Diamond in the Rough Duathlon

Ah yes, the Diamond in the Rough. Now, the race was intended to be a triathlon. Due to the recent flooding in the Susquehanna watershed (the swim is in the Susquehanna River), high bacteria levels in the water precluded the race director from allowing the swim. Disappointing, yes, but better than winding up with some awful disease, especially two weeks before the Ironman.
So, now the race was a duathlon. Erg. My motivation for signing up for the race was to practice open water swimming and my T1 (swim-to-bike transition). I was still there to have fun, though, and triathlon or duathlon, I was still with Team Z and ready for a great day.
As we hung out pre-race at our tent, I prepped for run #1. I looked at my running shoes and noted something was amiss. I wasn't quite awake yet as I stared at my shoes for a minute or two, perplexed. I had two right shoes with me. OK. Now what? I contemplated my options. Just walk the run portions in my Tevas? Forgo the race? It was suggested to borrow a pair from teammate Mere, as she's not able to run these days due to injury. (If anyone was disappointed about canceling the swim, it was she. She was all set to kick booty in a relay.)
Mere and I wear about the same shoe size. They seemed to be a wee bit big, but considering my alternatives, I figure I'd make do.
And we were off. The first run was fun and easy. It was billed as a 5K, but turned out to be more like 2.5 miles.
Then the bike. I had forgotten how much I enjoy the DITR bike course. It has some rolling hills, goes along the river, nice and scenic. I took it a little easy on the bike, being a "training" race and all (and knew I had a 40 mile bike ride scheduled for the following day). I felt fabulous on the bike. I decided early on to walk up the steep sections of the challenging climb at mile 21 to avoid thrashing my legs. Besides, I'm still learning how to handle my tri bike (one of the reasons why I'm using my road bike during the Ironman). I had a decent bike time considering the relaxed pace. I was about 5 minutes slower than my bike time from my time at this race last year, and believe I would have easily beaten it had I pushed a little harder and rode the hill, rather than walk it.
Finally, it was run #2. Using Mere's shoes began to haunt me a little. My legs felt great coming off the bike, but my feet were not happy. I had trouble running on the pavement, so instead I ran a bit in the grass. I caught up with my teammate Adam, suffering from knee pain. Heck, rather than risk my own injury, what better opportunity than to have fun with Adam?
Adam and I sang and danced with the race volunteers. We cheered on other racers. It was fabulous. Approaching the finish line, our teammate Jill caught up to us. The three of us joined hands to run across the finish line together.
My first Ironman is in less than two weeks. Note to self--- make sure I bring a right AND a left shoe.