Third time was not a charm

Well, it was a much more difficult day than I anticipated, the swim was choppy and rough, so they made it optional to the athletes, though I did it anyways. The bike had a fair amount of winds and a lot of hills, which just depleted me. It hurt, and most of my body hurt, I had aches and pains exponentially worse than ever before, and I never quite got warm through the 8.5 hours of the bike. When I crossed the bike finish line, I found out that I had missed the time cutoff by 2 minutes, which meant they wouldn't allow me to do the marathon. I was shocked, though the last hour of the bike I did start wondering if this might happen and had to prepare myself mentally for it. In some ways I was a little relieved, however all I wanted to do was get off that bike. I "think" I had 26.2 miles still left in me, though I'm sure it wouldn't have been pretty. DNF - that's what they call it, did-not-finish. I'll chalk this up to a lesson learned and use it for that next time. Yes, I said next time, again...

Thanks everyone for your words of support, sorry if I kept you online checking the internet for updates late last night. I did finish the whole bike leg but unfortunately they may not post all those interval times.

I had this goal to finish when it was still light outside, and go have a burger and beer afterwards. To shed some positive light on the whole thing, I did "finish" during daylight, and I did have that burger and beer ;-) Next time, I'd just rather hear Mike Reilly call out my name and tell me I'm an Ironman before the burger and beer.