bang bang

What is this picture you ask? This is what I saw when I walked into my office at school this morning. Except the blinds were down, and all I saw was a few blinds pointing in and broken. I thought someone may have broken in (that happened a few weeks ago), but nothing was moved. I went outside to check the window and saw two large gun shots. Interesting. So I reported it to the office and by the time I got back to the office people were already standing around touching the holes. Once we started investigating we realized there were about 5 shots made, but only two went through the windows. One went through the window, nailed the calendar (on todays date...weird), and went through the wall into the kids playroom. Very scary. Once the cops showed up (3 hours later), they found a few of the bullets and the casings were actually at the front gate. They said that someone called to report gunshots last night at 3am. So apparently they stood at the front gate, could not get in, so they shot it up from about 40 yards away. It is not something you expect to find walking into a school, but luckily noone was hurt and hopefully this was just a freak kind of thing. For some reason our building has been targeted quite a bit this year. While we made the most of it, and continued to see kids in our bullet riddled office. Coincidentally one of my cop obsessed students was in the room when the cops showed up to ask me some questions. So we then took it upon ourselves to go out to the cop car and take some pictures posing. Gotta love it!

Frankie says relax

I went to see the ENT (ear nose throat) Dr today and boy was it an experience. It is a teaching hospital which means typically there are lots of people in and out of the office asking questions, this office was like grand central. The Dr came in and at first I thought he was a total dick bag, but then I realized he just had a really dry sense of humor, which I can appreciate. He basically drilled me on why I had face pain and why my jaw is now all screwed up. I told him I had no idea, however as I was standing in line to begin my triathlon, I never felt so much stress/fear/anxiety in my life and really thought "this is not healthy." As soon as I began the race I felt a weight lift off of me and realized that I had not felt normal for quite a while. So I explained to the Dr. that it could have been that.
He suggested I get a CT scan and I will be going to a physical therapist to see if they can help me at all. He gave me some reading to do on buddhism......
He said "What are you going to do to destress?"
My responses were "go to the beach"...him "yeah cause then sitting in here with melanoma won't get you stressed!"
My next response, "go to a wine bar every night" (got a great look from the dr and the other 10 prospective dr's)
My next response, "well the pills I popped for the MRI were kind of nice, maybe i'll start popping pills" (more dirty looks)
THe Dr's response, "maybe you are just too funny for your own good."
Maybe he is right.
I am hoping that the PT will help because he said that he is big on surgeries to fix problems. He seems to think that this is all stress related and that I am 'clenching' during the day.
ho hum off to the wine bar!

new do

So the professional vineman pics were posted and they certainly are something!

Here is the link: http://www.photo-chambers.com/

Then click on the pics for Vineman 70.3

once there my bib number is 869. If you want to see perhaps the worst/funniest picture of the day, go to the 'lost and found' click on 'females in purple swim caps' and go to page 4. Look for the girl who is half dressed stuck in a wetsuit with her tongue hanging out of her mouth. That would be me!

I just got back fro one of the best haircuts I have had in a while. I have been wanting to cut off all the piss yellow hair that has just been getting fried since being in the sun all the time. I went to jet rhys salon which is by my house in the "gay area" so you know you are in for a good cut. While I am upset to find out that my hairdresser was not my future gay husband, he was a hell of a stylist. I pretty much went in and said "I want the blonde gone, and you can do whatever you want." He surveyed the situation for a bit then went to town. He did a 2 hour cut and was so meticulous that my ass fell asleep. But it looks great and I feel like a new person! Gotta love the gut check!

Heading out to get some yogurt with some girls and then to see the grunions! I love how out in SD everything pertains to a 90210 episode. The grunions are those little silver fish that Kelly and Brandon had their first kiss waiting for. There are thousands of fishies that come up onto shore to spawn and then go flopping back into the water. I am probably going to have nightmares about this for a while.

Back to life

Life after training is always a little funny. Your body needs the rest, yet your mind is still telling you to feel guilty for not doing anything. THat and I am still eating like I am in training. I have to give myself more reminders to eat healthy since I am not working out like crazy. I was feeling so guilty I almost signed up for another international triathlon in september. I may still do it but I think I will see how I ease back into working out. I kind of want my life back. Bri and I have been talking about surf lessons, tennis lessons and other fun stuff. We spent this weekend at the beach and thanks so some offshore storm the surf was amazingly large and oh so strong. We went out boogie boarding with one of our friends and I was tossed around like a rag doll. It was awesome. It was the type of surf that even if you weren't trying to ride a wave you would end up back at the beach without even trying. At one point I ended up in an area where waves were coming in and crashing at different directions and it flung me and about 4 other ladies into a whirlpool of sorts, and we were all tangled up in each others boards and strings. I panicked a bit there and decided that was it for me for the day.
I had my first acai bowl (pronounced ah-sigh-eee). Its kind of big out here and is supposed to be one of the best antioxidants around. It is like a berry so its usually served over yogurt with fruit and granola. The one I got was kind of like acai ice cream/sorbet and had granola and fruit on top. I got it at Pacific bean in PB and it was delicious and so refreshing.
Last night we walked down the street to the park and they have free outdoor concerts every two weeks. We always missed it last summer so we were happy to make it. Next time we will be prepared with food and such.
Oh I almost forgot the most fun part of the weekend...my first happy hour in 6 months!!!!!!! We went to the Wine Steals with girls from work for my colleague's shower and lets just say I woke up on Saturday in a real bad mood, very tired, and realized that thankfully my car was not here. It doesn't take much, thats for sure.
I want to make some time to do some more cooking/baking and with my school vacation coming up (FINALLY) I will have lots of time to do that. Bri got a subscription to the Food Network magazine which is awesome. I found a recipe for basil gnocchi that uses instant mashed potatoes and it cut the time by about an hour of preparation. They look really good but we won't taste them til tomorrow cause Bri has been smoking meats all day long. It is Sunday afterall!!
Can't wait to get back to Boston on Friday for some fun! Once I get there I can upload some of the 300 pictures that my dad took at the Ironman, since he cannot seem to figure out how to upload them to the computer.

You ain't cool unless you.....

I just finished the Vineman 70.3 Ironman!!!!!!!!! Let me break it down for you. Last night I slept for 2 hours tops. That has never happened to me before a race. I don't think I have ever been so worked up and legitimately fearful of what was to come. I got out of bed around 4 and attempted to eat but that was pretty unsuccessful. We headed down to the start and I got settled in there. I left in a pretty early wave about 45 minutes after the pros. I tried to stay way over to the right river bank so that I was out of everyones way. I did a pretty good job with that, i'm sure it was slower but I felt like I was out there on my own, except for when people would swim over me. The way back was shorter, so that was great. I took my time in transition and bid farewell to my awesome dad and amazing husband. About 3 miles into the race I was warned "accident ahead" automatically a pit hit my stomach thinking about my teammates who left before me. Turns out a tree fell out of nowhere and pretty much crushed two peoples bikes and hurt them pretty badly. What are the flippin chances. I pray those racers are okay. The ride was AWESOME, it was still cool and just a magnificent course. Windy roads all along the vineyards, lots of great rolling hills that were short to go up but great to go down. Racers were so nice to me. It was pretty obvious how I was getting passed by everyone and i'm sure once they read my shirt and knew I was a charity person (aka not very athletic but a ton of heart). They were polite and inspirational and I made them all laugh. I saw Bri, my dad, and two of our friends who drove out from San Fran at about 20 miles and stopped to reapply my sunscreen. It was starting to get hot but I was moving pretty quickly. My nutrition was down pat. I was eating a gu every hour and shot blocks every 20 minutes in between that and washing it down with water. About halfway through a teammate met up with me, she had just had a wipeout but was in good spirits. This was when I thought "I think I am going to pee on the bike" never having tried it before I was not sure if I could do it, well I did it, It was so refreshing I did it at least another 20 times during the day. I saw my fans another time and then headed up the biggest hill on the course "chaulk hill" There were a handful of people walking up it and I was cramping at this point since it was 45 miles in and in the 90s. I made it all the way up that hill and hooted and hollered when I got to the top. I was so damn proud of myself. Not only did I not have to dismount and walk up a challenging hill but I was about to finish the bike about an hour earlier than I thought. Towards the end there was some poor bastard whose bike was making awful sounds. Once I caught up to him I realized his back tire was completely trashed and he was riding on his rim. I asked if he needed an extra tire and stopped to hand one of mine over to him. He was so grateful. I have a feeling that he probably did too much damage to the rim riding on it because I heard that people saw him carring his bike over his shoulder to the finish. I finished the bike in just about 4 hours and felt great. I was starting to cramp a bit and so I walked the first 2 miles while eating more gu and sipping water. It was smoking hot at this point and the only shade was at the beginning 2 miles, the rest was pretty open to the elements. I used elastics around my wrist and stuck sponges underneath and wet those as much as possible. That was a life saver, I could then rub it on my body to try to cool off, wipe the snot off my face and keep my temp down a bit. Since the run is an out and back I pretty much saw all my teammates along the way. I walked up all the hills and pretty much the whole time. My feet were extremely blistered and I was cramping pretty bad. I figured speed walking would be better than running just a little faster and cramping up to the point I couldn't finish. I made it to the La Crema winery which was our turn around. There was tons of ice, gatorade and water on the course. I could not stop to pee because I would cramp so I continued my most favorite part of the day and would pee in my shorts and then stop at a hose (there were many neighbors out with their hose. I had no shame in this, and had I stopped all those times I never would have finished. I met up with a few teammates and we walked alot together and just tried to get any cover we could. The "run" took over 3 hours, it sucked and was over 108 degrees (so I was told). Once I knew the end was close enough and that I would not die, I started to jog, and had my team and family cheering for me. Of course I cried like a lunatic. It was overall a terriffic day and I feel like I got to spend the best parts of it with all my angels. I can honestly say I will never do this again and am happy that I have no desire to do a full ironman. I honestly don't know how people do that. I want to thank everyone for their unbelieveable support! I love that you all allow me to do this to honor my mother and to help so many people that you will never ever know.
I just got out of the ice bath and you can imagine how fun that is. Now I will put my feet up until its time for my victory party with my team! I really hope I don't pee the bed tonight or my pants I need to remember that except for tri's it's not cool to pee your pants...but it is oh so fun!

Duck you

So we made it here to wine country yesterday. It is so beautiful here I would consider setting up shop here. We went to the swim start at Johnston's beach and went for a little swim. The water was pretty murky, and you couldn't see anyone until they were pretty much on top of you. That should be interesting tomorrow when there are thousands of people who are all faster than me. I would just pull over to the right, but it is so shallow that my hands actually hit the bottom alot of the way. At one point I looked up and realized that I was in fact being past by a duck. Whatever, they live in the water, and i'm pretty sure that duck has been using. It is sort of weird swimming a race where you can stand up at any point you want. I really did not feel any current, but am told that on the way back there will be a difference in time. My shoulder was pretty sore (a student of mine must have heard it was taper time and decided to pretty much wrestle with me the other day so I pulled my shoulder a bit...ho hum) butluckily after the swim I really don't need any strength in my arms.

The bike ride is so beautiful. We all met up today and drove it together and it is so scenic. The course is a dream, I LOVE rolling hills and there sure are alot of them on the Vineman course. We passed every single winery I have ever drank and then some. For the most part it is shaded and did not warm up til later in the course. BUT it warmed up to 95degrees. I really only noticed one steep hill on Chaulk Hill Rd (go figure, a hill on chaulk HILL road) and besides the point that it is at the 45 mile mark it doesn't look like anything I will have to walk up, which is nice.

The run is not something I am looking forward to and I could honestly do a 5K after and be totally happy. It is so freakin hot, and there is no cover whatsoever during the run, and there are hills. I am going to be hard pressed to keep my heart rate down in that heat. I have never run in that kind of heat so it should be interesting. I dropped off my stuff in my transition area. Bri was trying to be a good husband and carry my stuff and even though about 10 adult volunteers said nothing, a 10 year old kid who was volunteering stopped him and made him turn around. It was priceless. Anyways I laid out my stuff (sunblock, stick, sneakers, frozen hat, cooler with ice and frozen waters and my racebelt). I am hoping that my stuff is still semi cold when I get to it tomorrow and I am just going to dump that water right over my head. I froze my hat so and am going to try to run with sponges around my wrists like I did for one Boston Marathon that was really hot. Not only is it helpful to try to keep your body temp down, but it is nice to wipe all the grime/sweat/tears/snot/sunblock off of your face and "feel" clean.

We are having our pasta party tonight which should be some good team bonding and I am really looking forward to my speech where I get to talk about my reason for training. I will spare you all the details about my "stomach issues" you have endured that enough this season.

We meet tomorrow morning at 5:30 at the start to take a team picture and get our stuff set up and a place staked out in our transition area. This means a 4am wake up tomorrow. Bri is going to love that, my dad is insisting on staying on "east coast time" so tomorrow morning should work out pretty well for him.

Can't wait to report that I have finished. I have no idea how long it will take, I really don't care. I am pretty much just going to try as comfortable as possible because the run is going to be one of the most difficult things I have ever done. I am totally going to PR tomorrow though because I really have no desire to ever do this again, and I haven't even started yet!!!

I am bib number 869 so you may be able to check out my time on the vineman website later that day. Please send me cooling thoughts for tomorrow! Thanks again for all your support, and if I see that duck out there on the course tomorrow I will try to draft off of him or her to improve my time. GodSPEED!!!

Its the Final Countdown to Vineman!!

It must be race week because the sleepless nights, the crazy "i forgot my water bottles" dreams, the horriffic stomach has started. I have been pretty much avoiding the topic all week because it will just get me revved up and my nerves cannot handle that. This happens before all big races, and I wish I could just treat it like another training day, but its not. For 6 LOOOOOOOONG months I have pounded it out on the roads, and have been doing all my trainings with this Sunday's race in mind. You can't help but get that nervous/excited energy, which for me means having to go to the bathroom about every 5 minutes.

I just had my last massage before the big day and started packing my TRI bag. This thing is amazing and has little compartments for everything. I borrowed a wet suit from a co worker and it is so much more comfortable than my other one. That will help. I also changed my pedals and shoes back to my old ones in fear that whatever change was made during my bike fitting was not working so well for me this late in the game. I love my new shoes and new pedals, but I will love those for the next race, not this one. Once I put the new pedals on I had a sigh of relief. I dropped my bike off to a bike shop yesterday and after being toyed with by the men there "make sure you have some allen wrenches to put your bike back together" kind of jokes, and they will drive it up to the race and it will just magically appear in Sonoma. Lets hope she makes it there, I kind of need that. As I was packing my TRI bag I realized I lost my ear plugs last weekend. This sucks royally for me because my ears are very strange and very small and no plugs fit. I tried about 4 different ones and finally ordered the ones that I got. THey do not have them in stores so I will just have to suck it up and try to get some other ones to make it through. I can't stand the feeling of water near my ears so swimming without them is a no-go.



We are leaving Friday morning and meeting my dad at the airport so that is a sigh of relief to see him. Friday we will be checking in to the Windsor Resort where we have a condo. I made some reservations for dinner that night but we'll see what happens. I will have to find a local grocery store to buy some gatorade and some other essentials for the race. Saturday we are swimming in the river to try that out and then drving the bike course. It is always a daunting thing to drive your course, especially when you become tired and bored in your car, but it will be a nice way to see the course a bit before actually riding it. Then we are going to set up our second transition site, and then its off to our pasta party. I will be doing the team's mission moment, so I basically get up and talk about why I do what I do. I have been working on that a bit as well, but am looking forward to sharing my story.



I am just trying to remain positive and not get too freaked by the fact that I will be competing in a challenging, hot, long tri. This will definatley be my longest race yet, and probably my last longest one. I have so enjoyed learning to bike, and to learn from some amazing athletes about cadence, heart rate, and peeing on the bike which I will give a try on the tri. I am also so proud of all my supporters because I was the highest fundraiser with a total of $7735. That is pretty amazing since that number has pretty much stayed the same over the years. I am always suprised by the generosity of others. Thank you for allowing me to continue to do this with such success. I may be next to last out of all my teammates during the race, but at the end of the day it is that number that matters the most to me.


My race number is #869, I have no idea if you can track me but it says the site will be updated throughout the day. Google vineman 70.3, or ironman live, I can't seem to post the sites on the blog.

I want to especially thank my coworkers who gave me a great send off today! Also my husband for putting up with me never being home and not being able to participate in happy hours for about 6 months. ALso thanks for the beautiful flowers from Brian and my in-laws! They were beautiful!!

I will try to update on the blog as much as I can while away. Thanks again and I will report next time from beautiful Sonoma, CA. VINEMAN 70.3, please be gentle!

Calamari Anyone??

Saturday was our practice tri in La Jolla. We arrived at 6am, set up two transition areas much like we will on race day and headed for the water. I pretty much suck swimming in the ocean, my vertigo goes crazy getting past the waves and I pretty much can only breathe on one side because I get so dizzy trying to bilateral breathe. There were lots of sting rays so I just kind of kept my eyes closed. Apparently while I was swimming there was a 4.0 earthquake, and GIANT SQUID WASHED UP AT LA JOLLA SHORES!!! EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!! Thank the lord I did not run into one of these bad larry's.

The ride was fine, although one of my teammates did get hit by a car. Each week I feel like I am reminded how dangerous biking actually is. As soon as I start to let my guard down I remind myself about stories heard and pump the breaks a few more times and never assume that a driver has seen me. Since my bike fitting a month or so ago, I got new pedals and shoes and they are just a bit different than what I am used to, which means that I was having some tension and straining my right ankle and foot. I went back to the bike store to see what they could do and they made some minor adjustments. I am so nervous to change anything at this point but I am going to ride a bit tomorrow to see how it feels, and if it still feels shaky I am going to put my old stuff back on so that I don't have to worry about it on race day.

Bri and I spent a portion of the day outside since it was too hot in the house. It gave me some time to admire my beautiful plants. I have such a green thumb. I especially like this picture because it shows my lifeless citrus plant with a thriving weed next to it! You can't see the others but there are about 15 dead plants behind it. I think I will give up on the whole plant thing. Lemons anyone??

Next week at this time, I will hopefully still be alive and will have completed 70.3 miles at Vineman!!! OOH BABY 6 days to go!!!!!!!! Not sure if I am more excited to see my dad, or to do the triathlon! Happy Sunday Funday to everyone!

Chewy Meat

this picture is not me, I had two diff colored socks on...nice

So I survived my MRI this week. To mentally prepare for it I laid underneath our coffee table and asked Brian to bang on it really loudly. Bri took me over to the appointment and I popped a happy pill about an hour before as prescribed by my Dr. In the waiting room I felt okay but as soon as the Dr called my name I made a bee line for the ladies room where I proceeded to down a few more pills. I went to an open MRI and it was not the most fun i've ever had, but I made it through with minimal anxiety. The pills definately helped and I think they really kicked in right around dinner time where I proceeded to druel on the table and almost fall asleep in my plate. We came home and I was sure I went to bed at 6 but Bri said that at some point I took down some ice cream, and sent some texts and made some status updates on facebook. That is all according to him, and the poeple I text. Whatever those pills were FANTASTIC! And its a good thing that I have more because I am almost positive I have to go for another full head scan. I just heard from the Dr and she pretty much scared the shit out of me. Pardon my language. You never want to hear a Dr. say to you after a head MRI "yeah there are definately some issues going on" ..... being the neurotic person that I am I am waiting for her to finish with "like giant tumors, tons of cancer, you are missing part of your brain" but she pretty much just said that I have some degenerative stuff in my jaw, some fluid, and arthritis there. She explained why she chose the particular scan instead of the whole head, which made me feel that I am going back in for another MRI. She referred me to an ENT where they will have some more answers for me and possible treatment. I have been sleeping with my mouth piece from the dentist so hopefully that will help too. The Dr. also asked if I have trouble chewing things, and it donned on me, I never used to like red meat because it hurt to chew it and I would tire out. Lucky for me the only red meat Bri really buys is filet so i'm good with that but it was kind of eye opening. It may also be why my hearing is not the best out of my right ear. And why I have a weird ticking in my head when I run. Its all coming together now. I'm sure the ENT will be able to make sense of all my issues...GOOD LUCK DR!!

Other than that all is well in training ville. I have been doing more swimming this week and trying to give my legs a bit of a rest. We have a practice tri this weekend to practice our two transition areas. Normally there is one area but at Vineman you have your swim to bike transition in one place and then your bike to run transition in another.

I have a final plea here for my teammates. THey are a wonderful young couple who signed up for back to back fundraising. THey have been working their butts off with training and have made every attempt imaginable at fundraising. They are still $1000 short and with the race only a week away they may not be able to come because of fundraising. If you have been meaning to donate and have not had the chance now is the time. It all goes to the same place so please help these two out so that all their hard work does not go wasted!!!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sd/VineHIrn09/teammcmurtry

Thanks for all your support!!

boom boom boom boom

our seats for the 4th in front of the midway

A break from the beach

my first corndog

Well its official, 4th of July in San Diego is pretty fun. We woke up early and drove down to PB to make sure we got a spot. Since there is no longer drinking on the beaches it wasn't as bad as I anticipated. We got a great parking spot, and ended up right next to a friend of mine I used to work with back in Mass. He had a whole set up and was having a party at his house on the beach. Everything was working out. Our friends came and set up shop with us and we kept taking breaks at the Alehouse where they were serving up $4 vodka drinks,,,,,perfection. More friends met up with us there and we ended up at the beach for about 9 hours. When we were leaving we realized we were parked across the street from my friends house party so we went in for some good food and drinks (well I was the DD so Bri had some drinks and I watched the longest beer pong game ever). We made it home to feed the dog and fired her up for some fireworks. We went downtown and walked down to the cruise ship dock that they opened up for everyone to sit to watch the show. We were right across from the Midway where there was live music being played and the fireworks started up. We could see about 4 shows going on. In SD they all do the same show so it was pretty neat watching the same show right above you and then off in the distance. Belle was a trooper and really only got a bit skiddish with the really loud boomers. A great night under the stars!! And there was hardly any traffic leaving and we made it home in about 15 minutes (as opposed to the 3 hours it used to take us to get out of Boston after the fireworks.) Good times had by all. Today feels like an extra bonus day since we had a long weekend so I am going to get out there and enjoy it some more. Going to swim somewhere at some point but lets not forget that its TAPER TIME!!!
Two weeks from today I will be saddled up on my bike hammering away at the Vineman course, but today I will relax and enjoy!

Los Arboles!

Happy 4th of July everyone! We are preparing for our first one out here in San Diego. They banned alcohol on all the beaches last year so apparently it is drastically different and a little less crowded. While I would have really enjoyed playing flip cup and various other drinking games on the beach, I will survive. We are going to try to park at our friends house and get as close to Pacific Beach as we can where we will meet up with some friends. Then we are going to brave the crowds and attempt to watch some fireworks possibly in Coronado. There are about 15 different firework displays all within ten miles so it should be quite a night.

This week was pretty standard, swim, bike and run. On Wednesday night I got back from work and since I biked in the am we had the night to do whatever we wanted. I decided the Del Mar Fair would be a good way to spend it. We basically ate our way through the place. Started off with my first ever corn dog. Quite delicious. Then I tried out fried mac and cheese on a stick, not the best. I then walked around and tried to decide what to have later for dessert: fried snickers, fried oreo, fried ice cream, fried anything you can imagine. Bri tried a fried cheeseburger, and we threw it away after one bite, disappointing and we didnt want to waste any space in our stomachs on sub par food. I grabbed a grilled ear of corn which was delicious and we walked around to our final destination where we split a funnel cake. YUMMY! I then felt like I was going to puke so we walked about 2 miles to our car. Apparently there is chocolate covered bacon there and I am not sure how we missed it but that is rather disappointing. There is always next year I guess!

My team did our workout yesterday on Friday since today should be crazy around here. It was such a fun ride, about 33 miles and all through winding roads. For a split second I felt like Lance Armstrong as we were twirling through the neighborhoods, then I realized I was only doing 18mph, not so Lancelike. It is so much more fun when you get to ride with people, and about 8 of us girls from the team stuck together the whole ride, very fun way to spend a Friday morning. I had large aspirations to run a long distance after since I missed last weekend. HOWEVER I succombed to peer pressure and only did 3 so that I could meet my teammates for brunch. Didn't matter anyways cause I got lost and never made it to brunch but I had good intentions! Perhaps the most shocking part of yesterdays training session was realizing that Vineman is just two weeks away. For some reason I thought we had two more weekends and then the event. Looks like I need to turn the page on the calendar! I am very excited and can't wait!
My foot is kind of a suck fest right now so I am going to try to take it easy on the running for the next week and just do the bare minimum so that I can attempt to run during the race. Lets face it, after riding a pretty difficult course for 56 miles is it really going to matter? A teammate brought up another good point "after riding 56 miles in about 100 degree weather is your running training going to matter?" The answer to that is probably not. I am finding that my heartrate is pretty darn high though in the heat which means I am going to have to slow way way down running (yes I may be walking slowly to do s0) so that I don't bonk out. While I can say I have bonked a few times during marathons I always had friends on the course to get me through. I have never done anything for more than 6 hours and this event should take me a good 8-9 hours. A bonk somewhere in there is inevitable but I will see it through no matter what.

I will worry about that later but today I will have fun in the sun and celebrate the good ole US of A!