Not a good day. Super bad allergies yesterday when we got to town. Took 4 different allergy meds last night and none did the job. My allergies get worse the hotter the day, and this weekend was approaching record temps (100 in PDX) and unusually hot on the coast as well. Anyway, 67 degrees at the start (more then 20 degrees warmer than 2013) & the race played out like usual; ran with people for 4 miles, then took the lead. Ran with the lead bikes to the turn around at 15 and back towards the finish. Felt good through 18 or so, but could tell that I was slowing down. I hadn't done a good job of hydrating during the race, but had dumped water on my head at each water stop. That wasn't enough.... About mile 20 I realized that 2nd place was gaining ground and I picked it up. He caught me with exactly 4 miles to go at mile 22.2. I tried to go with him and both calves cramped up. Shortly after my vision started to go black, wasn't running in a straight line, struggled to take a deep breath and my arms/legs were covered in goosebumps despite the unbearable sun and hot race conditions. My body was shutting down. I stopped for a bit, knelt on the road, got passed again, then started up again. Things didn't improve but I managed to shuffle along for the next four miles. The last 2 were pathetic and I was barely faster than a walk (9:30 and 13:##) Got passed again and again. Good times! Crossed the finish line and drank 8 cups of Gatorade back to back to back....That helped. The heat was brutal, and frustrating because today (Sunday) the temps were back to normal (low 50's with lots of clouds and no wind. Perfect and NORMAL)... Anyway, not the result I was hoping for, but whatever. Had a good day with family afterwards, so that was fun. Had considered finally going back to race Boston when I was running 5:06 mile splits at the end of my 20 mile training runs but now I can skip those plans and save my $ instead. It all works out in the end. | 