first they were cheering, then they shook their heads and said "oh"- I'm forever THAT girl..

my recap of this weekend's oly...

4:30 am- wide awake. Calculating how much longer I can stay in bed and still make it to race in time. re-set alarm for 4:50.

4:47am- get up anyway. Bobby is already up and trying to coerce the dogs to go outside. smokey literally lifts her head, rolls her eyes (unconfirmed since it was dark, but chances are..) and drifts back to sleep.

4:56 am – make the strategic move to only put race suit on half way. Have learned my lesson that fully disrobing in a port o john is not strategically favorable.

4:57 am- throw on the team VS shirt from the doughman hoping that some of that good race vibe will still be in it. it was also the most easily accessible item out of the laundry bin.

5:00 am- finalize new bike bottle mixture. My own secret concoction... based on weeks of research, market testing, nutritional analysis and a hunch. (ha – ok really it’s just coconut water)

5:06 am – in the car, oatmeal in hand, semi clear map to race site, a front bike tire that won’t fully inflate and a trusty wet suit that I am praying gets used.

6:18 am – arrive race site. There is exactly one bike in transition.

6:27 am- I have my packet and am set up. Hmph. Apparently my time calculations done at 430 am were a bit off.

6:35 am – begin people watching. Pre-scouting the race I knew there were a few fast girls here, but also knew that I had a good kick on the run. Key was to not get killed in the swim.

6:40 am- might as well take advantage of no lines….

6:50 am- bobby is getting restless and walks back to the car. Women walks by with a cannondale 613. I suddenly feel nostalgic. When I raced here in 2008 that’s what I was on. I secretly wished her a good ride on a trusty steed.

6:52 am – dreaded water temperature announcement is made. 79.5. crap. Begin to wonder how I can make myself more buoyant. Have visions of plastic surgery to create webbed feet….

7:05 am- begin warm up. Jog out to car and around the run course. Am feeling good. hmmm.. shove thoughts of that “feeling good” out of my head. (note: last time I felt this good warming up I ended up in the medical tent.. weird but true). So I just continue to run. light springy fresh. That’s what I thought instead.

7:35 am- head down to the water for a little swim. Get in and right away notice the chop. Crap. I’m a bi-lateral breather. Realize I will be drinking an inordinate amount of dirty lake water today.

7:50 am- bobby tells me to get going on the swim. That I need to be out of my comfort zone. That if I feel good I need to go faster. To concentrate on the kick. I salute – aye aye captain

8:00 am- first wave goes out. I head over to the starting corral.

8:02am- in the water. Lined up second row. I KNOW there are fast swimmers out there. my goal is to find feet and stay on them. Swim in a straight line and GO.

8:04am- we are off. Immediately I am hit in the face with waves on my left side. I know I am struggling to stay straight as I am going on and off someone’s line. Crap (yes lots of 4 letter words come out of my mouth. A lot).

8:?? am- still swimming. have moved into the first wave and am passing some silver caps. I see some purples still around me (that’s my wave color) so I’m doing my best to try to get ahead. Not so successful in drafting. And my googles are so fogged I can’t see buoys. I’m sighting off swimmers. Not good. I make the final turn and have to stop to clear my googles. There is no way I can find the finish without it.

8:32 am- out of the water. Yes folks that was a 28 minute swim. I can say it was long and choppy and perhaps be partially correct. But the fact is I have work to do here. Lots of work. somehow I was 14th out of the water (overall). So perhaps some others had rough days.. but doesn’t matter if the leaders are out in 22.

8:33 am- rolling out of T1. Great transition. A little congestion at the mount line, but right away I got moving. I do love scotty… my goal for the bike was to go hard and beat my time from 08. I was rolling along great, got passed by 3 guys (and the VROMP VROMP of their discs..) and actually passed one of them back. sweet. I like to pretend I’m on a mission. Hunting down girls. I always want to believe they are just around the next turn and I need to go and get them. Trouble is they are usually great riders.



9:-- am – math is not happening right now. but I ended up just a bit faster (less than a minute). There was a pretty strong head wind the last 10 or so miles that was tough to get thru. I will say my new little drink was awesome. It was HOT out. Carolina hot. And I stayed hydrated and fueled.

9:-- +47 seconds – out of T2 – ok but first I must say – I had the most amazing perfect dismount EVER. Folks really, it was a thing of beauty and perhaps my shining moment of the day (knowing whats to come I can for sure say that now!).



Ok running. I didn’t know my place coming off the bike but I had seen 3 girls already on the run course. My mission was to run as many down as I could. Goal was to just start passing people and eventually I knew I could find them. Again with the games… I swear I hear mission impossible sometimes in my head! Ha. so the run is HOT. No shade. Asphalt. Full on sun and humidity. (ok as soon as i get out of ths shade tree there was no shade. really) BUT I felt ok. Bike drink was super.



Right before 3 miles there was a turn around. at a corner. I was focused in on a guy ahead of me and kept following…. Right past the turn around… I didn’t even see it…. I knew it was coming and I thought that it would be a huge cone and timing mat (to make sure you didn’t cheat) and saw some arrows on the ground saying second lap pointing left.. so I ran left… all the way to the finish chute.. CRAP. I realized I totally missed the turn around, but honestly still had no clue where it was… really maybe the heat was affecting my brain.. so I yelled some choice words (sorry kids) and headed back out. I then saw the turn around…. a phone pole off the road to the left with a little sign on it. (the guy was one of the leaders and actually WAS finishing..yep the winner came in at 2:02 phew!)

At this point I figured I had put about 2 more minutes between me and the ones ahead and wasn’t sure I could make that up. I just kept going along hoping for the best. but honestly I know it wasn’t my best effort. There was just something so deflating about making a mental mistake. Different than mechanical. This was ALL me (mary you totally popped into my head!).

ok so i put this photo in for 2 reasons - one both my feet are off the ground.. isnt that a good thing?!?!? and well notice the children in the photo. this is where i realized that i ran too far and had to go back out and there were lots of not so nice things coming out of my mouth. apologies to the parents..



I ended up 4th overall. Less than 2 minutes from 2nd and 3rd. and about 4 from the leader. Disappointing yes. But what can you do. I wasn’t especially proud of my run for the misdirection or the effort. Just makes me want to get back out there stat.
BUT the bright side is I took 5 minutes off of my time from 08. So over all happy with that. I will race again

congrats to all the great finishes at kansas! so proud of you guys!!