Drove to Sun River from Portland on Friday to pick up my race packet and died laughing when I saw I my assigned race number was 420! If you are reading this and do not get it do not worry about it ;-) I bought a neoprene cap (aka "Squid Lid") from my friends at Athletes Lounge at Sunriver village since I was so paranoid about my brain freezing during the swim. Headed up to Wikiup reservoir around noon to set up my bike and test out the water. Brought the shlong suite (short and long) so I could test the water out then have the full body one nice and dry for race morning. Got in the water with my schlong and and it did not feel like a complete ice bath. It was a "balmy" 60 degrees. By Wikiup reservoir standards this is warm. I jumped on my bike for about 25 minutes and did about 5 1 minute intervals to get the legs nice and warmed up. Jumped in the water for 10 minutes just to get into the "open water zone" and to decide if I was going to switch to the duathlon. I was in the Wikiup/Mt Bachelor area that previous Sunday and it was snowing during my bike ride! I got unnecessarily freaked out and contemplated doing the duathlon (just the bike and run portion) instead. For my run workout I did 10 minutes with a few 30 second sprints. My carb loading strategy was my homemade strawberry rhubarb pie the night before ;-)
Race Morning
Woke up Saturday morning at 5:30. Went into the bathroom mixed my maltodextrin and protein/malto formulas. Here is the deal; the Bend Motel 6 is across the street from an adult novelty shop and strip club. My maltodextrin when mixed with water has an EXACT resemblance to a certain male substance.... As I was packing my bottles and my malto flask I noticed I managed to get malto mix all over the counter, floor, mirror and sink. I did my good deed for the day by cleaning up every last bit o the mix so the housekeeper who would be checking my room later that morning would not be completely mortified. About 6:20 I ended up eating my egg whites, ham, cheese and oatmeal with two apples mixed in. I washed down my breakfast with a powerade zero. About 6:45 I ate my 290 calorie protein bar (again I am a weird freak, my body demands protein for endurance events)
SWIM 1.2 Miles
Arrived at Wikiup about 7:45. My swim start was originally scheduled for 9:01 am but due to road construction and one of the buses transporting athletes getting in a wreck we were a half
hour late starting. This would mean even more heat on the run, great.. I ate 15 minutes later then I wanted to so I was glad the swim was delayed or I may have "fed the fish" my breakfast. I had to have someone show me how to put the neoprene cap I bought the day before. Once the horn went off at 9:30 I started heading toward the first buoy and could not see anything, the glare was awful! I had to trust the other athletes I was drafting off of were swimming in a straight line. When we turned to head toward the 2nd buoy it was clear!! Woo Hoo! I was pretty much in the middle of the pack (getting bumped around etc) until we came upon the 3rd buoy. I turned and looked and saw the 
Red Bull sign; this meant to swim was almost over. At this point I am experiencing calm for the first time in the swim so I become suspicious... I pop my head out of the water, look to my right, and see a steady stream of athletes heading toward the red bull sign about 50 feet from me; of course expletives came out of my mouth; I knew now I was not going to meet my swim time goal of 38 minutes. $%%$#$. I finally got back on course and was out of the water in a little over 40 minutes. I was glad I had the squid lid, this saved me from an ice cream headache. For some reason I had a mini meltdown in transition and was doing a little bit of the hyperventilating thing. As my mom would say "I finally pulled my head out of my ass" and ran out of transition with my bike. My awesome husband Nick was like "great swim" and my reply was "My swim sucked".
Red Bull sign; this meant to swim was almost over. At this point I am experiencing calm for the first time in the swim so I become suspicious... I pop my head out of the water, look to my right, and see a steady stream of athletes heading toward the red bull sign about 50 feet from me; of course expletives came out of my mouth; I knew now I was not going to meet my swim time goal of 38 minutes. $%%$#$. I finally got back on course and was out of the water in a little over 40 minutes. I was glad I had the squid lid, this saved me from an ice cream headache. For some reason I had a mini meltdown in transition and was doing a little bit of the hyperventilating thing. As my mom would say "I finally pulled my head out of my ass" and ran out of transition with my bike. My awesome husband Nick was like "great swim" and my reply was "My swim sucked". Swim Time: 42:40 Women 30-34 18/28 57% Women Overall 83/148 56%
BIKE 58 miles
Once I got on the bike I had to fight to put my disappointing swim behind me (I LOVE to beat myself up) and thought from this point forward I am going to focus on my 3hr bike time goal. My attitude was immediately adjusted when about 5 miles into the bike two little girls were yelling "girl power". This brought me to tears of happiness; it was overwhelming. The first 24-28 miles of the course were nice rolling hills. I kept my HR mostly in the mid to upper 150's on the rollers/flats. From about miles 28 to 36 is a consistent climb up to the top of Mt Bachelor (there are a few very small dips). This results in about 2000 feet of elevation gain. During the climb I kept my HR mostly in the low to high 160s (lactate threshold). Got this pain in my right glute (butt) so I had to massage it on the ride to get it to relax. People were probably wondering why I was feeling myself up. According to my masseur Jacob who I saw 6 days after the race I did indeed "tear my middle right ass". As I was about 1/2 way through the climb this woman yells (get those boys); I smiled and gave her the thumbs up;-) The 80's song "lets hear it for the boys" kept playing over and over again. As I was on the steepest part of the climb a pair of two guys get right next to me (keep in mind I am almost 6000 feet above sea level at this point, and Portland is at sea level so the air is feeling extraordinarily thin and my heart is pumping out of my chest) so I almost lose my balance. I had to keep it real and inform them "Only one person is supposed to pass at a time and be 3 feet away from the person they are passing". I LOVE testosterone! It was pretty warm climbing Bachelor; the sun was really beating down on my back. By mile 38 the climbing was finally done; now time for the descent. As I was flying down the opposing side of the mountain pushing almost 40 mph a deer runs across the road! That would have left a mark. Was a nice steady descent until about mile 52 then the last part of the bike route as a 6 mile flat back into Sunriver village. I pushed my hear rate into about 170 (above my lactate threshold) for this last portion; I was going to meet my time goal of 3 hrs on the bike and I did!!!! This was my proudest accomplishment of the race; the start of the bike was about 4300 feet above sea level and we gained 2000 feet of elevation to the summit of bachelor peaking at 6,384 feet ;-)
Nutrition: Got through 2 1/2 bottles of my malto/protein and four servings of maltodextrin shots.
Bike Time: 3:00:39
Bike Pace: 18.60 miles per hour
Women 30-34: 6/28 21%
Women Overall: 28/148 19%
RUN 13.1 miles
Got into transition and grabbed my flask of maltodextrin (with the equivalent of 4 servings) and off I went! It very warm on the run (mid to high 80's) and most of the run was on exposed pavement/asphalt with no tree cover. In summary the run was flat and hot. I took 1 enduroylte 
salt tablet about every 20-25 minutes. I kept my hr mostly in the mid 160's. I tried to push harder on the run but my legs were not having it; this was the price I paid for the decent bike split. My legs were not going to move any faster. At every water stop I took in one cup of water to wash down the maltodextrin and endurolytes and another to pour in my shirt (thanks Katie for the tip!!!) By the third water stop my bladder was screaming and there was no way I was going to be able to bend my legs to sit in the outhouse; I had so much lactic acid build up at this point I feared if I stopped I would not be able to start running again. I had no choice, I just let it flow baby! I tried to be considerate as to not splash on anyone around me. I can guarantee I am not the only one who has ever peed myself during a race. By the last two miles of the run my legs felt like they were going to fall off but with the excitement of the end of the race in sight I was able to push to a heart rate of 170 to the finish.
Nutrition: 1 flask with the equivalent of 4 maltodextin shots, sip of water at every stop, 4 enduroylote tablets.
Run Time: 2:00:34
Run Pace: 9:12 minutes per mile
Women 30-34: 7/28 25%
Women Overall: 39/148 26%
Post Race
Immediately following the race I felt a little nauseous (as I usually do after a half ironman) but knew I had to eat within 45 minutes of finishing. Due to the utter disgust of the post race food Nick and I walked to the market and got some tuna fish and crackers. Fish is the perfect recovery food, I swear! That night for dinner I had a big piece of grilled salmon (Omega 3 fatty acids baby) and by the next day I was fatigued (to be expected) but my body generally felt pretty good considering.
Overall Race Summary:
4200 calories burned (you would think I would be eating the wood off of buildings but it took almost 3 days for my appetite to come back) Average heart rate 159 beats per minute.
Finish Time: 5:47:47
Women 30-34: 6/28 21%
Women Overall 26/148 18%
