Matthew and I woke up at 5am to get ready, eat breakfast, walk Gordon, and pack up the car. I ate my usual race/ride day food: english muffin with almond butter, strawberries and honey. I also added, for the first time, a bottle of ensure. Matthew drank them all year during his training and after reading more about nutrition and fuel, I became aware that I need to be taking in more calories on my race day mornings..
Getting off my bike and moving into the run, I was feeling great. My hip wasn't hurting and I was loving the feeling of pushing myself again. I decided to continue pushing to the end.
Matthew, my mom and mother-in-law, Christine, were waiting for me at the finish. I took some photos, ate some pancakes and drank free beer. While we were waiting for my dad to finish, we looked at the rankings and at that point I had gotten 5th in my age group! I was elated! I later found out the final results placed me in 6th and while I was initially bummed, I didn't let myself stay that way, especially since I've only half trained for the past 10 weeks. .