St Anthony's Tri.....relay

This relay was a year plus in the making.  In 2013 I had entry into Boston Marathon (that's a long story now) so wanted to do a relay to still take part in the fun local tri.  Well, yada yada we all got injured so deferred the entry to 2014.  Little did I know then that I would be injured again (different thing) and not running so the swim suited me for the relay.  Who knew?
Well, long story short, I was pushing the running last Fall and ended up getting a gnarly right proximal hamstring tendonopathy after successfully rehabbing my left hip labral tear.  I was really trying to get through to Gasparilla 15K but didn't make it.  I haven't run now for about 3 months.  It sucks.  I thought I was swimming pretty well until I did this relay!  Anyway, I think I'm really close to getting back to running.  I need to since I got in to the NYC Marathon in Nov - super stoked about that.  More later...
Anyway, got my great friends for relay mates, all doing segments that we frankly aren't the strongest at!  Hence the name, Team Weakest Link!  We are ready to have fun though.......and shoot for first place for Women's Masters relay if all went well!  I was surprisingly nervous for this swim!  Well, then I remembered I haven't done a triathlon or open water swim in about 2 years, made sense.  The wind managed to kick up from the East as usual for St A's and the water got that washing machine look to it........great.  Our relay wave (in water start, thankfully) was 100+ competitors so I found the left side towards the front and advised the men not to knock us gals around too much!  I avoided contact for the most part except from the water chop.  Man, I drank some salt water!  Not pretty.  Couldn't get into any rhythm at all and I was chopping wood!  I knew I would not have a good time coming out and was pissed for my teammates!  But, they had my back!  Mary rode her heart out and Jean ran really well.  All in all, we went as hard as we could and, wait for it, WON the female Masters relay (after emailing the timing company about the team they had in front of us for Masters that were much younger, they realized we won)!  I stuck around to collect our winnings and we got to connect again with so many friends which is the best part!  We spent the night in St Pete and had a blast!  It was a great weekend and look forward to doing a relay next year (anyone interested, let me know :).  Another fun year at St Anthony's and in St Pete, cool town!  We stayed in St Pete at the Hollander Hotel which was super fun, would definitely recommend!  A great weekend and room to improve the swimming....always!
Cheers