On Sunday July 6th, 2008 I completed my first 1/2 Ironman! I am very proud to say I finished in 7:05.05 and gave it everything I had. Lake Stevens is a beautiful venue to hold a race. The event was well organized and the fan support was amazing. On Saturday morning our convoy (The McKay Family in their new Subaru and us in Tim's X-Tera)drove down to Everett WA for race package pick up and manditory pre-race meeting. After a 1.5 hour wait at the border, we arrive at the Holiday Inn Everett just in time for the noon briefing. After the hour meeting, we picked up our packages and headed over to Taco Del Mar for lunch. I had a Baja bowl figuring it was far enough from my race to play havoc with my stomach during the race. After lunch, around 2pm, we headed to the race transition site to rack our bikes and check out the swim start. My nerves were pretty good at this point but I was anxious to get the race started. "Once I am in the water, everything will be fine" I ke...