TriSports.com Halfmax National Championship - 10/08/11

There was excitement in the air because it was race weekend!! Of course, the procrastinator that I am left packing to the last minute. After finishing some homework I finally had to crash, and ended up frantically packing Friday morning. Friday noon came and 4 adults and a baby piled into Jeff's fantastic new Power Wagon truck, with lots and lots of gear/luggage. ("duh Big Red truck" is no more & now we have to find a new saying for his grey Power Wagon). Jeff normally drives like a little 'ol grandma, but with Nicole in the back seat and him trying to prove the power of his new truck we got to Myrtle Beach in decent time. It would have been even faster, but my small bladder slowed us down. =) On the ride, like usual, we tried to mentally prep for the race by going around the truck and stating our goals & projected times for the next days race, and also setting up our plans for the day. My plan was to try and hold back some on the bike so that I would have my legs for the run.

Our motel was aah-may-zing! I have to say, Nicole did a fantastic job getting our motel room. The "room" was more like a LARGE apartment. Every room had a great view of the intercoastal waterway, with a perfect view of the swim course. This led to a great place for watching the pro's swim on Sunday.

Friday night came and I seemed to just lay there while the clock ticked by. Baby Addison cried here and there, but I think it was more the nerves and excitement for the next day that kept me up. 5am and it's time to wake up. Seriously?!? I tried to eat breakfast, but that wasn't working so well because I was wound up. My outside was telling a completely different story though. Krysta was like "you know we are racing today? You are so calm, what's up with you!" Well, I really wasn't calm. I knew this day was going to be a hard day, and I knew I was going to have to work for it. But there was pressure on me - self inflicted of course. This was my "A" race for the season, my training was there, I was healthy, the weather was cooperating and this was setting up to be my best half ever ... or so I thought / hoped / wished for. But, the day didn't play out to that end. What happened? I went from knowing it would hurt, but expecting a good day to talking myself out of DNFing (DNF = Did Not Finish).

The SWIM: 1.2miles. So, I was the only person in my swim wave with a non-purple swim cap on. Yes, somehow I had accidently grabbed a random hunter green SetUp Events swim cap & didn't realize it till it was too late. Oh well! I'm not really worried about the swim. Yes, 2/3rds of it is against current, but I'm a good swimmer so it is all good. Well, I had never swam in brackish water before & was not prepared for the absolute zero visibility it provided. There was no way you could draft because you couldn't even see the bubbles from other swimmer feet to guide you. I ended up having to sight about every 4 strokes. That wasn't even enough sometimes when you factored in the current. I took the turnaround buoy a little wide and that threw me out into the middle of the intercoastal waterway. The current kept pulling me farther and farther out towards the other bank and it was a constant battle to stay on course & my time reflected that. Finally I hit that last turn, climbed out on the dock and then ran into TA (TA = Transition Area) to find my bike.

The BIKE: 56miles. The course was in the shape of an "I" and it was 2 loops of flatness. We got to bike on an actual highway. How cool is that! With a flat highway at the beach guess what you get ... WIND! And lots of it. There was easily a 7-8mph difference after the 180 degree turns. Crazy I tell you! With the last turn on the first loop and heading back to TA to start the 2nd loop I started to feel weak. What? I've been holding back some, why am already feeling weak? This is weird. Oh well. Push through it. You knew today wouldn't be easy. You are racing for 70.3 miles. Come on legs lets go! I was able to keep my mph average the same, but my effort level definitely started to increase. At mile 43 I felt like I started to crumble. The most important thing to do on a windy course is to stay low in the aero position, and I couldn't. I had to keep switching from up on the hoods and back into aero. Aggravating for sure. And then the mind games start to play in my head. My nutrition and hydration has been spot on, why is my calf cramping? Why am I so puny?

The RUN: 13.1miles. I walked through TA and thought, oh this is not going to be pretty. This is when your mind comes into play and you are supposed to suppress all the negative thoughts and push through it. Yeah, that did not work for me on this run. The course was an out and back 3 times. At the aid station at mile 2 I saw Nicole and said I was D-O-N-E. She basically told me I'm mentally giving up, and I need to suck it up and keep going. She was right. Funny thing, there was another runner struggling & she said "wow, she's (Nicole's) mean. Can I run you guys!" haha! By the end of the 2nd loop I was in complete meltdown mode. Chin was wobbling, tears were flowing I was going to quit. All I could hope for was that Nicole was waiting at the end of that loop to kick me in the butt and make me keep going. She wasn't there, and I lost it, but I did make that turn to start the 3rd loop and I did finish that race. Sweet Jeff even came back and ran that last little bit with me.

If I'm going to be honest I'd have to say that this race has demoralized me. I felt horrible, and was over an hour longer than I expected to come in at. What happened? I don't know what happened. People say, you learn from your bad races. Well, I didn't learn what to change during the race, but I will probably take a couple Tylenol PM the night before & eat more the morning of the race! The bottom line is, I did finish! I got that finishers medal & I even got 3rd place in the Athena division. Neither of those would have happened if I had walked away from that run course.