Whew!  What a race!!  My overall time was 4:09:01.  I wasn't DFL!!  Yay!!  When we drove the course the day before I was so nervous about the hills.  They blocked off a lane on a major hwy and we rode on that.  It was a beautiful ride, but so hilly with long slow hills.  While going up the first and biggest one, I just kept my head down and pedaled because everytime I looked up to see how far I had to go, it was like "OMG, I haven't gone anywhere!!"  Seemed to last forever -- but I made it!  Yay!!  That bike ride was my biggest accomplishment this year!  Even harder than my half marathon!  Felt really good about it.  Kept trying to tell myself to just be in the moment and enjoy the beautiful TN hills and forget about how hard it was -- so I did and actually enjoyed it!    The run, on the other hand, totally sucked!  It was sooo hot.  I saw two people vomiting along the way!  Then when I got in, I sat in the "cooling tent" (the medical tent) for a what seemed like forever pouring cold water over my head and trying to cool down.  There were at least four people in there hooked up to IVs.  The medic gave me a towel full of ice and told me to put it on my neck and then down my shirt to cool my core (along with a cup of electrolytes) because they were all out of IV bags!!  My son, Wesley, said when he came in (an hour before me) the tent was FULL of people getting IVs!!  What a day!  Looking at my overall pace for the run, I don't know why I even bothered to "run" -- I could have walked that fast the entire way - haha.  It was a great race overall!  Wesley did fantastic - beat me by nearly an hour!  I'm just so proud of how far he's come in such a short time! 

Might like to do the race again next year -- get a little more  hill work in and it'll be easier.  Don't know what to do about the heat except endure it.  At least I didn't get sick for two days like I did at my last tri.   After recovering a bit in the medical tent, I actually walked to lunch and ate (unlike last time when I had to sit in the car in the AC while others ate).  Then I came home and really felt fine for the day (except sore).  And today I feel normal - except for sore neck, back, legs, etc.!  Very happy with my overall hydration. 

Got too hot to complete the entire trail we set out to do (hubby not up to it), but we'll try it again.