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!