I made it!!!
It was a long, long day. I finished in 6:07.25, which was well beyond my expectations but a disappointing 7 minutes above what I consider to be a "hard core" time of 5:59. Oh well, next year. The swim and bike were amazing, but the run utterly sucked. I had to walk about 3 miles of it due to nausea and cramps...but I felt better towards the end and was able to finish strong.
For those of you who are interested, I'll post a race report tomorrow at
http://toughcookie7.blogspot.com.
:)