I have never run a marathon, let alone after a 3.8 km swim and a 180 km bike. So you can imagine that my usually high level of confidence was squashed much alike the possums I see on my morning rides at this point of the race. Equally as fearful of the sun, which on this particular day was doing it’s best to burn a hole in the road, I made sure to slap on enough sunscreen to look akin to a snowman. I tore out of transition in pursuit of Gina, OK no, sorry that is incorrect; I tore out of transition running scared! In all honesty I was waiting for the field to swallow me whole and spit me out, just like the fly I encountered a couple of hours later.

Despite this fear, much like the monster hiding under your bed when you’re a small child, the field never actually swallowed me whole. In fact I held my position of 2nd place for an entire 3 hours and 20 minutes, holding off what was in average about a minute back to 3rd place the entire run. The spectators along the course were fantastic support, although I never really believed that I looked good and was running fast . . . no I would not describe it that way at all! Ice cubes became my very best of friends, even if they didn’t seem to return the love, disappearing almost as quickly as I picked them up. Flies on the other hand did appear to like me, it’s just a shame they weren’t part of my nutrition plan. There’s something not quite right about six little legs crawling at the back of your throat, yuk! So I continued the viscous cycle of dreaming about aid stations, water, ice, coke, dreaming of aid stations and repeat. Oh and there was the occasional relief provided by some garden hoses and people dressed up in funny costumes trying to shoot me with water! Thank you, perhaps one day I will be able to return the favour.

Reaching the finish chute was an incredibly welcomed moment, and although keeping an eye on my back it was great to soak it up and share the moment with the enthusiastic children hanging out their small hands for high 5’s. All of the hard work, the hours of time dedicated to training, the endless debates over reasons why and why not to make the switch from adventure racing to triathlon . . . and I didn’t even look at my time! I am told this is a criminal offense in the land of IM racing, but I was never arrested so assume I’m safe. In fact I had finished, congratulated 3rd place getter Sarah on finishing, been whisked off to the medical tent to melt some more ice as my body was as hot as an Aussie Summer BBQ, and I still hadn’t even considered my finishing time. I almost collapsed when they told me, it was only then that I became non responsive and required an IV, which after about half way through I announced that I was bored and would like to leave, if that was OK!?

So one down, many more to go, and now I know what all the fuss is about! A big thank you to all of my family and friends for providing an incredible amount of support, I think my phone worked harder than myself last weekend, it really blew me away. A very big thanks to all of the volunteers who gave up their day to have people endlessly yell “water, coke, BANANA!" (yep loved those bananas!), and to the supporters who came to the race to cheer us to the finish line, squirt us with water, and tell us how good we looked, even if it was a little fib. Finally a thank you to all the other athletes out on the course, I enjoyed sharing the day with you, and especially my competitors, for giving me someone to chase and to run away from!

(What time did she do... 9:20.40 VERY IMPRESSIVE. Well done from all of us at Rapid Ascent)

Attention all adventurers - The world’s biggest adventure race returns to Augusta for another year