And they wrote 40 on my calf

Yesterday was the Liberty Triathlon.  70.3 miles of swimming, biking and running.

My season has typically ended with a race of this distance.  I train all summer to be able to do this.  But this year, it’s just a training on the calendar.  A base line of how things are going.  We hardly even taper.  It’s odd to say the least.

So how did the race go you ask?  Well, I had some mighty high expectations of myself…which is almost always a bad way to start.

The 1.2 mile swim: I headed into the water when the gun went off and within about 1 minute my arms and legs felt like logs, I felt like I couldn’t breath and I was having a hard time sighting the buoys.  This always happens to me.  The big FREAK OUT in the water.  I eventually found a good rhythm just in time for the wind to kick up and start bashing waves in my face.  I came out of the water and my watch said 37 minutes…a whole 5-7 minutes slower than I was hoping.

Transition 1: I went into transition, ripped off my wet suit, slide my arm warmers on and hopped on my bike.  No problems with the exception of some disappointment with the swim.

The 56 mile bike: Well, with all the bike drama I have been having I was not really looking forward to this leg of the race but they were not going to cut it out just for little’ol me, so onward.  Biking is hard for me, biking hurts and the little voice in my head just kept saying, you better just man the f*&% up if want to do well on this race.

My body was wet as I was not so quickly speeding down the road.  My hands started to become so cold that I couldn’t shift at all with my left hand and ended up doing everything with my right. This causes a little bit of unbalence and almost took me down as my elbow came up and off the aero bars.  My legs were burning and it was getting dark in my head.

It continued to get darker as my average pace slowed and the miles clipped along.  Then my team mate passed me like I was standing still.  If I didn’t like her so much I would have spit at her.  It was around that point in time that my mind and I were discussing the possibilities…just stop and not care anymore or bearing down, sucking it up and focusing on the best last leg possible.  It was my race I was racing and I had to let go who was passing me and that I might not catch them today.

I could fold or I could fight.

Transition 2: I happily slapped my bike on the rack and decided to sit down to put my shoes on.  I could not find my Yankz last night (bungee cords for your shoes) so I had to tie my shoes instead of just slip them on.  This proved to be a serious problem, I couldn’t feel my fingers and they were not going to let me do something as nimble as tie my laces.  So my shoes were on, but not tight.  I couldn’t even unclasp my helmet because my fingers couldn’t pinch hard enough to get the clasp undone, so I wiggled it around my chin and slipped it off.  Minuets wasted!

The run 13.1 miles: I decided I would just let the laces go, even though my feet were slipping around in my shoes from not being tight enough.  A friend yelled out that my feet and hands would get their feeling back around mile four, so I was determined to run until then, and then I could fix the problem.

Back on the bike, I decided to fight.  I decided to pull myself out of the not so happy place I was in and decided to do whatever I could to make the run the best it could be.  I took it one mile at a time, watching my pace and working the down hills as much as possible.  I was feeling pretty good, which meant the nutrition plan on the bike was good.  The miles clipped by as the rain kept coming.  I never stopped to tie my shoes again, why waste more time?  I finished the run leg in 1:48:30, almost catching my own half marathon PR of 1:47:50.  Not bad.

My finishing time 5:26:34. 5th in my age group (yup, they bumped me up to 40 even though I am 39 for two more days) and 11th over all the ladies.

My lesson learned this race, I am tough enough to pull myself out of a mental tail spin.  I’m gonna call that a success.

And kudos to all my buddies, my coach and my team mates racing yesterday.  You can find Diane 5th over all, Courtney 7th and jMatt 9th on leader board.  AND huge props to Cousin Katherine who WON the Olympic Distance race.

It’s super cool to race with such a talented group of people.

Filed under current events, Ironman, races, training | Comments (2)