Icebreaker 2010

Race is done! I survived

which was the big goal for Saturday. I ended up seeding myself back farther because of my gimpy shoulder. The last thing I wanted was to have people swimming over me. As it turned out, I did a personal best in my 300m swim and surprised myself with how little it bothers me to cut people off! It's still pathetic by actual competitive swimmer standards, but I was pleased. I wasn't expecting to run barefoot across frost covered grass to get to transition even though I knew it was going to be a cold day. I was hoping that my adrenaline rush would be enough to distract me from my numb feet. Yeeeaaaa... not so much. It turns out I'm a wimp even with adrenaline surging through my veins!

Right onto the bike course, I was hit with a hill. I was surprised how fast my feet got numb. I picked up the pace purely to get off the bike and get into some shoes. By the end of the bike, the numbness was creeping into the rest of my foot. I spent the last few miles wondering why I didn't use my toe warmers on my bike shoes. WHY?!!

The run was a little tough with my shoulder issues, thankfully I was still distracted in the first mile with my frozen feet. I felt like I was running on stumps, it was actually humorous. It's surprising how much a little pain can sap from your energy. I kept reminding myself that this race was already blown and I needed to pay attention to what my body could actually handle today. It really helped! I have such a sprinter's mindset. I want to go hard and go home, so I'm always burning out too soon. I kept repeating, "patience" to myself when I would be tempted to speed it up a bit and a tried to calm my mind and settle into a good rhythm the best I could. Gratefully, McKenzie and Brittany were there to run the entire 5k with me.

I'm really glad I decided to do the tri even with all the issues I was having. I ended up 7th out of 17 in my age group. It got a lot of pre-season nervousness out of my system, showed me my training weaknesses, (i.e. hills, hills, hills) and made me a little tougher. I was overwhelmed by how many of our team girls got up early on a Saturday morning to cheer me on in the freezing cold. It meant a lot to me girls!

Next up is the Timp trail run. I'm switching trainers, so we'll see how this goes.

On a funny side note, a couple in line behind me asked why we were getting body marked. I jokingly said, "So they can identify our bodies." They looked at me stone faced and terrified, until I told them I was kidding. I'll try to be more helpful next time, I can be such a jerk. LOL

Okay, who's next?