I expected the current this time, and was thankful that the waves were breaking on my left side because I habitually breath on my right. Watching the waves before my wave paid off--everyone was ending up being washed in shore by the wave action, so I knew to sight often and make sure to swim out. Luckily there were lots of familiar faces to chat with to keep me from freaking out too much about the waves!!
My mantra for this race was "Mind Over Matter" (Thanks Lourdes!), and remembered that as I entered the water and got stung by who knows what . . . ~~probably ctenophores, but all the non-science folks are going to be asking what a ctenophore is Anyway, I digress.~~ The swim took forever, but it was what it was. Aside from being stung several times, the swim went as well as could be expected. I had been debating doing an international distance for this event's bonus round next month, so after I exited I was all totally like "Yeah, I could have gone further!!"
Bike was awesome and pretty speedy (for me). If the bike was Ragnar I would have had lots of "kills" (passed people), but alas, it wasn't and I don't think anyone counts "kills" on bikes. But it was nice to pass people, it doesn't really ever happen on the run. By the end of my two loops, I was all like "Yeah, I GUESS I could have done two more. If I had gone slower. A lot slower."
The run was . . . sandy. I don't remember it being as sandy the past 2 times--I think the put sand on wet parts of the trail to dry them out. Not fun. But I ended up behind this 16 year old girl and promised myself I would keep her in my sites. That worked out well, I ended up with my fastest 5K run time ever in a triathlon. Granted, the wind probably played a part in that. But by the end of THAT I was all like "Uh, yeah, SURE I could do another loop of THIS but why would I want to??" :-) Repetition really messes with my head, and I think I'll wait till Miami Man, when I don't have to mess with loops, to log my first international triathlon. I rather enjoy being a sprinter. I ended up 4th of 12 Athenas, which wasn't too shabby. I was stoked with how strong I felt and energized by seeing some familiar faces and some new ones (including an athlete with a prosthetic leg--now THAT is what tough looks like folks!). The line at the massage table was short, which made it a WIN for the day!
The best part of the race was that I managed to drag hubs along. After years of him thinking I'm off my rocker about triathlons, he finally is thinking about doing one. I love that I'm slowly dragging him over to the dark side, year by year. He used to laugh at me when I went on a long run, now he mentioned doing an ultra for Ragnar 2015 and DIDN'T say NO WAY when I asked him if he would consider a marathon. I'll take it! Of course, who knows what we'll do with the kids if we both decide to race all summer long next year. As it is, I'm not entirely sure how we're going to balance TRAINING for all we have on our calendars this fall/spring. More on that soon.
How do YOU balance all the craziness in your life, especially with all the back to school mayhem?
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