! 
That's great!!!
I didn't run this weekend, I took one last weekend off until January. This weekend won't be so bad, I'm running a 5K on Saturday (moving lr to Thursday), but I do have to start cross training this week. 
I don't mind cross training, but the community center we belong to is not very convenient for me to get, so it's a hassle to go there. Oh well, I guess, right? 
So I've been MIA. Sorry guys. Kevin's call for all MIA runners got me LOL. THANKS Kevin! 
to everyone 
