the water was overwhelmingly cold. the kayak guy, wearing a winter jacket, gloves and a hat, that stayed with me once I made the last turn was fabulous. kept telling me I was looking good swimming even though I felt as though I had a stroke and the right side of my body wasn't working. I don't know how in the world I actually swam 2 hours in the ice

swim faster so I can get out of the incredibly freaking cold water faster

I was so cold i couldn't feel anything, I don't remember getting out of the wet suit, and the people in the changing tent literally had to dress me. they handed me the jacket in my bag and all i could do was look at it and think, 'what the hell do I do with that? the zipper is zipped up and I can't feel my fingers to unzip". then we got to the point where an official came through the change tents and started warning us, 7 minutes to get out of here or you are done for the day..... i threw the jacket on the ground and raced without. ..then was sorry I didn't have a jacket

have hot water in the transition bag so i can drink it and warm up my insides

I could not feel my feet the first loop of the bike because of the cold, cold swim. I had crashed my bike two weeks earlier so my right arm was swollen, and for the first time I wished I had a tri bike rather than my wonderfully, amazing madone. ...but the arm injury would have prevented riding in aero so it worked. I also started my period a week late - YESTERDAY! so I had to deal with cramps, and standing in line for 10+ minutes on the bike route to change the tampon that I could finally change with the feeling coming back to my fingers. the bike was a disaster because of the swim. A big plus to the cramps thing -- I HAD to take advil. a woman on the plane who was an IM pro (as in has done several) told me the key to the run was to pop some advil on the bike to keep the swelling down in the knees once you hit the run. about a decade ago, at the finish line of a marathon in San Diego, they were handing out tylenol -- literally right where they hand out post race water. i popped one because my brain thought -- they are handing it to you, that means you should take it. after sitting there for an hour waiting for everyone in our group to finish, i threw up because of what the tylenol did to my stomach so I was afraid to ever do it during a race. but, racing with cramps and no advil was not an option either. i don't know that it helped with sore needs during the run but it didn't hurt -- and made me be sure i had enough solid food in my stomach to prevent upset.

get a tri bike, do something to warm up my interior after the swim so it doesn't sink my bike. physically, the ride was great in terms of muscles hurting, etc. it was just the logistics given all the other problems

I do not remember the transition AT ALL. not one single part of it. I think I was going through PTSD to be in transition again as I had flashbacks of the horrid T1 transition

I started out pretty fast -- running right around 9 min miles for the fist 13 -- then two mistakes:

1. one of my friends kept telling me how wonderful it is when they bring out the soup during the run so when they brought it out, I had some -- stupid, stupid because my stomach can't handle soup when I'm sitting around the house doing nothing.

2. I like to talk to people as I'm running as it takes my mind off the pain. I started talking to a guy while we were both walking, then when I started running again, he went with me, then walked again and i felt compelled to walk with him even though I was ready to run because, well, he was my new bff for 2 minutes and I didn't want to ditch him. I walked too long and was hard to get my body moving again.

I froze most of the run as well (the theme for the day was freeze my a$$ off). some guy gave me his coat to wear with 1/4 of the race left. super nice guy. I was so thankful for the jacket

other observations from the run:
- the run is four loops. at one point, some guy was upset I had run past him at a pretty good pace. I said, "no worries, it's only my first loop". his response, "I don't give a shit!". dude, if you don't want people passing you, run faster. he he
- the volunteers were amazing. I was carrying bengay with me and at one point I asked the volunteer to stick her hands under my nasty sweat shirt and run the bengay between my shoulder blades -- god gives her points for that one!
- someone sitting beside the run route with my having around 4 miles left commented to her friend, 'that's a really cute outfit" at that point my thought -- 'some situations merit changing something right before the race'. the cute comment during the last miles of the race was awesome.
- this is the only race ever where I have not been able to sprint at the end. i was going to start running again 1/2 mile to go -- I couldn't do it. but I did run the last 500 yards ... I think.

the race volunteer who was assigned to help me was a little creepy. he held me really tight as he helped me walk and I didn't need walking help. dude would not let go of me and I felt like I was being molested. I hope he thinks he was helping. he he

at the end, I was too tired to go get my stuff as I was required to do before heading back to the hotel so I sat in the massage table line. I took a little nap while getting massaged.

when I got back to the hotel, I fell into bed without even showering. how nasty is that? i slept two hours before I woke up with my feet screaming in pain. now I know what Michael Johnson felt like when his feet were burning.


the most disappointing aspect of the race is that there are zero pictures of me at the end. they extra had me get in front of the sign to show my medal, but no picture. sad. my first IM ever and nothing to commemorate. on the full course itself, there were maybe three pictures, and only far off glimpses. double sad. lesson learned -- if you want pictures from on course photographers, you better move a little faster so you aren't out there when they are sick of taking pics and/or moved to get the fast people in the pics. bugger. the race was surreal, although I did not feel victorious finishing. maybe my brain was frozen from a day of freezing?