Day of Reckoning

I got back form the tri a few hours ago. It was just as I feared. The upside is that I still had loads of fun while I added humiliation to my list of todays' accomplishments. First, the swim was moved farther away from transition because of debris being pushed onto the course from the river, making it so we would have to run for a bit on a dirt path to our bikes. Then they announced that the lake was a balmy 53°-55°. You can imagine how excited I was to put some of this well formed insulation to good use. I've been packing it on for months for just such an occasion. I got in the water with the olympic distance people so I could get used to the water and it's a dang good thing I did. It took me about 15 minutes to acclimate and get feeling back in my hands. My shoulder was hanging in there as I was headed for the first buoy but every time I looked up to spot, I swear it got farther away. I put my head down, gave myself a pep talk and kept going. The next time I looked up it wasn't any closer. I began making a mental list of tri gear to sell on e-bay, wondering how much I could sell my tri bike for etc. There was no way in hell I was ever making it to that stupid buoy. As it turned out, the buoy had broken loose from it's anchor and was drifting farther away. A boat eventually came by and informed us that we were now far off course. According to the race director, what started out as a 750, ended up being a 1500. -sigh- I wanted to cry. I tried to keep on truckin' and remind myself that it was all about fun today. By the time I got to the end of the swim, there were only 10 people or so left in the water. Pathetic! I did find out later that they had to pull 5 or 6 people from the cold water, so maybe I will get points for just staying in!

The ride was so hard with big hills and the heat of the day coming on. My shoulder was aching so I was glad I decided to race with my road bike instead of my tri, it would have been agony to sit in aero for that long.

By the time I got to the hilly trail run, I was spent. I expected as much since I hadn't been properly trained, so it wasn't really that disappointing. I was so relieved to finish! It was a really hard day for me and I'm glad I did it, I think. I'm still considering the e-bay option.It was a beautiful venue, even if it was hard, and it was good to see friends again. I will, however, make sure that I'm better trained before I get talked into this again!!