so in addition to my biannual brush with the revered Ruben Grande in the swim, at check in the day before Nelly Becerra Recognized ME and greeted me. Perhaps somewhere in the annals of FMTRI they have a wall dedicated to "old gringas still competing, but on the verge of collapse" but at any rate it was a thrill to be recognized by Nelly. or maybe that's not such a good thing? maybe Ruben thinks i'm stalking him (odd how i keep passing him on the way to T1) and there are posters all over FMTRI with my picture saying, "if she gets close to Ruben One More Time, RELEASE the Kraken!" who knows....
