Team Amino Vital!
Jocelyn Wong, Natalie Leonard, and me

total: 5:47:21
2nd, female relay division

Our Amino Vital team fielded 2 relay teams for this half ironman in North Georgia, one all-female and one all-male (the guys team: Taylor, Tim, and my TNT friend Jim that was a late fill-in). Saturday morning was a little bit chilly and very foggy. In fact, the start was delayed in hopes the fog would lift from Lake Chatuge. It did and the race was on! Natalie (recovering from a bad bike crash) was our swimmer. From the beach, they were to swim around an island and back. Unfortunately the fog didn't stay away and drove visibility to zero. Swimmers were coming in all over the place. Natalie made it in with a time of 38:47 and Joceyln was off on the bike. She had just completed the Wisconsin Ironman (full!!) 2 weeks prior, but did well on the bike, conquering the hill that gave this race its name (3:09.25). Finally my turn for the run. It had warmed up quite a bit by now. Too much in fact. Long open stretches wore me down and there wasn't but 1 water stop on the course and 1 at the start. It was a 2-loop course, so we hit these stops a few times, but it wasn't enough. Coming in from lap #1 I couldn't swallow or spit and my whole torso was cramping terribly. Jim grabbed me a water bottle from the car that helped to revive me a bit for the last loop. My time wasn't that great, but considering the circumstances (and the fact I was fighting allergy season), I guess it could have been worse (1:59.08) In general though, this was a great race with an incredible amount of swag/prizes. Highly recommended to others!