Well, I survived. I have several mixed emotions about this race. It was definitely the prettiest race I have ever done. It was also the hardest course I have ever done and it was also the least prepared I have ever been for a race! So, it was set apart from any other race I have done before I even started!
The race started in Guerneville, CA on the Russian River. The swim was an out and back in a very narrow river. Luke was doing the full iron distance race and his wave started at 6:45, so we had to get there very early for him. It was very cold at the start and I was interested to see what the weather would be for the rest of the day. It wasn't that foggy though and the announcer kept warning that that meant it was going to be a very hot day. The transition zone was open racking by age group and I got a pretty good spot since I was there so early. Shellie and I watched Luke start his race, then thought we spotted him finishing his first loop, but weren't sure because it seemed too fast for him, but then sure enough, he popped out of the water in 1:11. His only shout to Shellie? "Make sure Kathleen knows I swam faster than her IMAZ time." Lovely. We watched him transition and get on his bike. He really needs a transition lesson or two. He was there forever!!
As soon as I saw him bike away it was finally time for my race to start, at 8:15. The water was in
the lower 70s which is cold to me at first, even in a wetsuit. My wave wasn't very crowded and I didn't really have to fight anyone for free water. However, I hated the swim the whole time. I knew I was out of shape and kept asking myself why the hell I let myself get talked into doing a race I hadn't trained for. At the turn around I saw 19:xx on my watch and was even madder. I was thinking I might have a decent swim since Luke had an awesome one, but didn't think so after I saw that time on my watch. I didn't look at my watch again until I could see the finish line and then I saw 32:xx. Wow. That was way faster than I thought. I guess the river did have a current...I picked up the pace to see what I could do and ended up with a swim PR of 35:54. Luke says the course may have been a bit short and I may agree, but haven't really put any real thought into it. If it was, oh well, and if not, that's cool too.
I saw Shellie on my way out and it was good to see a familiar face. I ran and walked from the start and didn't have much of a goal other than to keep some sort of forward progress. The aid stations were about every mile and very well stocked. They also had quite a few people out with water hoses cooling us off which was nice. The run actually wasn't that bad, but maybe because I was walking so much. It was hot, for sure, and the hills were huge, but I walked most of them. There weren't many people out there at first but the course got more crowded as the day went on. The women in the race were all so nice and it was fun to see them over and over again (the course was a 4.4 mile out and back loop and then a 2.2 mile out and back loop on the same course). I came back to transition at the finish of my first loop and saw Shellie. I had been doing the math and figured Luke would be finishing the bike at any time and I expected to see him on the run shortly. When I saw Shellie cheering for me I asked if he had come through and she didn't really answer. Then I thought I saw him sitting behind her, but couldn't figure out if it was him or not. I was so confused. I figured if it was him he would have been cheering for me. When I ran back the other direction across the parking lot I looked again and tried hard to see if it was him. The further I got into my second loop without seeing him, the greater chance I figured it was him sitting in the bleachers. I was about to get really mad at him for dragging me out there to do this race I hadn't trained for only to have him quit his! Then I figured he probably had good reason for not going on and hoped everything was ok.
The race started in Guerneville, CA on the Russian River. The swim was an out and back in a very narrow river. Luke was doing the full iron distance race and his wave started at 6:45, so we had to get there very early for him. It was very cold at the start and I was interested to see what the weather would be for the rest of the day. It wasn't that foggy though and the announcer kept warning that that meant it was going to be a very hot day. The transition zone was open racking by age group and I got a pretty good spot since I was there so early. Shellie and I watched Luke start his race, then thought we spotted him finishing his first loop, but weren't sure because it seemed too fast for him, but then sure enough, he popped out of the water in 1:11. His only shout to Shellie? "Make sure Kathleen knows I swam faster than her IMAZ time." Lovely. We watched him transition and get on his bike. He really needs a transition lesson or two. He was there forever!! 
As soon as I saw him bike away it was finally time for my race to start, at 8:15. The water was in
the lower 70s which is cold to me at first, even in a wetsuit. My wave wasn't very crowded and I didn't really have to fight anyone for free water. However, I hated the swim the whole time. I knew I was out of shape and kept asking myself why the hell I let myself get talked into doing a race I hadn't trained for. At the turn around I saw 19:xx on my watch and was even madder. I was thinking I might have a decent swim since Luke had an awesome one, but didn't think so after I saw that time on my watch. I didn't look at my watch again until I could see the finish line and then I saw 32:xx. Wow. That was way faster than I thought. I guess the river did have a current...I picked up the pace to see what I could do and ended up with a swim PR of 35:54. Luke says the course may have been a bit short and I may agree, but haven't really put any real thought into it. If it was, oh well, and if not, that's cool too.
Now, onto the apparent highlight of my day. Not until I just looked did I realize that I had THE FASTEST T1 of the ENTIRE RACE! And it was slow! I took my wetsuit off close to the water (after the timing mat) and struggled with it a bit. I was pretty slow and then had some trouble running with my bike through the lovely gravel and rocks to get to the bike start. Apparently it wasn't nearly as slow as it felt though. My T1 time was 1:47. The next fastest time (which belonged to the girl who won my AG) was 1:54. At least I'm good at something. Too bad it is pretty useless in a 6+ hour race!
The bike course started on a very steep short uphill. I made it up without too much trouble, but wondered what else would to come. The course was awesome for the first hour or so. It had wonderful views and was generally a fun and exciting course. Then by about 16 miles I was already over it! We hadn't come up on an aid station yet and I ran out of water at mile 12. I hurt everywhere and it became blatantly obvious I had not trained at all for this distance or terrain. I finally hit an aid station close to mile 19 and two of the girls volunteering gushed about my flowered shorts and that perked me up a tiny bit. The next miles headed further north and were straight into the wind. The hills weren't too cool either. I had no idea where the course exactly went and if I would be assured a head wind at some point. Mile 16 through 30 or so really sucked. I finally had some wind at my back as we headed south and the terrain got pretty again (aka I could actually see it). We had driven this part of the course the day before, so I at least knew it generally headed south and I was pretty sure the wind was from the north at this point. I also knew the dreaded Chalk Hill Road hill was somewhere around mile 45 and was scared about that. The hill did come and I hit an all time low - 3.8 mph! It was not very steep, just very long and just kept going. There were a few turns in it too, so you didn't know how long it was going to be. After that I knew it was mostly downhill the rest of the way, so I was ok. Part of me was really dreading the run, especially as it was getting so hot. I thought about dropping out after the bike, but then realized that would be a totally un-Kathleen like thing to do. I just didn't really have any desire to run 13.1 miles in the hills in hot weather. My bike time was 3:28 which is right around a 16.0 mph average. Good enough considering I haven't ridden a single hill since last October and only had one sort of long ride in the three months before the race.
My mind changed about running a bit when I finally got off my bike. My butt, back, and shoulders didn't hurt anymore and my legs weren't absolutely toast. My T2 time wasn't as stellar as my T1. I was in there 2:21 which was 35th out of 202 racers. The asphalt was super hot when I tried to stand on it with my bare feet when I was putting my run shoes on. It threw me off a bit. There was also quite a run from my bike to the run start.
I saw Shellie on my way out and it was good to see a familiar face. I ran and walked from the start and didn't have much of a goal other than to keep some sort of forward progress. The aid stations were about every mile and very well stocked. They also had quite a few people out with water hoses cooling us off which was nice. The run actually wasn't that bad, but maybe because I was walking so much. It was hot, for sure, and the hills were huge, but I walked most of them. There weren't many people out there at first but the course got more crowded as the day went on. The women in the race were all so nice and it was fun to see them over and over again (the course was a 4.4 mile out and back loop and then a 2.2 mile out and back loop on the same course). I came back to transition at the finish of my first loop and saw Shellie. I had been doing the math and figured Luke would be finishing the bike at any time and I expected to see him on the run shortly. When I saw Shellie cheering for me I asked if he had come through and she didn't really answer. Then I thought I saw him sitting behind her, but couldn't figure out if it was him or not. I was so confused. I figured if it was him he would have been cheering for me. When I ran back the other direction across the parking lot I looked again and tried hard to see if it was him. The further I got into my second loop without seeing him, the greater chance I figured it was him sitting in the bleachers. I was about to get really mad at him for dragging me out there to do this race I hadn't trained for only to have him quit his! Then I figured he probably had good reason for not going on and hoped everything was ok.For the most part the run was totally uneventful. Hot and hilly are about all I have to say about
it. I finally decided around mile 6 or 7 that I should aim for a 6:45 finish, but had no idea if that would happen or not - it was just kind of a number I had in my head. By mile 10 and 11 I told myself I had to go for it because I didn't really have an excuse not to. I ran most of the last mile in and had a good finish. I wasn't totally sure of my finish time because I'd screwed with my watch, but I knew it was between 6:40 and 6:45. Run time was 2:34 and overall time was 6:42. I was 81 out of 203 finishers overall. I'm not sure what the DNF rate was for my race, but I heard it was close to 20% for the full iron event due to the heat. Hmm...that sounds familiar!
it. I finally decided around mile 6 or 7 that I should aim for a 6:45 finish, but had no idea if that would happen or not - it was just kind of a number I had in my head. By mile 10 and 11 I told myself I had to go for it because I didn't really have an excuse not to. I ran most of the last mile in and had a good finish. I wasn't totally sure of my finish time because I'd screwed with my watch, but I knew it was between 6:40 and 6:45. Run time was 2:34 and overall time was 6:42. I was 81 out of 203 finishers overall. I'm not sure what the DNF rate was for my race, but I heard it was close to 20% for the full iron event due to the heat. Hmm...that sounds familiar!As soon as I finished Shellie and Luke came over. So, it was him. Turns out he somehow hurt his shoulder on the swim and it wasn't so much working for him on the bike, so he called it a day after his first bike loop. Good call on his part - I'm impressed he pulled the plug when he did. I know plenty of guys who wouldn't have stopped and would have ended up with much worse problems in the long run. They also told me that they just announced it was 97 degrees out there. What??? The weather people said the highs would be in the 80s. Gees. No wonder I was hot! Of course the race on the same course 2 weeks earlier had a high of 66 for the day. Leave it to me. PSA - don't race with me if you want anything less than record-high heat. 
So, all in all, not a bad showing considering the complete lack of swim and bike training I put in beforehand. The course was beautiful and it was a nice change of scenery. I would have liked to maybe run a little faster, but I can't expect much after biking on totally un-trained bike legs. Special thanks to Sherpa Shellie for lugging all my crap around and being a bright smiling face on the course when I needed it most!!!
So, all in all, not a bad showing considering the complete lack of swim and bike training I put in beforehand. The course was beautiful and it was a nice change of scenery. I would have liked to maybe run a little faster, but I can't expect much after biking on totally un-trained bike legs. Special thanks to Sherpa Shellie for lugging all my crap around and being a bright smiling face on the course when I needed it most!!!
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