You never slow down, you never grow old

Oh the Josh!  What an awesome race!  I grew up watching my friend's dad compete in this race, and it is a big deal back at home in the Berkshires.  It is an unconventional triathlon, 27 mile (super hilly) bike, then 5 mile canoe or kayak, then 6.2+ mile (super hilly) run.  Kate and I did it as a tin team so she biked, then we both kayaked in a tandem kayak, then I ran to the finish line.  

Got the boat to Stockbridge Bowl at 4:45am and got a spot just 6 boats back from the water so we'd have less to run with it (the lines went back about 100 boats long so up front was nice!!)  I went back home and had a nice breakfast and got my things together then headed back to the boat ramp to wait for the race to start and for Kate to finish the bike leg.  She finished about 10 minutes faster than she expected so I was about to put on sunscreen when Eric saw her running down from the transition area so I skipped the sunscreen and we grabbed the boat and got in the water.  We had trouble keeping 'Mad Mary' going straight but we got it together and chatted and laughed and made friends with other boat racers and finish that leg about 15 minutes faster than we had expected.  When we pulled up on the beach, I jumped out of the boat, grabbed with wet bag with my shoes and got them on as fast as I could and just ran.  I haven't been running in so long that I was really terrified that I wasn't going to be able to finish the 10K+ but the adrenaline surged and I just ran and ran and ran.  I passed a lot of people in the hilly run and had only 2 (all running together) pass me.  The hills were so long and drawn out it was like torture but I didn't care, I just kept going.  When I got up the final hill that is seriously like the last mile of the race and I had less than half a mile to go, I could hear the music at Tanglewood and knew I needed to get there fast, my legs where shot after that hill...my quads screaming!  I pushed it a little and got past the girl that was about 50m ahead of me for the last 2 miles (which was my goal to beat her to the finish line) then I turned the corner and kicked it up looking at the last 200m or so.  Then I heard footsteps behind me, and I could tell they were moving fast and they were getting close....I decided right then, there was no way I was going to let those feet beat me and I kicked it into a full sprint (4:52 pace according to nike+) and was gone right through the finish line like it was the 100m dash in high school....the crowd loves a good sprint to the finish!!  Mom, Emma, and Benn were there at the finish line waiting for me (but they were about to go get some food because they figured it would be 20 more minutes until I finished based on our estimates of each leg).  What a great day....and we took 4th place in the 2 female kayak division with a total time of 3:38:53!!!  Can't wait for next year!!!!

Haven't calibrated the new Nike+ yet so I'm not sure how accurate this is... and I forgot to stop it when I crossed the finish line for a while.... but here's what it says...