Yesterday marked my one year anniversary since I had completed my first triathlon. And let me say, I felt I did well this year compared to last year. I was prepared and more confident this year than last year. I managed to beat my time by about 15 minutes from last year! I'm most happy about that overall.
I think this year has to be the year of forgetting my shoes. At Galveston, I forgot my tennis shoes as I was walking to setup and this race I forgot my cycling shoes and discovered it on Friday night. I frantically called all coaches and texted all coaches to see who could let me into the PTC and finally Coach Mo called and said he would bring them with him on Saturday morning. For some reason, I just had a gut feeling that he would forget them. Coach Chrissie then called and said she would just meet me to get them at the PTC so I wouldn't have to depend on Maurice as there is always a chance he would forget them.
The morning began nice a calm...Thank you for XANAX once again. I only use this the night before a race and I must say, I'm a different person than last year. Trust me it is a good thing. I ate some oatmeal and something else, can't remember, and got dressed and gathered everything and we headed out the door.
We get to the race and I head into get body marked by a fellow T3'er. I made my way to setup the bike to find that this year you had to set up based on your age group. Last year, you could just set up shop anywhere. So I get everything set up and water bottles filled up and grab the goggles and swim cap and I was ready.
I stopped for some pics with friends from T3 and made my way to the T3 tent. We talked and took more pics with everyone. I made my way to the water for a warm up swim. The water was very nice. Perfect temperature.
The race started at 8am. All the men take off and then the women start. I'm in the first wave of women and I'm thinking I should get out front and get going as I feel like I can go strong in swim this year. I was so wrong. I was swam over and I think I swam over others also. I made the turn and drank some nasty water and just kept swimming and gaging. I made it out of the water with no major issues at this point except a slow swim time.
I ran to the bike, threw on the socks, shoes, helmet and sunglasses and headed out on the ride. I just wanted to ride fast. I made it threw the bike and dismounted the bike with not falling off this round!
I then put the running shoes on and grabbed my bottle of water and headed out for the run. I just told myself keep the legs moving. I did but not fast. I kept feeling like I was going to throw up the oatmeal I ate that morning. So I finally make it back around and I'm heading for the finish line and I start to sprint the last 75 meters. I cross the line in about 1 hour and 14 minutes and I was not feeling good at all. Some kid took the sweaty timing chip off and I was thinking I've got to get out of the crowd of people as I'm about to throw up. I walked over to some tall grass leaned over and it was coming up but I held back. All I could think about was not letting anyone see my throw up. I sat down drank some water and felt better.
This by far was the best race yet for me. I'm hoping the rest of the season continues down this path of excitement!
