In review Mooseman 70.3

I had initially gone into this race with extremely high hopes of PRing; I heard a lot about this race; harder than Timberman where I PRed in August if last yr, but not the hardest half Ironman EVER... and as a matter of fact, it just was the hardest as far as the climbs in the bike... It rained the ENTIRE wkd which I also didnt expect at all and the way I packed wasn't for a monsoon rainforest, it was for the tropics. ummm yea what was I seriously thinking?? So I went from pumped to nervous about this race esp for the bike course... only at this point my biggest fear was losing control in the pouring anticipated rain (which ult held up) The swim, regarding some positive news was FLAWLESS. It brings tears to my eyes even while writing this that it took me 8 yrs, to really shave a substantial amount of time off my swim... I will now break each down in detail of how I felt, what I did, (or didnt do) and what I liked/disliked about this race-- The Swim: I went out with a hard effort; this time instead of having that fear of starting close to the boeys where I always start wide (which ult leaves me drifting off course and away from the pack which makes me even slower) I decided to be brave this time around just because I felt SO much stronger than ever. What I did was def the right decision; although I was faced with more narrow turns etc; the entire swim was so spread out, it really didn't make a difference. I then proceeded to recall how hard i was 'pulling' the entire time to swim my 1:10 in cozumel... I didn't let up once, even when the fatigue set in, because at the end of the day, there is no greater feeling to know that I FINALLY reached my goal... The last aspect I think that majorly impacted my swim time to be quick is the fact that I changed up my breathing...It takes more energy breathing constantly on one side then changing it up with both sides and adding strokes in btw. It also allows me to gain more of a distance in a quicker amt of time by using this stratgey :) The bike- Not too much about this as I am running out the door from work but it was the worst bike course in my triathlon career; total disaster my back spasmed nough said, The run- I was SO burned both mentally and physically from the bike I kinda said screw it for the first loop of the run; however, I had way too much in me for the last loop of the run; it was kinda redic how much i was flying the last couple miles of the run.. :) Although overall my time was crap, nothing can replace how happy I felt from finally reaching my 8 yr goal of surpassing 40 mins in the swim... and finishing strong in the run... NXT Vineman!! TBC.....