Well it has been approximately (actually) 11 days since I ran my heart down that beautiful red and black carpet.

11 days ago in Cambridge, Maryland, I woke up at 4:30am, pulled on my Dixie Devil team kit, ran some cool water over my face, soaked on my TriTats, and nervously stumbled in to set up my transition area amongst the masses.

It was a surprisingly cool morning for Eagleman – in the upper 60s. Water temp was around 74 degrees… wetsuit legal (THANK GOODNESS). I set up my usual area and met up with Nate to go over some last-minute things before I picked a spot in the seeding. This year Eagleman did a seeded start, which meant they had a few volunteers out there with swim pace signs letting athletes pick where they would do best. I positioned myself in a group at the end of the 45-48 minute group, and it took about 45 minutes from the pro start to when my group started. On the way in to the water, we had the opportunity to shake the hand of the Eagleman race director, Gerry Boyle (I think that was my favorite part!).

The buoys were set up almost perfectly straight and looking at my Garmin track afterwards was amazing. I don’t think I have ever swam that straight in my entire life. There were tons of kayaks, boats, etc out there for support and I never felt worried about anything. We hit a little chop in the Choptank and some of the kayak volunteers were tipping us to breathe right to avoid the waves which was really helpful for us newbies to the brackish water scene. I did get kicked in the goggles at one point which was not fun. It unseated my left goggle to suck my eyeball out. I never fixed it so basically I was swimming with one eye – luckily not left-eye dominant!

During the swim I remember thinking to myself how irritating it was when people seeded themselves wrong – I was having to pass quite a few and I hate getting in other swimmers’ spaces. When I got out of the water at the boat ramp I looked down at my watch – 38 minutes. A HUGE personal best for me in open water. So the truth was that I was the one who seeded wrong!! My bad…

Wetsuit ripped off and sludging in to transition, I had ridiculously long transitions. I still don’t understand why. There was quite a bit of area between the previous leg and the transition areas, so maybe the distance to transition is what set me back. But really, they were like 6 minute and 5 minute transitions.

On to the bike and the weather stayed PERFECT. I remember thinking about possibly stopping to use the port-o at the first rest stop, but I was going at a good pace and I had plenty of fuel to last me until the next stop. Going along well, then suddenly I HAD TO GO SO BAD. Basically the worst I have ever had to go in my entire life. For like, 15 miles (that’s basically an hour). At Toughman last year it was raining the entire day, so, you know, it wasn’t a big deal to just let it fly. But at Eagleman, there are cyclists EVERYWHERE, it is SO dry, just not a good race for someone like me with a nervous bladder! I stopped at the second aid station to use the port-o, then back on the road. About mile 40 I got a horrible lower back right side stitch. I pretty much thought I had held my bladder too long and this was my kidney failing. Not going to lie. I had a few moments of panicking and thinking to myself – “there is no way I can run a half marathon like this” and that I was going to DNF my “A” race. I slowed way down, started getting passed left and right (well, all left), and took a huge mental hit. My HR dropped, I started shoving everything I could find in my body – gels, crackers, salt, Tailwind, everything and anything. It was obvious from seeing my stats later that I had just fallen behind on my calories and my electrolytes were off. Third and final rest stop I jumped off to use the port-o again, mostly to just make sure my kidney wasn’t failing, and refueled. At that point I started feeling MUCH better, but I was so worried about burning out my legs during the last push that I didn’t max out on the home stretch. There was also a headwind coming back, so that was unfortunate.

In to transition, in to the chute towards the run and I see my parents, husband and kids. It was exactly what I needed to get out of the rut and settle in to a nice pace out there. I felt great. I talked with several athletes in their own struggles and we encouraged each other, I felt extremely supported by the entire community out there, and the weather stayed perfect all day. I walked at every aid station, shoved in bananas, pretzels (for the salt), gels and water, and everything was good until about mile 10 – then I was hit by another side stitch. So bad it doubled me over and I started walking kind of hitched to the side in agony. I was getting dizzy, my diaphragm was spasming so it was hard to breathe, just a bad mile. I think at that point since I had been sticking with water I really offset my electrolytes – basically flooded my system of salt, etc. that I needed. At the next aid station I chugged a cup of Gatorade and ate a handful of pretzels and a banana – and magically everything started to repair. I got a little gust of wind on the last 0.5 mile, saw the finish in the distance, and bolted down the carpet to the finish line.

Being on that carpet towards the finish is unlike anything else. There were so many people there cheering, music blasting, announcer on the loudspeaker, just tunnel vision to the finish.

It. was. amazing.

So my second 70.3 has completed with a 33-minute 70.3 PERSONAL RECORD!!! I will absolutely be back to try this one again.