Had a blast on the boat ride out there, with a great group of TMF/GGTC folks: Sandrine, Eugene, Ivy, Neil, Keith

There was a priceless moment on the ferry when a guy next to us broke the zipper on his wetsuit. Neil and others were immediately trying to help him out, and after a few minutes they told him he was going to have to take the suit off to fix it. Unfortunately for this (first-time, we later found out) racer, he was going commando. His plan in transition was "big towel." I wasn't really aware that guys did this, for what - diving? surfing?

We were perfectly situated near the jump doors, on the right side of the boat. Couldn't see too much out the doors, but got excited when the pros lined up on the deck, and saw them jump off. Luckily we were all ready to go, because 15 seconds later Sandrine and I were jumping. I was worried for the first 10 minutes or so, because even with sighting on the Fontana Towers, I felt like I was swimming right next to the right flank of kayaks, and I knew that was trouble. Eventually, though I guess I migrated more into the middle, and found my way headed towards Fort Mason and then the Yacht Club. Gradually I began to see the beach and how many people were watching the swim exit. For a while, though, it seemed like the yacht club wasn't getting any closer, and couldn't find those darn yellow buoys to shoot for. Then I realized I was about to run into the orange buoys, which meant I was overshooting west, so I started pushing hard for shore, worrying that i was going to miss the beach completely. Stuck the landing perfectly, and saw some TAGgers cheering on my way out. I saw that I made it in about 36 minutes, but didn't think much of it until afterwards. Saw Sandrine in T1 ahead of me, traded the wetsuit for running shoes and headed for Marina Green.

Bike ride felt good until just pass the GGB underpass, when my chain fell off as I was downshifting. Took me a couple of tries to get it back on, but I was able to get back on the bike no problem. After that I pushed pretty hard, heard Kelli at Baker Beach, saw Jay in Seacliff, some friends in GGP, and then repeated on the way back. Had seen neither hide nor hair of Daniel all morning until the last downhill (under the bridge again) and he said hi as he zoomed past. Great, fast flat at the end, a little congestion at the last turn going into T2, but got into my run shoes again no problem.

Felt slow on the run at first, and had some side cramps the first two miles or so. Wondered if maybe I didn't hydrate enough on the bike (lost my bottle early, so didn't have anything until the first aid station @ Legion of Honor). Got to the stairs and felt fine, could have gone faster if not for traffic. Saw more folks on the run, Ritch (on his last downhill as I was on my first uphill), Eugene, Coach Neil, Jay again, Ivy, Nick. As I was headed down towards Baker Beach, Coach Neil gave me a shout out and some guy in front of me turns around and says "Are YOU Roxanne?" And he tells me that he knows he's been keeping pace with me the whole race because he keeps hearing people cheering for me everywhere and how did I have so many fans? What a great feeling! We chatted for a while, and basically kept each other company the rest of the way. I didn't have much left in the tank at the end so I fell back a little and at the last turn he looks back and me and yells "Come on, Roxanne!" and it was definitely the push I needed to start sprinting for the finish.

Overall times: 2130 ROXANNE RAPAN CA United States

Finish Time 3:10:31

SwimTime 0:36:34

T1 0:07:36

BikeTime 1:09:11

T2 0:01:37

RunTime 1:15:31

SandTime 0:03:44

BikeTurn 1:22:27

SandStart 2:37:09

SandEnd 2:40:53