5:15… Alarm goes off. 

6:00… drop my run gear off at T2. Man working there assures me I am LATE. Panick sets in as we drive to T1, nearly 45min away. When I get there transition is closing momentarily. I quickly set up my bike. I am scrambling and forget the most important part…. I didn’t put my fuel on my bike. Thank godness for another scrambling triathlete that helped me out. 

7:00… First wave goes off. Time for me to eat breakfast. Almond butter sandwich and a Gatorade. 

7:50… Wetsuit wiggle. The water temp was low enough by less than a degree making for a warm, wetsuit legal race.

8:00… Line up. 

8:18… Gun goes off for my wave. I was in the last wave of the day. 

Swim starts off great, sighting is easy and  I found my groove quickly. All was great till about the last quarter of a mile when my wave caught LOTS of waves ahead of us. It turned into swimming through what I’d imagine swimming through a lake of dead bodies (that occasionally kick really hard) would feel like. 

Upon exiting the water I was super excited… They had wetsuit strippers!! Best thing ever! I was out of my wetsuit in about 3seconds!! 

T1 was a little slow, as I did take the time to put on socks and had to put all my fuel in my pockets. Something I’d typically already have taped to my bike. 

On to the bike… I quickly realize I forgot something important as I see lots of people fixing flat tires on the side of the road… I didn’t put my kit back on my bike! Nerves set in a little but I quickly manage to calm myself. No sense in worrying about something that you can’t change now.

The course starts off with a big climb. About 5miles worth of a climb. I felt good. I just spun my legs all the way to the top. I also felt fast as I was passing tons of people!! An advantage of starting last. 

Once the climb is over, into the wind we go! We fought a headwind for quite a while. I felt surpringly good.

At about the half way point the course took a nose dive! It got wayyyy hilly!! Lame right?! I fought though it and still managed to pass quite a few people but man did I slow down. On a positive note, the aide stations were awesome! Never have I seen so much support on the bike.

T2, quite a bit faster than T1. Flying dismount and quick exchange of gear. Did take a second to put on some body glide and a headband… Priorities right?!

On to the run… It sucked!!! The run was a two loop course that passed right by the finish line at the start of loop two… What a tease!!! If you break the run into 4 parts, it was uphill for part 1, downhill part 2, uphill part 3, and downhill part 4. 

The initial uphill got me a little, my legs were super tight coming off the bike. I did a little more walking than I would have liked early. I managed to work out the tightness and got though it back to the start of loop two. 

Going uphill the second time killed me. I’m sure I looked pitiful cause I sure felt it. It was a battle of wanting to run but my body saying “ehh…better not” (my fellow pitch perfect fans should know this fat Amy quote). 

Coming back to the finish line, John managed to see me several times. He kept yelling at me to run. Surprisingly this helped a lot. Still not sure how he managed to not run on the course and see me so many times along a 2mile stretch… Magic?! Regardless it was much appreciated!!

I ended up finished in a time of 5:54:40. It was a little slower than I had hoped but overall I was happy with my performance. Going into my next race, I think I’ll put a little more focus on the run portion.

Speaking of next races… Here’s what’s on the calendar: 

July 19th stumpy creek international

October 25th beach to battle ship half ironman

November 15th thunder road marathon

So back to training for me! Be sure to look out for some training updates over the next couple months 🙂

Happy Wednesday y’all!