Blood, Sweat and Tears

I raced this past Sunday, the Massachusetts State Triathlon. While I'm always jazzed about my races, this one felt particularly exciting as I raced last year and had a LOUSY race (hissy fit thrown by another competitor during the swim messed with my head and I never really recovered). This year was all about redemption on the course, which I thought I would have otherwise enjoyed.

I had a solid week leading into the race - a few hard workouts early in the week (see previous post about slaying SheDevil below), with a few easier workouts to get ready for the big day on Sunday. I was feeling solid and ready to go! I was even relieved that wetsuits weren't allowed if you wanted to compete in your AG - thank GOD! It would have been MUCH too hot to wear one, but I would have felt compelled if everyone else was - I wouldn't give away the free speed, but was very happy to have it taken away from all of us for the heat relief. Once I figured out what to wear (Compete in a swim suit? Could the undercarriage tolerate 26 miles on the bike sans tri-shorts? Try to put on tri shorts in T1? Can you actually pull spandex over a soaking wet lower body? Wear the 1-piece tri-suit? Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!!!) I was psyched and ready to go.

I was particularly excited about this race because I was finally going to meet Ange, a total ROCK-STAR athlete and all around wonderful woman. I've "known" her via her blog and Facebook for a few years now, but haven't had the opportunity to formally meet in person. I was really psyched to finally meet this true wonder woman! Anne, who was also racing that day, and I arrived at the site with plenty of time to spare, which was really quite nice. As we are walking in from the parking lot, I see a familiar form. I know that bike. I know that race suit. Can it be Ange? I'm pretty sure it's Ange!!!!!! We catch up to her as we enter the transition area and it WAS her! It was awesome to finally meet her, if only for a few minutes before we all had to start taking care of business. I like this venue a lot - plenty of close parking, and a large transition area that has a high energy feel to it. We saw a few other folks who we knew, and I had some time to get in a quick bike warm up and a warm up swim. I was ready. Let's go!!!!!

Blood, Sweat and Tears

Tears

Let's start with the tears. The Hoyt's happened to be racing on Sunday as well - while I of course know about them and have openly wept while seeing their story on TV and on-line, I hadn't yet had the privilege of racing with them. After my swim warm up, I saw Rick waiting to start on the lake in his raft. Seeing him there, smiling, ready to go as soon as the race got going........ Oh boy, here it comes. The tight throat. The shallow breathing. Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry. I am NOT going to cry. Instead, I moved a bit further down the beach so I couldn't see them as easily and got back to the business of focusing on my own race.  Whew. That was a close call!!!!!!

We have a LONG wait before our wave, the LAST wave of the day, goes off. The Sprint racers start first, then the Oly waves head in. It was a good 20 minutes before us blue-cappers were hitting the water. By then, the Hoyt's had finished their swim (Dick pulls Rick as he swims using a harness attached to the raft) and were getting ready for the bike leg. Their bike was RIGHT next to where we were currently lined up - I could have reached out and touched them as they were getting settled. It was so incredible watching them - everyone was of course clapping and cheering, and what struck me the most was how happy EVERYONE was. Rick was clearly cracking everyone up - his mom (I assumed it was Mom) was helping Dick get him set in his bike seat and they both were smiling and laughing, even though it was clearly hard work getting him settled. They were LOVING this! That was the end of me - the tears finally made it out.......

Quickly enough it was time for us to go! Woo Hoo!!!!!!!! The swim went well and I still marvel at how far I've come in this leg - from being scared out of my MIND during my first race to now truly loving the swim, and a non-wetsuit swim at that. Incredible, just incredible!

Sweat

The heat was already in full swing as the bike leg started. You know it's going to be a hot day when you are DRIPPING on the bike, and it's not from still being wet from the swim! I had a plan and I stuck to it - biked hard, but not out of my control, and felt really solid and strong out there. The course is a nice one - I hope they can manage to fix the roads before next year as there were sections that were truly just BRUTALLY bad. One of the longer downhill stretches had one of the worst sections - I hit what felt like a ski jump and swear that I went totally airborne! YIKES! Bad roads aside, I feel like I had a solid bike and felt some serious competitive juices flowing - at one point, while gearing up to pass another woman, the following thought went through my head: "It's time to put the beat down on her. Go." WTH was THAT about???? "...the beat down???" Seriously????? But I will admit that it felt gooooooooood to feel so competitive. I'm coming along here!!!!!

Blood

It's not uncommon for me to head out on the run and immediately fall apart mentally. "Why am I doing this? This sucks!!!!! I have a cramp, I should walk. Good god, I'm walking. I suck at this. Why am I doing this again????" I'm happy to say that I think those days are over. I hit the run feeling good - 6.2 miles of hard running and this bad boy was in the bank. Go go go go go!!!!!!!!! While not easy by a long stretch, I actually felt really good on the run - I was running, and running hard, and my thoughts were mostly positive. I saw Ange as she was heading back in from the turnaround - wow. She looked amazing - I was happy that I got to cheer her on and she was kicking ass!!!!!! I love out and back courses because I can see who is in front of me. I counted the women .... 1 .... 2 ..... 3 ............ 14 ...... 15 ..... Sigh, stop counting, this is getting depressing. But, wait!!!!! They all looked young. And the youngsters started in a previous wave!!!!!! I'm ok. Yes, I'm ok. I also noted that they all looked WICKED fit and fast. And I wasn't all that far behind them. Hmmmmmmm. Am I actually starting to be (can I actually say it?) good? Wow. Maybe!

I was happy to hold it together for the full duration of the run - definitely my best overall Olympic distance performance. And I'm almost good. And that feels ...... GREAT.


But where's the blood, you ask? Ok, ok. There wasn't any. But Blood, Sweat and Tears sounded like such a good post title, I couldn't resist! I did have quite a nasty spot of chafing on my ankle from my timing chip strap though - does that count?