What a Weekend!!!! Racing and Friends

Last Saturday I participated in my 5^th half iron distance triathlon. Well it was longer than half distance by a good three miles. It was such a fun weekend. I went up with a good friend from high school and four other friends and we all raced in the event. It was two of my friends first time doing the half distance so the nerves were off the chart.

Friday night we went to pick up numbers and went to take a look at the swim. We get to the water and my god did the swim distance look long. Instant panic set in with my friends. As we were leaving the venue to go to dinner I was making my way over some plastic fencing and got my foot caught and down I went. Seriously, it was hilarious. Only me! So we head to dinner have a nice night and back to the hotel for early bed time. Not that I could sleep, I never sleep well the night before a race never mind in a hotel room too. Before bed we got our gear together and many questions were asked. One of our friends Cheryl lost her number and was panicking! We looked everywhere in the room, our other friend was in the shower and comes flying out thinking there was a mouse in the room because of the commotion going on. Come to find out Gina took Cheryl’s number by accident. Oh boy!! This is the beginning of the fun. Hahaha! Man I love these girls. Like I always say “it takes a village.”

Race Day!!! The three of us get ready and get our pre-race eats and last minute checks that we have everything. It was an early morning and we were all nervous and ready to go. Our other friend staying in another room came down to meet us so we could all drive together. She comes in the room and she is doing a check with us on if she has everything. I ask her if she has her helmet sticker and she says yes and she goes to put it on her helmet. We tell her she has her helmet on backwards and she insists she doesn’t and has been wearing it that way for ever. I told her it is backwards the visor thing you have on the helmet goes in the front. OMG!! We all died laughing. Her new nick name is backwards helmet. She has been wearing it backwards on rides for weeks now. Bahahaha! I almost wet my pants. It was awesome.

future ironmen! I hope

The race was delayed for 50 minutes due to fog on the water. Not good when you are already nervous had your pre-race GU before they announced the delay. But hey it gave me extra time for bathroom runs, so I guess it worked out. We start the swim it was a nice swim. But when you turned your last turn buoy to the finish of the swim there was no sight buoy. I could not see where the heck I was swimming. It was chaos. I had no idea what I was swimming towards so I tried to keep a line with the swimmer in front of me. It worked okay I guess. The swim was long by about .18 according to my watch and I did a fairly good job keeping in a straight line.

Winna winna chicken dinna

Classy Dismount

Off on the bike we go after a quick transition. I had some anxiety the first 10 miles on the bike. No idea why but it was terrible. I could not catch my breath. I had to keep telling myself I was fine I got this, no problem. I finally settled into a comfortable groove. Mile 37 brought on a new challenge. OMG!!! I got the worst saddle sore ever. It hurt to sit and wanted to cry. So sore and I pretty much had to ride the bike out of the last 6-7 miles of the race.  Not to mention the nice climb of 9-10 miles from 37-47 yikes it was a doozy and sitting in the saddle climbing was not fun. So the ride is over and my friend Jess caught me on the bike. She is such a strong cycler. I kept her in my view as we came to the finish of the bike. As we pull into dismount I am flapping my gums to her chatting and I didn’t clip out my left foot first as I dismount the bike. Whoops… down I go. I went down hard. It hurt. But we laughed that I ruined our bike time. Haha! People came over to help to see if I was okay and the announcer gave me a 10 for best dismount of the day. Ugh.. haha!! So classy!

The run was good. I pretty much slowly ran the whole way. I walked a few hills to keep my heart rate down. It was pretty hilly the second half. I felt okay. Left leg was giving me a little hell but it always does. I kept hammering on.

It was such a great day with my friends. We all finished and I was so proud of all of the girls. I didn’t do as well as I had hoped for and it has kind of got in my head a bit but time to shut the brain off and get my workouts in. Focus on the bigger picture and make this happen. I am working out some sore spots on the legs to. Things are starting to creep up now as the volume increases.

The girls with our new friend Kate!

We ended the day with a nice evening with my friend’s parent’s campsite and had a cookout. It was so much fun. My friend’s mom was my Girl Scout troop leader so we had some funny stories as always. It was just a great weekend.