Winner, Winner...

...chicken dinner!

This past weekend was the Gulf Coast Triathlon, my first half IM.  After a painstakingly long drive to Florida (hello 8 hours solo, blech) I arrived on Thursday night.  I woke up Friday to meet Coach and some other fellas from Nashville to test out the waters, spin for a short ride and take to the streets for a quick run.  We met around 8am and the water was already rough and the sun was blaring...I just knew we were in for quite a treat on race day...HOT, HOT, HOT!  After what seemed like an hour of stalling on the beach, I strapped on my wetsuit and gingerly stepped into the ocean.  Coach rolled his eyes and told me to get my ass in there...ick, barf, gag...I HATE swimming in the ocean, it freaks me out!  I don't know when I went from it being fun for childhood swimming/playing to having it scare me to death.  We were only going for 10 minutes or so, and I'm not even sure I actually did more than four strokes in a row without coming up for air while choking on mouthfuls of salt water...the water was super choppy with big rolling waves.  I knew I was going to be in for a treat the next morning with a 1.2 mile swim looming ahead of me.  It was good to get in there and test it out but it almost made me more nervous than I already was.  

I will post a full race report once I get some of the pics from Mrs. Triswami who was so cool to come out and take pics of Coach's athletes and friends (it was great to have a cheerleader on course!)  However, I had a GREAT race, much better than anticipated and I WON the Athena division...whoop, whoop!  Yay!!  5:50:08, plus a 4 min drafting penalty for an official finish time of 5:54:08 (boo-hiss penalties)!

This was the view from my room...my stomach dropped when I opened the door Friday morning, the swim start was right there greeting me!  Prepare to drown Tilly!

Some peeps getting ready to test out the waters!

The other Athena's that placed and me (about to get bitch slapped by the amazon next to me...luckily she just wanted to high five!) on stage getting our awards.  All the guys were afraid she was going to beat me up!  

With my award...yes, I am really an Athena (I had to answer that question many times)...I have a handicap and it's my ass, it's big and it slows me down!  Let's just say the brothas love me!  Believe me, I will GLADLY not race in Athena when I am not one...it's not something I'm super happy about! ;)