Wow! What a challenging, day. This by far was the most difficult event that I have ever participated in, and from now on,
all triathlons will be compared to Iron Girl Columbia. My swim was excellent! My stradegy was to hang back in the beginning
for a few seconds and then get in a comfortable space for my swim. We were treading for a good 10 minutes prior to the
beginning, good warm up. I still had a feeling of panic in the first few minutes, but found that if I swim breast stroke
until I can get my heart-rate and breathing under control, this allows me time to get oriented to the route and prevent
myself from being kicked in the face. Within a few minutes I hit my groove and had a long even smooth stride with good
breathing. A women near me was rescued and pulled into a small motor boat which left me with a mouth full of fuel. Ahhhh!
By the end of the swim, I could have kept going, getting vertical again was another story and I stumbled out of the water.
Ran into Judy from Iron Girl, we had met in Tampa a few times. I stopped, drank some water and chatted. I was in no hurry
through transition and was taking in the experience to complete the race. Robyn, Brian, Kaylynn & Bre-enna were cheering
my name as I came up the hill to exit transition on the bike. What a fabulous feeling to see them!

THE BIKE

Challenge #1- my bike was 6 days old, and although I had been practicing on it, there was much I needed to learn about this
upgrade, specifically how to properly shift. This coarse was either up hill or down hill, no flatlands to be found. Within
the first 5 miles, I popped the chain off of my bike while shifting up hill. I pulled over into the grass wondering if this
was the end of the race for me. There were support vans from Princeton Sports driving around, one of them could come by and
help me with the chain, but that could take several minutes or an hour. I am as mechanically inclined as a retarded penguin,
and this challenge of fixing my bike was an aspect of the race that I had not yet faced as a triathlete. After 30 minutes of
fiddling around, I flipped my bike over and in one swoop of my hand and pedal, lined up the chain and I was back in business.
So the key is flipping your bike over! I have since fixed my bike in the same manner within 30 seconds. Hands shirt covered
in black grease, onward I went forgetting to eat some fuel which would later cause me oodles of problems. I was thinking that
I needed to catch up and was not hydrating properly. With the heat and hills I began to feel ill by the 10th mile, I contemplated
quitting for the second time that day. I negotiated with myself, "Just make it to the bike turn around, drink your water,
eat your uncrustable and you will feel better, just make it to the turn around." Finally the turn around came and I un-assed
and sat on the curb with some other fine athletes hydrating and attempting to eat. It was too late and I was behind the 8-ball.
Alana flew in and had now caught me after I had a 45 minute start time ahead of her. She was going to smoke me again in true super
hero style. I debated quitting , physically I was fighting off nausea with every sip of water and could not choke down my
uncrustable. I thought that I had 8 more miles to go, and feeling defeated, overheard a girl say that we only had 4 miles to
go to transition. It was all I needed and jumped back on the bike striving up another long hill. We flew down the hills at
speeds close to 30 mph. That was AWESOME! Landing in transition we had to battle the traffic of startled drivers maneuvering
cars around streams of riders.

THE RUN

My legs burned with every step I took through the grass heading for the running path. I knew going into the race that I would
need to run/walk this portion, what I didn't expect was the grueling feeling of putting one foot infront of the other. So
that's what I did, I put one foot infront of the other, one step at a time, waiting for the pain to let up. I have grabbed my water
1/2 Gatorade bottle and sip it trying to turn it around. I knew at this point that I would finish and knew that my goal of 2.5
hours was long gone. More hills, more fucking hills, if possible I think they would have put a hill in the lake. Florida
flatland training is a whole different ball game. I have tremendous respect for those athletes that compete in Columbia
Triathlons. These were my stomping grounds, I used to walk, swim, bike in and around this lake as a teenager, but somehow,
these hills had gotten steeper. Water from the Village People helped push me on and I was taunted by the sounds of athletes
crossing the finish line across the lake. Echoes of music and clapping traveled easily over the lake and I wanted to just
swim to the finish line. I made several attempts to run, but was only able to take short minute spurts. When I thought this
race would never end, Alana comes running towards me carrying Gatorade and wearing a huge smile. "Come on, what are
you doing, why aren't you running?!"

"You're almost there, it's just around the corner, run!" I, at that point was convinced that my best friend was a big
fat lier and that I had several more miles to go and maybe another mountain to climb. I got a running start down a hill and just
didn't stop.

Alana crossed the finish line for a second time that day, holding my hand and pulling me through once again.

Day 3 - Survived the Columbia Iron Girl.

We shower, check out of the hotel and head to Kent Island . Tonight our hosts are Aunt Paula & Uncle David. We are surprised
by a celebratory dinner and cake with all of the family in attendance.  We soaked our bones in the local hot tub which was
cold but still is healing.

The next morning we fueled up, loaded up and headed back to 95 towards the state of Florida. Day 4 finds us in Fernandina Beach,
Florida  by night fall where Mom & Poppy take us in.

 Day 5 and the last day of our road trip we are desperate to be home and out of the car. Ed has done us well and we get a speeding
ticket in WALDO, FLORIDA, where's WALDO, just south of STARKE. There are two things that you should never do in WALDO or STARKE- one is
speed, and the other is drive through with out of town plates in a bright yellow bus. We in all honesty were not speeding, however
we did stick out like sour thumbs in this one stop  town. WALDO is known for one thing in the state of Florida- speed traps, they
are tricky traps that give them a huge advantage- they change the speed limits at least 6 times over a 4 mile stretch of road, speeding
tickets are the main source of income for the town and an out of town guest is an easy target with the police banking on the fact that
the guest will not return to contest the ticket, even if the guest was in the right. We were not speeding, to make matters worse, 
Alana and I, both paramedics, Alana being a firefighter, were pulled over in front of a fire station. Thanks asshole.

If you ever are on route through STARKE/WALDO  Florida,  the best place to eat is GRANNIES or is it Granny's. Granny's kitchen
serves up comfy simple diner foods in a cozy setting. Breakfast or lunch you are in for an inexpensive, home cooked meal with southern
specialties. Don't forget your sweet ice tea, Alana and I sucked down 2 glasses and the waitress was sweet enough to make us to-go cups.
With only a few dollars missing from our wallets, we hit the road one last time with our final stop...home in Tampa, Florida.