Lately I have been saying “WHO am I?” over and over again – but really, just in jest. I am not serious, I know who I am. More on this later…
On Sunday I raced a local Sprint Triathlon. Jerome is in China, so I needed a race that was close to my parent’s house to help me with the kids. I wanted to do a tune up before Nationals in 2 weeks. I have been feeling REALLY good lately, but with short course racing, I needed to race and get used to laying out all out there – ironically without any pressure – 2 weeks out from Nationals.
The distance was 800m OW swim, 20k bike, 5k run. AH! A little longer swim – I’ll take it! The only challenge I have now in local races is that now that I am 40, I am usually always in the last wave and Sunday was no exception. But, I just made the best out of it and tried to work on passing as many athletes as I could before the finish line. And, I chased every one of them down…and I really did not know if there was anyone in front of me (females) from the previous waves.
It was nice to catch up with some of my athletes, local friends and meet some new people – low key and actually my old boss (when I was in the corporate world) is the one who called me and asked me to come and race (she is friends with the RD), so that was a motivating factor for me!
Gun went off and I got a GREAT start – I have been working hard on my starts in the OW because if I can get a ½ step on the girls, I can usually get and hang onto clean water..and then if someone goes by me then I can grab their feet. I did have clean water – for about 1 minute until I hit the wave before us and then the wave before them….I am not sure how many athletes I swam through, but it was a little out of control. With a local sprint, there were many backstrokers and people out there clearly out of their element. I was careful not to freak anyone out – and focus on regaining my body position every time I sighted – which was A LOT. Got out of the water fast and raced to my bike.
Bike was uneventful EXCEPT for the fact that I dropped my water bottle pretty early. This was a USAT race and the USAT official (one of them) was near me, so I HAD to go back and pick it up – cannot risk a penalty. So, that was NOT fun as I know every second matters at that distance, but I got it and moved on. I did watch my Quarq power and it is funny how even in the Sprint we could work harder. I was working hard but having to ride so far to my left (but not across the yellow line as traffic was NOT closed)…so a little dodging here and there – and I did have that worry in my cycling as I was more focused on not hitting anyone, but it was all good. I felt good on the bike.
Onto the run. I had a few people tell me I was the first female and someone else say I was 2nd. All I know is that since I started in the last wave, I had people to chase down and get. I knew I was leading my 40+ women’s wave, but I was just out to destroy myself. I felt good – not amazing but good. I ran hard and was working hard at getting some of my speed back. I do not ever feel my Achilles anymore – so now it is just a matter of getting that top end speed back (Hello – anyone see it?) and every race I do I run faster, so it is coming. Then, at about 2 ¼ miles into the 5k I see the gal in front of me. I was gaining on her fast and we were almost done (she started 3 minutes ahead of me, so I was in theory beating her, but I wanted to pass her!). She rounded the corner and we still had 800-1000 meters left and she is raising her arms and celebrating. I thought….she has no idea. NEVER celebrate anything until you cross that line or results are posted. Anyway, BAM, there I was – ruining her party (she won last year) and not that my goal is to beat anyone, but I go to win. No excuses, no exceptions.
Then she saw my race kit with the JHC on the chest and knew I started 3 minutes behind her.
Mission accomplished: I went to suffer a bit, get my running down a bit, work on a few things, win and HAVE FUN! All done!
We were cracking up because LOOK at how big this trophy is? It is like from the 1990s!
Congrats to everyone who raced: Kelley, Rich and Katrina! And, thanks to Katie Thatcher who came out and cheered for us! Great to see some familiar faces out there!
And, speaking of “WHO AM I? theme…I have been working hard to get to what I think is a good race weight for me for Nationals and since March I have lost 10 lbs, but all while eating ice cream! (rah rah!) Actually, my goal was to get there before Door County 2 weeks ago. And, I made some big personal changes too – and this is WAY TOO MUCH information, but I think I will share it with you all (females) because some of you may be considering this….anyway, I went off the birth control pill after being on the same one for longer than I was off. Yes, I went on the pill at 21 or so – now 20 years later, I was asking myself – DO I really need these chemicals in my body still? BUT I rarely change anything that is working and I was afraid of what would be on the other side of going off the pill…
But, I did it June 1st. I felt AWESOME…in fact better than ever. I have been sleeping awesome, lost my appetite (my ravenous appetite!) and feel good. BUT, I am eating ice cream like a crazy woman (I do not even like ice cream), cleaning my bike, crying when my neighbors did not invite me to a get-together. I MEAN REALLY? Jerome is like, “are you a girl now?” Yes, I am a girl now. But, if I get pregnant with twins again, I will REALLY be a mess !!
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