Another Hot half Ironman.

I'll have a Race report shortly. All I have to say now is I finished and had a great weekend in Welland with friends and the race.

My times are almost Identical with the Disney 70.3 race I did in May, So I'm not disappointed with the same results considering the identical conditions with the course and weather, Flat and HOT! but I can say I could have done better which you will read why in my race report.


Welland Results...

Bib#137 Josef Polcz ...Finish Time 7:29:53 Swim 38:45 ..1:57/100m ..Run up time from Water to T1...1:57...T1...2:33 Bike 2:55:02 30.9 kph/hr T2....5:56 Run 3:44:43

Welland Half Ironman

Well I'm heading down for my next race and my second half Ironman this season. I'm doing a new Half Ironman race with Mutisport tri series in Welland Ontario, which is near Niagara falls.
http://www.msctriathlon.com/ms/events/showEvent.cfm?showEventID=89


It will be a mass start and starts at 8:30am which is nice, so I can sleep in a bit. The course is flat and fast so I'm hoping for a better result then I did at Disney last month when I baked in the hot sun. the swim is in the Welland canal, then the bike route will take us out and back towards lake Erie on a flat as a pancake ride. The run will be around, over and out and back along the canal.

I packed all my tri gear and my camping gear as I will be camping out at a friends who lives a few km from the event site. I'm leaving from work tonight (friday) rather then going home, sleep a couple of hours and drive down 2.5 hours to get to the race venue to meet up with my friends who are racing the sprint and tri a tri and to volunteer for the day's races. Later in the day when everyone has raced we will be having a BBQ and camp fire back at my friend house and hopefully we won't be to late as I will need my sleep for Sunday's half Ironman race.

Hopefully I'll have a good race to report on.

Ultra's are fun

I entered on the spur of a moment an ultra race yesterday. I went to the Niagara Ultra 50.
http://www.welovetorun.com/newsite/Niagara_Ultra/ultra_index_7.html

I only did the half mary with my friend and Neighbor Brian Chew who asked me to go out with him in support of our running club members from the Barrie running Roadrunners who were doing the 50k Ultra race, and specially one of his friends Roger doing his Fiftieth marathon as well as others doing the marathon. Brian e-mailed me Friday to ask if I wanted to come with him to support the runners and Roger who was doing his 50th marathon, I told him no as I was planning a long ride for Saturday in prep for my half Ironman next week in Welland, which in fact isn't far from where the Niagara Ultra was being held. Well long story short? I thought about it and thought I could ride Sunday and I would like to go to the ultra to support his and my friends! And in the same thought, I decided I may as well enter and do the half marathon for a good long well needed training run for next weeks half Ironman I will be doing.

So Brian and I entered the half marathon as they had same day entree still open. Brian who is a Boston qualifier won our age group with a 1:40 and came in 8 overall in the half, I finished with a 2:42 and wasn't last! Finishing 26 out of 30 I think?

I started my day getting up, well actually I didn't sleep. I got home from work 12:30am and planned to get a couple of hours sleep and getting up at 3:30am to get ready to meet Brian for 4am to leave. It's a 2 + hour drive to Niagara on the lake where the Niagara Ultra race was being held. So as I get ready to go to bed at 1am the neighbors behind my house decided to start partying outside with the music cranked! Ok I though maybe it will only be loud for a song before someone realized it's late out and should turn it down! Well that didn't happen! I kept tossing and turning trying to sleep but couldn't because of the noise. Finally I had enough and at 3am I got up and took a shower. I had the coffee maker pre-set before going to bed to start at 3am so it would be ready when I got up at 3:30, so in any case my coffee was ready when I got out of the shower.

When I went downstairs for my coffee I grabbed a couple of stroopwaffles to eat and a banana and a few cookies, then filled a thermos with coffee for the road. now I'm ready to go and meet up with Brian.

We got to the race site in plenty of time and registered for the half which started at 8am. until then we met up with all our racing friends and watched them start there races before ours.

We started our race and away we went! I started near the back to let the faster runners go and off I went at an easy pace. It was humid and hot out but not as bad as Disney half Ironrman I did last month in Florida. my plan was go easy doing 10 and 1's and I felt good.
I have to thank Joan Van Hilten who caught up to me around the 3 k mark in the run, as I was doing 10 and 1's and told her I was just going easy today putting in a needed long run to get ready for my half Ironman next week.

Joan stayed with me and we worked together as she was having trouble with her foot cramping and wanted to ease up on her run for a while and decided to help pace me since she had a garmin on to pace us. We decided a good pace to run at this time was 6:30's, for 10 and 1's but she seemed to have problems keeping the pace and was slowly creeping up and pushing the pace up to 6:00s pace before she realized we were off pace running to fast before slowing back down. I also noticed the change in pace and was having trouble keeping the pace and started to drift behind her saying I won't be able to keep up at this pace?! when she checked her garmin to realize opps where going to fast! lol.

She stayed with me to almost the to half way mark sticking with me for about 7k before moving on when she was feeling better and I told her I was holding her back. I held my slower pace and kept moving forward and finally got to the turn around and half way mark and continuing on with my 10 and 1's. About 2 k later I caught up to Joan again as she was sitting and massaging her foot which was cramping. I stopped to see how she was doing and she told me she was hurting bad but got up and kept going in front of me only to stop a few hundred feet ahead as I passed her and never saw her again the rest of the way.

I was doing ok until I hit the 15k mark and my feet were starting to kill me and was quickly reverting my 10 and 1's to 3 and 1's the rest of the way until I came to the finished.

I had fun running along the Niagara river, along some beautiful paved paths with only the start and finish being on grass. The whole day was fun and I got in a solid run while being there. I'm glad Brian asked me to come along.

The group who raced the 50k did well. Catherine, and Shannon, a couple of our running junkies finished with great times, with the last two woman in our group Cindy and Tracy finishing together around 7:30 with beer in hand!( one of our group handed her a well deserved beer before the finish line.) Theo, Bill Brendon, Jim, Rick, Keith, Roger,Klint, Glen, John, Jen, Lisa, Victoria, Nancy,as well as others all did fantastic in the 50k and marathon. Congrats to everyone!

We all had a great time after the race some puking from the heat of the day, No I didn't puke! but some of our group did from the hard day as it was very humid with temps around 30C but they quickly recovered with free beers being served, as well as pizza snacks and regular drinks. It was a fun day.

I can see now how fun Ultras are now. Maybe I'll try a 50k one day? ....or maybe not! :)




Some of the group for the group shot. I'm waving over Catherine to get into the shot...



Brian and me after the race.

Cindy after she finished the 50k and joan on the left....
Tracy with beer in her hand and Cindy finishing the 50k ...

Bill resting after winning 3rd in his Agegroup in the 50k and Catherine who also did the 50k ...

Catherine and Jen...

Me walking during the race..
Still walking..... You can see on my face I was either in pain from my feet or hot from the heat. lol

Sucking it up and running a little. lol.....

Bill, Theo, Roger and Brendon after Roger finished his 50th marathon.

Roger coming in the finish of his 50th marathon with supporters...

Group shot...

Another group shot...

Near the end of the race and feeling strong..

One of our racers doing the 50k at Niagara fall, the halfway turn around of the 50k. I think it's Keith?

Binbrook Race

I started preparing for my race when I got home from my grandfathers funeral Friday night, so I went out for an easy 5k run with my wife Joanne. There is nothing like getting all your training and fitness in the last min before a race! but that is how my less is more training plan works most of the time.

I was planning on going for a easy ride Saturday morning too, but when I got up it was pouring rain and it wasn't looking like it would let up, so I canceled my ride and decided to relax the rest of the day doing nothing, which is fine because i don't want to over train before a race, and with my 1000m swim on Monday and my 5k run last night I was more then ready to race! ;)

I went to bed at 10pm and set my alarm to wake me at 4am. When the alarm went off I quickly jumped out of bed and started running around! No! this is not part of my less is more training? i just had to pack all my gear up and threw it into my bag, grab my bike, bike shoes and helmet then threw everything into the car. Then I grabbed a few things to eat, like a banana, some stroopwaffles and gulped them down as I headed out to the car. before heading out to the hwy I stopped at Tim Horton;s for some coffee and a bagel with cream cheese for the road.

It was a 2 hour drive to Binbrook which is located south west of Hamilton. The weather was overcast and foggy and when I got to the race site there was a light misting going on. The grounds where soaked from rain and everything was just soggy with puddles everywhere! Perfect for a race! lol.

It wasn't cold out, but it wasn't warm either, by the time the race started the weather was looking better, the rain/ drizzle/ misting had stopped but it was still overcast.

After I parked I grabbed my bike and gear and racked it after finding out what my race number was, I then went to pick up my race kit/shirt and number, I was # 124. I then went back to my bike set up and laid out my stuff, attaching my bib # to my race belt and now I was all set. I then headed down to the beach where the swim start was and ran into a few friends including Jon Dow from the Barrie Tri club. He and I were the only representative of our club at this race. I also met up with other friends including Adam, Carrie and Kent. Kent was doing the race announcing for the day.

After a quick chat, I went to check out the water. I decided I wasn't using my wetsuit for this race and wanted to make sure the water temp wasn't to cold. I was pleasantly surprised to find the water was just right! they announced the water temp as being 73F which is perfect for swimming without a wetsuit! I went in the water and did a little warm up swim of maybe 200m then stood around waiting for the start of the race.

The Race...750m swim, 27km bike, 6.5km run
And were off, I started my swim on the outside right from the start, to stay clear of all the bashing. I don't like bashing, so I don't mind swimming a little more distance to stay clear of it. for the most part I had a clear lane and as I eventually cut over I grabbed onto some swimmers toes for some drafting. things got a little tight around the first turn buoy where you are almost standing up straight as you take the turn around with the current of all the swimmers wake, then I got more free lanes and was clear swimming until the last 100ms when some woman swims from behind me, then almost through me when as I was taking a stroke my hand coming over hits her goggles behind me but she kept swimming through and passes me. I shake my hand off and continue swimming until I get to the beach. As I stand up in the water to run out and up into transition I give my hand another shake and notice I'm bleeding! I then realize when I smacked the woman swimmer her goggles must have cut me? Oh well! I continued on.


I ran through transition to the bike area which was a good 300-400m away and quickly throw on my bike shirt race belt, bike shoes helmet and gloves. I un-rack my bike and run with it to the mount line and start my bike ride. T1 time was 2:10.
http://www.msctriathlon.com/ms/events/2010/course_maps/binbrook_tri_swim_course.gif



I have never raced this race before so I had no idea what to expect for the bike ride. I was told it was flat with some small hills. I didn't want to ride to aggressive, and the fact the roads were still slick, I went with a see as I go attitude and paced myself accordingly, but was keeping my eye on my bike computer to keep my speed above 30km/hr on route. For the most part the roads were flat with gentle grades upwards with some easy risers and only a couple of short low grade down hills where I could take a break from peddling for about 10 secs each time. The ride is an out and back around the conservation area with several right hand turn on the out and left hand turn on the way back that we had to be cautious on as the roads were wet. When I came in to the dismount line, I un-clipped my shoes and coasted in towards the dismount line and well before the dismount line I jumped off my bike and ran to and over the dismount line into T2 to rack my bike, but as I dismounted I heard some guy yell out " Nice dismount! now that's how it's done! " I laughed as I ran with my bike to T2 .... I finished the 27 km bike in 50:39 for a 32km average.
http://www.msctriathlon.com/ms/events/2010/course_maps/binbrook_tri_bike_course.gif


I racked my bike and changed into my running shoes and started out on my run with a quick T2 transition of 1:22......As I ran out of transition onto the run path I tried to tip toe through the soggy muddy grass, but with each step and the long journey through the water soaked grass it was useless to try to keep my shoes from getting wet, but I still made the effort to jump over the bigger mud puddles along the run route.

The run took up around the lake along a grassy trail which was quickly becoming a muddy trail with all the runners ahead and behind me. The grass trail turned into a gravel trail then through some wood trail where we had some slippery muddy hills to go up and worse coming back, had to go down. The run took us out 2 km out before the turn around where we came back the same way. When we got back to the transition area, we continued across the soggy wet grass acroos the swim start beach and finally onto a paved path and out to the other end of the park for 2.5 km, then back before coming to the finish. I ended up running for the most part only walking a couple of times going on the uphills. I finished the run 6.5km in 43:35 which I was quite pleased with.
http://www.msctriathlon.com/ms/events/2010/course_maps/binbrook_tri_run_course.gif


I finished my race in a total of 1:53:31 and was 6/16 in my age group. 123 overall. I highly recommend the Binbrook race.

I would also like to give a shout out and congrats to Jon Dow who had a great race finishing 13Th over all and taking 3rd in his 20-24 age group! With a time of 1:28:51 Way to go Jon!

My friend Adam also did well finishing 9 over all and 2nd in his Agegroup of 20-24 in the Duathlon with a time of 1:33:26 Way to go Adam!

Carrie did great to finishing 7/14 in her 25-29 agegroup in the triathlon. with a time of 1:57:18 Way to go Carrie!

Jon Dow on the podium

Me with Friends Carrie and Adam doing what we call the bite, which is usually done with winning a medal, but none of us won a medal, so we found the next best thing! A water melon slice! lol

My results link....
http://www.chiptimeresults.com/resultsreader.php?y=2010&r=MSbinbrookT.htm

Funeral Arrangments Made

Today Joanne and I went with my mother, Brother and Sister to arrange for the showing and burial. Tomorrow night from 7-9 we will hold a showing and Friday at 1pm will be a service mass with a reception after and then a precession out to the cemetery for the burial. Most of the arrangements were already arranged for including the burial plot and head stone at the cemetery and coffin so things went pretty smooth with the extra stuff we wanted and the times.

After that We all went to the Providence hospital where my Grandfather lived and died to gather all his belonging to take to my moms house. My Sister had a pickup truck to transport all his belonging, which wasn't much? just a few personal possessions, clothing and pictures, so it didn't take long and all went smooth again.

On the way home not far from the hospital I noticed a factory, a cookie factory! Matter of fact, a cookie factory that makes the best cookies ever! call Peak Freans, and it has a factory outlet that you can purchase what they call seconds, or batches of cookies that don't meet the companies high standards for shipment and selling in stores. I never noticed it before driving by, and when Joanne saw it! we had to stop in and see what they had! We ended up buying a ton of cookies that will last years! We just put the bulk of them in the freezer to keep them fresh and pull out what we want.




Here are all the Peak Freans cookies we bought for $30.00 today.... a real bargain when you consider one package of cookies normally sells for around $3.50 a box in the store!

Rest in peace Grandpa

Grampa passed at 12:15pm today.

God bless and Rest in peace. We all love you.

My next race

I signed up for my next race. Here ...http://www.msctriathlon.com/ms/events/showEvent.cfm?showEventID=88

I'm doing the Binbrook sprint this Sunday, it's a 750m swim 27km bike and a 6.5k run. The weather is looking good and suppose to be hot! just the way I like it. I've never done this race so I don't know what to expect. I'll just go out like I normally do and just have fun. :)

Gramdpa, is still hanging in there, My mom got a call from the hospital this morning at 4am to come in as they felt he was nearing death, but he is still hanging in there. When I called my bother who is also there in support at the hospital with my mom, said Grandpa was looking better and even ate. ( nurses hand fed him) It's not unusual for a person to all of a sudden look and feel better just before death? it's a cheap trick god plays on us all before dieing, giving us the false hope that things are getting better as it is only inevitable that he will be gone shortly. Grandpa is resting comfortably but is in and out of awareness. It's sad to see, and one of the reasons I am not there today. I said/paid my respects to grandpa on Sunday and want to remember him in better times, not look over him as he passes. God bless you Grandpa.

I didn't race

No pictures, no podium, no medal, no go! I got up at 4 am this morning to get ready to go to Milton to race the tri a tri, but when my alarm went off, all I heard was the sound of rain out of my bedroom window. It had been raining all night long steadily, and I was hoping it would stop by morning and clear up for the race, but when my alarm went off all I heard was the rain still coming down hard. At that time I got up and went to the washroom, then looked outside and I decided I didn't want to go so I went back to bed where Joanne said to me, aren't you going? and I said nope.



I think I really didn't go because I had to much on my mind. My mom called last night telling me Grampa isn't doing very well and his time is coming soon, so she wanted to know if we were going to see him? She wanted to make sure we see him before he dies. I told her I would be going after my race Sunday in the afternoon. But truth be known my mind was thinking of grandpa most of the night and I took it as a sign with all the rain that I shouldn't do the race in Milton, there will be other races.



The doctors at the hospital said all they can do for Grandpa now is make him comfortable. So this morning we all are on our way to visit Grandpa and hopefully make him a little happier being with him, comforting him, and showing him how much we love him, which I know he will appreciate.



My Grandpa Alex, in better day's...

The pond

Today I hooked up my pump and filter to my pond, to make the fishy's happy even if it sounds like a motor boat. lol...I use my old pool sand filter and jacuzzi pump, It works wonders! It clears the pond up in no time. I only need to have it on for short periods of time, usually a half hour to and hour once or twice a week.

I've been in taper mode this week getting ready for my Tri a tri race Sunday. lol Do I really need to taper?? I'm hoping to do well and maybe podium tomorrow at Milton, as last time I did the tri a tri race I came in 4th and just missed getting on the podium for 2nd place by less then 50 seconds and 3rd by even less! all because I had trouble getting my wetsuit off because the zipper got stuck and I couldn't pull the stupid thing off. This time I'm not going to wear my wetsuit and hopefully save some time, and with luck if I can run, I may see my first podium finish in a Triathlon. Hopefully I'll have some pictures to post. :)

:)

Florida Race Report.

On May 12Th I started out early for my drive to Florida. Actually it was 8am. My plan was to make it to Macon Georgia for Thurs morning where I was going to visit my friend Ricky. I drove straight for 17 hours except to fill up with gas 3 times and made it to the outskirts of Macon by 1am Thurs morning where I pulled into a rest stop just outside of town and only 15 min from Ricky's house, but being so late I didn't want to show up at Ricky's house in the middle of the night even though he left a key to his house out for me, so I slept for 5 hours in the car. When I woke up I drove out to find Ricky's house. When I got to his house I found the key and let myself in, Ricky told me he would be at work and should be home by noon. I was still tired so I found the couch and laid down for some more sleep. I woke up when I heard the front door open, it was Ricky. I jumped up to greet him. We then talked a while then he took me out to lunch. After lunch we went back to his house and since he had no TV we decided to take in a movie and watched the new Ironman 2 movie, what else!?! lol

After the movie we went out for dinner to Longhorns restaurant where again Ricky treated me to some of the best Prime rib I've eaten in a long time. By the time we got home it was getting dark and since there was no TV to watch it was time to get some sleep as I was still tired from my long drive and Ricky being the gracious host who stayed up all day when he should have been sleeping working the midnight shift was tired to. I told Ricky I wanted to hit the road early as I was excited to get to the Florida 70.3 venue and check into my hotel, as well as there was suppose to be a space shuttle launch that I wanted to see live and in person.

Friday morning I got up at 6am to start my travels. Ricky woke to, to see me off and I thanked him for being such a good friend for letting me visit and being so gracious and generous to me, Thank you Ricky.


Me and Ricky in his living room and my bedroom. lol Actually the couch was very comfy.

It took me around 6 - 6 1/2 hours to get to my hotel, but my room wasn't ready yet so I went to fort Wilderness where the Florida 70.3 race takes place and went to registration to pick up my race packet.

The registration table..... also the same place where the awards presentation takes place.

I wondered around checking out the swim course....

After a few hours wondering around the expo I went to check into my hotel room. I was delighted with my room, it was a corner room on the ground floor. it was a very large room with comfy double beds. I quickly got organized and settled in then laid out my race packet to see what I got.

Not to shabby, a tec shirt and hat and a carry bag.

After I got settled I checked my face book status on my daughters computer which I borrowed and to my delight I got a message from Greg Guzman if I wanted to join him Jennifer, Katy and Jerry for dinner. So I did. I was the first there at the restaurant at Disney downtown so I waited outside on the patio pretending to be a tourist and snapped pictures of Katy and Jerry as they walked by me not recognizing me until I yelled at them and said " What! your not going to say hi! " lol Katy was quick to say she thought I was some strange tourist taking photos and was ignoring me. lol Greg and Jennifer showed up shortly after and we all sat and chatted and ate dinner.

Katy, Jerry, Jennifer and Greg with the kids in the back all busy watching Greg eat his fish. I had a pasta and chicken dish.

Group shot. ...

After dinner we all went to Greg's hotel room which was across from Disney world to take in the evening fire works over the Disney world castle which we could see over the water from outside his room directly behind Greg and Jennifer and her kid in this picture.....

Jerry and Greg in deep discussion about beer in his room before Fireworks, Katy listening intently.

The next morning was the famed pre-race pancake breakfast at Allen and Jenna's campsite at Fort Wilderness.

Jenna serving up pancakes, with Libby her daughter and Allen? ..well being Allen. lol

Good food and coffee brings on smiles.

A little later Debbie and her friend Jo showed up for pancakes after doing some volunteering at the Ironkids race.
Group shot of everyone.

While talking around the picnic table Katy makes a face and points to my neck telling me there is a huge Caterpillar crawling on me and I quickly brush it off, then a few minutes later I feel tingling down the back of my neck and front torso, so I excuse myself and go to the washroom, take my shirt off and find I'm welting up. I start washing my neck with soap and water which didn't help much but made me feel better. I get back to camp and show everyone. Jenna then tells me, ya we have poisonous caterpillars here. I asked her what to do? since she is a Doctor after all, and she asked if I'm have trouble breathing? I said no, then she told me to take some antihistamine and calamine lotion. At that time Allen handed me some lotion which helped with the burning and itching.

After the breakfast I realized I didn't have my race stickers on my bike? as my plan was to go and rack my bike and set up for the race.

When I got back to my hotel room I took some antihistamine and I had some pure Aloe lotion which I put on which helped the itching and burning right a way. I was worried that this might affect my race the next morning, but in the morning the Aloe lotion brought the welts, bumps and redness down, so it din't affect my race at all. I put my stickers on my bike and went back to the venue to rack and roll! lol I met up with everyone again and we were deciding to meet for dinner again. But as time was short some couldn't make it.

Picture of the reaction from the poison Caterpillar ( called a low moth caterpillar)

That evening ( saturday night) I met with Allen and Jenna for dinner and Megan who took the time to come an meet up with us. It was great to see her again! she was looking like a million bucks! Thanks for meeting us Megan.

After dinner we all went our seperate ways I went back to my hotel to perpare for my race. I went to bed by 9pm and was up at 3am.

Race morning started off nice and warm, it looked to be a great day. I set up my gear by my bike, checked my bike and laid out everything the way I like for a quick transition. After that, I went to the washroom where while waiting in line I met up with Kevin aka Lanceman! We didn't have a long chat as the line move quickly. I looked for Kevin after I did my business, but didn't see him again? Oh well it was nice to see him anyway.

I then went down to the swim start and watched the pros go off, I was in the 5th wave I think? I don't remember now. but before going off I did see Allen and wished him well.

The horn blows and away I went. I took the outside hoping to avoid all the bashing. I had a good start and was swimming away from everyone? I'm thinking whats going on? I'm not even pushing hard. i kept up my pace and rounded the far turn boy with a little congestion but was soon free to more open water. I finally reach shore and check my watch, 28 min, not bad? easy swim and I'm feeling fresh. I get into transition and change into my bike shorts pulling them over my bathing suit and put my shirt and helmet on then my shoes. I UN-rack my bike and run/walk it out of transition to the mount line and away I went.

It was already hot out and new I needed to start drinking, so I started sipping my orange G-aid.

I got my speed up to a comfortable speed got into areo and stayed there as long as I could manage. My back started hurting about 20 miles in where I had to sit up and stretch, at the same time I would grab my snack to eat which was stroopwaffles! I love these things Google it if you don't know what it is, but I find they give me lots of energy and fill my belly nicely taking that hollow feeling out of my belly. I ate three of them on the bike over the 90 kms along with 2 full orange gator aid I made and 2 waters and half a lemon lime G-aid handed out along the bike course.

The last half of the bike route the winds picked up and I was straining to keep my pace up. I must have lost a good 1/2 mile per hour on the last 20 miles because of the wind. I finally made it in and I was right! I finished the bike with an average of 19.5 mi/hr with a time of 2:52:28, not bad considering the heat and wind.

I was well hydrated and fueled up after the bike. Matter of fact I didn't need any more nutrition along the run course! the 3 stroopwaffles were pleny to sustain me the rest of the way and the only thing I took along the run was water and ice to cool down and G-aid to sip.

I racked my bike and changed again pulling off my shirt which was stuck on me from sweat, and my bike shorts. I took my running shirt and dipped it into my cooler of ice water I had in a cooler I brought, then I pulled my shirt over me to cool me down. I grabbed hand fulls of ice and iced my head face and neck down as other riders changing saw me do and wished they had thought of. lol I offered some ice which a couple of people gratefully took. I then sat down to dry my feet and put my socks and shoes on, I was in no hurry as I knew it was going to be hot! My transition took almost 12 1/2 min. long I know, but I knew I wasn't going to kill myself in this heat, specially since I'm not used to it.

I finally started out on my run, My legs felt like lead! the heat was melting me I barely made it out of transition and onto the run course before I had to walk!?! I knew then this is going to be a long day and I have no chance for pulling off a PR with a hopeful 6 to 6 1/2 hour race. There was no way I was going to end up in a hospital, I could feel my face radiating with the heat and my heart pounding when I started to run, so I had a change in plans, I'll run when I feel up to it and walk the rest, no problem.

Then the problem started! I get to the part of the run where it is over grass lands running along side a river probably infested with alligators! the heat was just radiating over the grass and the ground made running very hard with sapping the energy out of your legs with the softer ground so I baked as I walked through what some of us were calling the African Serengeti., the water along the side looked so inviting, but for fear of alligators I didn't dare to tempt fate, so I just kept walking. I hit every aid station along the way with dunking myself with Ice water taking my shirt off and dunking it into the pools of ice water and putting it back on to cool myself. I also sipped on ice water and G- aid at every station carrying cups of ice to suck on along my walks.

Over all I would say I would walk 10 min and run 2- 3 min most of the way, once we got back on to the paved trail through the park I was able to run most of the distance as there was some shade and the fact that I could run better on sturdy ground as apposed to the grass trail in the heat of the sun.

Finally the first loop was done, now to do it again! by now my shoes have gotten soaked which is bad, as the blisters started to come. I tryed to avoid getting my shoes wet for fear of blisters, but now it was to late. I noticed more and more people where starting to walk more, so I started feeling better. I had heard people were passing out from heat and all I could hear were the sirens of medics in the air. I said to myself is it really worth it? don't people have minds? well I stuck to my plan to survive and not die in this heat, so I took my time and enjoyed the day.

As hot as it was and knowing I wasn't going to have a good run split I was enjoying the heat, even with the intencity of the oven baking heat, I know back home it was cold, as only days before we had snow! so I didn't care. Bring on the heat! I love it!!

I kept pushing forward and looking for the next aid station hoping there was still ice around, which there was plenty of! even nearing the end of the race!

I finally made my way around the 3rd and last loop, then through the last mile of trail path through the campgrounds and into the finish. I was battling back and forth with a couple of AG men in my AG when I finally took hold and ran out the last half mile leaving them back behind me, good thing or else I would have been 105 out of 105 in my AG for the run lol....I cross the line in 7:27:51... I was happy! What a hot day though!!

After I finished and had a short rest I went looking for the others, I found Katy and Jerry at the awards area so I camped out with them. Katy had a good race finishing a good hour or more before me. great job Katy. We sat and waited around for Allen and Jenna but they never showed? they said they wanted to get slots for IMAZ? but with a change of heart I found out later they decided to pass. I don't blame them. today race was tough! and Allen had issues with his running to and wanted to rectify that before attempting a full again. So then after the awards they opened the slots up and Katy picked up her slot for IMWI, she almost got a slot for the 70.3 championships in clearwater, but missed the roll down by one girl, Oooo so close. :)

We left company and said our goodbyes and I went back to my hotel. I had a full day Monday to recover and relax before heading back home so Monday I just did the pool thing at my hotel most of the day and relaxed.

Me after the race collecting my gear and bike.

Me and Katy at the awards venue, you can see the sun we got on our faces.

Me back in my hotel room checking out if the metal is good. lol

13 out of 105 AG Swim time ...39:02 2:04/100

64 out of 105 AG Bike time ... 2:52:28 19.5mphr avg

103 out of 105 AG run time ... 3:38:19 16:40

Total 7:27:51

Tuesday I got up early and started my drive home. I drove straight home non stop except for gas and potty breaks and took me 22 1/2 hrs. I saw Joanne when I got home she was getting ready for work and was suprized to see me, She didn't expect me until late night, but was happy to see me. She went off to work, and I went for a nap.

I had a fun time seeing everyone and secondly racing the race I hope to do it again some time soon.

The end.

:)