Whisky Dick Triathloln

Where do I start? The Whisky Dick Triathlon. It's tough, but not impossible! This is a great event, it begins in Vantage and the 1 mile swim starts out in the Columbia River. My swim went well for me this time around, except for the fact the corner buoy and site markers were all the same color - orange. So when you are a stud swimmer like myself, you might make the mistake of looking at the wrong buoy!! I added an image to give you an idea of what happened. My swim time was not bad at all 32:32. Even with the modified route I took.
Out of the water and onto the bike. T1 2:22. The first 12 miles of the bike was a 2,000 foot climb. Burn, baby burn. Water station at the top had ice cold water bottles that were pretty cool. They had the Whisky Dick logo on them. After 26.4 miles on the bike, my legs seemed a little heated up. In and out of T2 1:08. Then comes the run, 8.8 miles of my down fall. First mile felt great. Water station came up fast and then the next 7.8 went bad. I blame it on bad planning on my part - the day before, I stood out in the sun for 6 1/2 hours trying to sell my Harley Davidson at a bike show so I can buy a new tri bike. Oh yeah - I have this triathlon bug bad. No water, no food. I just plain did not take care of myself. So on the day of the race dehydration set in and energy levels started to drop. I was in trouble - big trouble!! Every water station I came to, I drank one water and poured one over my head. They were every mile and I couldn't seem to get to the next one fast enough! They threw a hill at us at mile 8 and I said out loud, "You have to be kidding me. A HILL!" I was dead tired and then I saw my three kids about 200 yards from the finish and they were cheering and yelling for me. They all ran in with me to the finish. Best part of the day for me! 1:37:01 on the run. I am going to stop here because I can not explain the horror my body went through after I stopped running and I don't want to relive it. I told myself this will NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN!!!!