St. Anthony's Race Report

Yesterday was just weird. 6 years ago on April 26 I went to a triathlon in Surf City, NC. This is where I met Mark. I thought I would think about it during the day but it only crossed my mind 2x. I met Mark in line for the port o johns at this race in NC. I used to think this was a cute story. Who knows maybe it is. Maybe I should have known that you don't want to meet you future husband in line for the crapper. It just can't be a good sign for the marriage. As I was standing in line for the the port o johns at 5am, some guy tries to strike up a conversation with me. Oh, dear god no. I will talk to just about anyone anywhere, but not going down that route again :) That reminded me that it was April 26.

On my way to the race I got pulled over, he didn't ask for my licence or anything. Just yelled at me for not having my lights on. Ha, stupid mistake, my rental car doesn't have lights that come on when it is dark out so I was driving around in the dark with no lights. I can't believe he didn't give me a ticket! He didn't even get out of his car.

I got to the race and parked forever away. Got into transition nice and early and got all set up. Got to see Cathy Y who I met very briefly at nationals last year. We were racked next to each other and she ended up making for a fun prerace buddy.

At some point during the pre race prep they said they had a very important announcement to make. We thought it would be about wetsuit legality. A few minutes later they announced that the swim was cancelled for all AG athletes and that we would do a time trial start bike and run.

I was bummed. I flew all this way and the swim is the one thing in my training that I feel like I have done well lately with my IT band issues and time constraints and all. We sat down on the ground for awhile not really sure what to do. It almost didn't feel like a race. This stuff happens, it is part of the sport and if we all went out there and someone died, we would feel horrible. But it is hard to spend all that money to go down and not get to do what you planned on. It was just a let down.

I was confused for awhile and just having trouble navigating all the crowds of people. Big races can be fun, but sometimes it is just too much for me. Add in all the people walking around in there aero helmets, and peeing everywhere, it was just weird. In line for the time trial start, I thought all the girls were squatting down to get out of the wind because it was a little chilly. Nope, they were peeing I guess.

The start was weird. Every 2 secs, we started. They tapped us on the back and said go. We ran in our helmets, to our bikes and then off. There were 5-6 of us all exiting transition at the same time. Going from dead stop to sprinting to a bike--I don't recommend. I like having my swim to warmup on. Or some kind of warmup. My warmup run was before we got booted from transition.

The bike was so-so. It was windy. I felt good for stretches and some stretches I felt like I had no power in my legs. I find it frustrating that so many people draft and find themselves justifying why they draft. On a windy day like this, the times should not have been fast unless you are really a truly exceptional cyclist like some people are. Others, just well whatever...they tend to be the same people that always use the excuse, oh, well we all got caught up in a pack, there was nothing I could do. Whatever. I rode the full race on my own effort. I had times when I was lonely because I rode for miles seeing no one. I may have had a time that was not that fast, I may have been passed by a guy on a hybrid riding in a paceline, but I did it myself. I don't need to cheat at a sport that I do for fun just to boost my ego.

Into t2 and right away some girl hits me in the back with her aero bars! Ouch!!!! Okay, have to beat her! I pass her pretty early out of transition and am running an okay pace. My stomach is starting to cramp. I don't remember if 1 mile was after the aid station or before. At the first aid station I stopped to check out the port o john, one of the volunteers yells "someone is in there", oh man....I hit 1 mile in 6:48 or so. Ugh, not good. I keep chugging along. Maybe I will feel better as I keep running. Sometimes that happens. My stomach starts to settle, I get into a nice smooth pace. Not this time. About 1.5 miles in I see a port a john on someones property, they are doing construction perhaps. Yeah, I'm using it. No way I'm running a full 10k like this. I have never used a portojohn in a short course race. A first for everything I guess.

At this point I had added some time and didn't want to see my watch. I just wanted to run to get a workout in and finish. I got lots of nice comments on my suit and how much people liked it. I wasn't moving that fast, but I still smiled and gave people thumbs up and thanked them when they said good job. I knew I was not racing well, but it was nice of them to come out to cheer. And it is much more fun to smile than it is to pout the whole way back to the finish.

I finished really far down and with slow times. I know I am in much better shape than that and so I have to look at some things. I tried a different prerace nutrition strategy because I thought maybe in previous years I wasn't getting in enough calories. I need to go back and rethink it and try some things before really intense workouts.

I need to work on rolling with the punches a little better. When things changed I wasn't really able to adapt well and figure out how to race well when things were not as planned. And since the race ended up being shorter, I also needed to scale back my nutrition a little.

I think when I travel I need more time before at the race. Or to drive if possible. Flying and dealing with the bike and all that and walking around so much on Saturday to get from parking to the packet pickup just wore me out a little. For Chicago I may think about driving. Or just get better at this traveling to races thing.

Its funny, I wasn't nervous at all for the race. I almost needed to be more nervous. I didn't have that ready to go attitude. I think I need some of that without overdoing it to race my best.

Between work and the divorce and all, honestly, coming down here felt like more of a vacation to me. And at this point in my life, that's ok. Triathlon is not all of my life. Only part of it. Life isn't always about training and races and how many miles you run or bike or how fast you go, it's about whether you are having fun doing it. At least not for me. And even though my stomach ached and I was tired from a long stressful week of work, I had fun. I am so glad I finally got to meet Bri (and Tassie!!! and Marty), Bree, and Jen and get to know Cathy and Chris better and got to see my friend Meaghan who had a great race.