I had big plans to write a blog about Racine 70.3 before heading off to Ironman Mont Tremblant but whew, time just flew!  The women's field was big so the swim start was a lot more more chaotic than usual.  Despite getting pummeled and missing the feet I wanted, I managed to have a pretty good swim.  Lake Michigan was cold, but beautiful to swim in.  From there however, things just kind of went downhill.  I just did not feel good on the bike.  I am normally pretty consistent on the bike but my power was way low and effort level felt way high.  Experience told me to be patient early on but by 10miles in, the struggling continued.  To add to my frustrations, the road conditions were TERRIBLE.  I will say that this bike course has the potential to be great-a rolling hills course through the countryside-but the road conditions just completely ruin it.  I tried to pull out some of my mental tools to keep myself together.  I think I only partially won that game and I definitely paid for it.  I was distracted and I realized toward the end of the bike that I really had been keeping on top of my hydration.  It was a really humid day and warming up 

quickly.  Even as I came through transition, I left my handheld bottle and chomps in there.  Geesh!  Lesson #1-stay focused.  I took a salt tab, grabbed sports drink and a gel at the first aide station and tried to do damage control as best as possible.  In hindsight, it was no surprise that I felt terrible on the run.  Lesson #2-drink no matter what!  I survived the run but it was ugly.  I finished 10^th but I know had I ran up to my potential, I could have moved up a few spots.  Lesson #3-while things may seem really bad at the time, they are rarely as bad as you think.  The highlight of Racine ended up being my amazing homestay.  Not only did they take such good care of me-I'm talking airport pick-up, nonstop pancakes, race recon, post race cookout-but they live in a lighthouse so I got to stay in an actual functioning lighthouse. Pretty cool!  The views from the top at sunset were AMAZING.  A fun experience although I obviously wish the race had gone a bit better.  I did get some good reminders though before hitting the start line of my first ironman this year, Mont Tremblant.  We all know little mistakes get exponentially worse with ironman racing!