Race The River

Ahhhh..... I'm home from the race and it went....., well, it went. :)
Starting the day, I couldn't find my darn watch (you know, the Garmin computer that keeps me moving even when I don't want to). After looking for half an hour and crying about it and yelling at Greg for taking it from me (he thinks I rely on it too much and should go without), I found it. We get there, and the bike racks are completely full! I squeezed my way in and got set up. Next thing I know is Greg telling me that gold caps go first, WHAT??? They did say that, but Men's Elite are also wearing gold caps, and it was referring to them, not me. So after standing around forever, ready to go and waiting till my posted start time of 747, someone says, "Hey! Gold caps are in the water!" I look at my watch and it is 735, so I run off to see the golds already swimming!!! I run down the shore, jump in and just start swimming after my group. It didn't take long before I caught up and started passing some of my group, I even passed a few purples (the wave ahead of me). Ugh, just what I needed, to start behind!
Through transition with a puff on my inhaler and onto the bike I was feeling okay, really wet, but okay. I probably should have gotten on my bike before yesterday, when we adjusted the seat and filled up the tires. I did pretty good, Seltice is such a terrible road, they really need to fix it or change the bike route. On my first of three laps, I hear them saying, "Caution, crash ahead." Sure enough, there was a man being loaded on a stretcher, how sad. I hope he is okay. Lap 2 I got more in the groove, and was able to pick up speed and feel comfortable. Lap 3 I had some sciatic pain, and took it a bit easier so I'd be able to walk after.
Through transition again, popped two more Tylenol and a couple puffs on my inhaler, and I was off for the walk/run. I realized too late, that my camelback bag had leaked all it's water out, so I wore the darn thing and it was EMPTY! I was able to keep up an okay pace, I walked most of the 5k, but jogged some. Tina caught up to me on the run and we stayed together for the last mile or so. It is so much better to have someone to be with and to motivate. After the finish, I got my
snack and we met up with Uncle Chuck and Aunt Teena. Congrats Chuck on a great finish, two years in a row!
Now, what have I learned? I don't know my "official" time yet, but from when I jumped in the water and started my watch till after I took off my timing chip, my wonderful, amazing, most favorite watch in the world, said 1 hour 42 minutes. I'm going to go with that time, unless somehow they messed up the timer chips and my "official" time is less than that :). I learned that it will be better to keep up with my training better prior to the race, I will feel more comfortable and maybe do better. I don't know, because this was my fifth race, and I have trained differently for all of them, and somehow my time is always the same...