Run and finish!

I asked my hubby and ALi to have Gibson draw an interpretation of what I was doing during the race- so here is his drawing! Every event has a trophy on top to show I won, and of course there is a lobster, angel and angler fish in my swim! I LOVE the big smile and the "action legs" on my run too! Beleive it or not, my bike does look alot like that! I will treasure this ALWAYS!

The run started with TWO big hills, bridges! By the aid station at mile 2, I was feeling pretty good, thanking the volunteers, chatting every once and while with a runner. At mile 5, I called my family again and let them know things were going well. By mile 6, I was having bad lower back cramps. By Mile 8, I was really hurting and thankful for the port-johns at the aid sations. I walked and shuffled for most of miles 8 through 11, and finally, ran for the last 2 miles including the dizzying run over the draw bridge. I crossed feeling victorious and LOVED getting that medal placed on my neck! I checked the time and saw that I was well under my goal!

I looked around, called Ali and Derick and found out they were stuck in traffic and missed the big finish. Later, I found out that my mother in law was wandering around close to when I finished. We finally got all together, I got pizza, got the kiddos hot dogs and fries and then we got stuck in an incredibly long morass of a line for a water taxi. But all and all, it was a great!

70.3 miles. 1.2 swim. 56 bike. 13.1 bike. Just over 7 hours (7 hours, 1 minute, 32 seconds). Malissa is a Half Ironman!