70.3

The days leading up to LS 70.3 were less than spectacular. I’ve been in kind of fog.   However, this seemed to work to my benefit. I wasn’t stressing out about things like I normally would. Where’s my bike pump. What am I going to eat? I don’t like this water bottle. I hate spandex. Ugh, my wetsuit chokes me… and so on.

Except, when I went to the Expo and required Athlete meeting with my mom and roommate, I got nervous that I wasn’t getting nervous. I was way too calm for something like this. I even slept pretty well the night before- except for waking up at 3am and then starting to panic and not be able to eat.

Mom and I left for the course early so we could find parking and get to Transition. Piece of cake, we scored total Rock Star parking. I put all my stuff in Transition and wandered around hitting the porta-potties a couple times. Of course, the last time I had already put my wetsuit on…. Do you know how hard it is to pee with a wetsuit halfway on? Squeezing your legs together, trying to not let the arms touch the disgusting ground?

Anyway, they had to delay the start a little bit because of the amount of fog on the lake. Seriously, you couldn’t even see the little buoys that are supposed to lead you along! So, at 6:56 we jumped into the water and cheered each other on, and at 6:57 the horn blew and women 29 and under took off.

I’m a terrible swimmer. Mainly because I don’t swim straight. I swim right. And on this course, you keep the buoys on your left… so naturally I veer waaaay off course. I knew my swim wouldn’t be great, but it was basically the goal to make it through without killing my shoulder. About 42 minutes later I emerged and felt awesome. I raced through T1, but also took my time, and headed out on the grueling, hilly bike course.

I love this bike course. It’s not flat by any means, but it’s got some great climbs and some fast descents. But I loooove this bike course. It’s gorgeous. Green canopies keep you pretty well shaded and the turns keep it interesting. However, coming up to the end of the second loop I thought they were going to bring us back to town one way… I was wrong. And somehow I had change my bike computer to the second setting and thought I was four miles ahead of myself. Oops. I stopped eating a drinking a little too early. Oh well.


As I came up to Transition I heard a few people yell my name and others just cheering in general. I love that feeling! A slow T2 and I decided that since the porta-potty was open this was my best opportunity. I definitely stayed hydrated on the bike. Has anyone else ever noticed how hard it is to pee fast, when you REALLY want to pee fast??

Running out of T2 I felt pretty good. Muscles were firing, back felt good, the weather was great. The only thing that killed was the bottom of my feet- which was strange because they were pretty numb.

My half marathon time was 2:12 and change. Not too shabby since I starting walking some about three miles in when my quads started to burn. Like on fire. I saw one woman pull out of the race not even two miles into the run and I almost started crying for her. She looked so sad and in so much pain. It was all I could do but to hug her. But I kept going. Chatting with people here, cheering for people there, thanking volunteers who gave me cup after cup of Gatorade and water. And finally, I turned the corner and could see the finish line.

And of course, I thought to myself….. “Katie, this one is for you!” And I cruised across the finish line with a smile on my face and headed to find some pizza. Because really, what else is better after being in motion for 6:11:16 than a greasy slice of pizza???