Eagleman race weekend always has a way of turning into a little mini-vacation so I was super excited to be heading down to Maryland on Friday.  Also, after flying to my last 2 races it was nice to have a race where we just had to pack up the car and drive a few hours.  Our homestay family from last year, Fran and Steve, were nice enough to let us stay with them again this year.  They were also hosting Paul Fritzsche which was cool.  Paul, Jason (Jason was doing the Aquavelo) and I went out Saturday morning for the normal pre-swim bike run stuff, and since we were done so early I got to watch some of the World Cup and take a nap before the pro meeting.  After the pro meeting Jason and I drove to meet my parents for dinner and I was off to bed nice and early.  I slept really well Saturday night and struggled a little more than usual getting out of bed.  Breakfast was nice and relaxing though just sitting around the table eating and chatting with Jason and Paul.  Other than the early hour and the butterflies in my stomach it was easy to forget it was race morning.  Once I got to transition though the nerves and excitement kicked up a notch and I knew it was time to race.  I lined up at the start and after a horrible in-water start at Texas I really wanted to a good start this time.  The water was nice and calm and I was able to catch some feet and swim with a group of 4 other girls.  Even though I felt good swimming the swim seemed to go on forever.  After the second turn buoy I thought we were heading back to shore but then we came across another turn buoy which resulted in another several hundred meters of swimming.  I didn’t see my time coming out of the water, which in this case, was definitely a good thing because it was really slow and I definitely would’ve been upset if I saw the time.  I did find out after the race that all the times were slow thanks to the current and some drifting buoys.  I headed out of T1 with Natasha Badmann and 2 other girls.  It didn’t take long for Natasha to lose me but I was luckily able to put in some distance between me and the other two girls.  The only bad thing about that was that I ended up spending the whole bike ride by myself.  This combined with the fact that my legs felt less than spunky made the bike leg a bit torturous.  Normally I love the bike but I was definitely happy to be done.  I hopped off my bike, started running out of T2 and was immediately hit with horrible stomach cramps.  I hobbled out of transition debating whether I should continue or not.  Of course I can’t give up that easily and you never know what is going to happen during a race.  I decided to stick it out, at least for a little bit, and see what happened.  Around mile 3 my stomach decided to relax and even though I could only tolerate water I was able to pick up the pace.  I hit the turnaround, saw Natasha only a few minutes up on me, and decided to start trying to catch her.  It was heating very quickly on the run course (the combination of no shade and blacktop) but I was feeling surprisingly good (probably because I ran so darn slow for the first half!).  I made up a lot of time but not quite enough.  I ended up finished 50sec back but was happy to finish the run feeling so good (and happy to earn that last podium spot).  The post-race festivities were extra special this time.  Not only did I get a podium spot, I got a slot to 70.3 World Championships and I got to catch up with tons of friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen in a really long time.   (plus, my husband won his AG in the Aquabike!).