First Multi-Sport Race Update!

Well leading up to the big day Sunday, I had intended to rest up a bit on Saturday. No such luck. I decided since I had missed Friday's swim I would do that early on Saturday and since I was at the gym already, I figured I might as well take my favorite aerobics instructor's class since it had been so long. I just love her classes and realized that I may have to fit in just one a week because I really enjoy them. After leaving the gym I went home to work on our remodeling project upstairs. In trying to organize and move everything from half the upstairs to either the other half or primarily down to the basement, I was absolutely wore out after working on it for 7 hours.

I hit the hay totally spent Saturday night but had trouble sleeping. I was nervous. When I was able to sleep, I was having dreams (nightmares) all about tri's and being late and having problems and other random crazy things. I was tired when I woke up Sunday and my legs felt sore from working out and lifting so much stuff on Saturday. But I got out of bed and went through my normal race day routine. It felt warmer than it did the prior 2 Saturdays that I went out to Hinckley so I figured that at least I should be OK temperature-wise.

I was able to figure out the setup (which I had been nervous about) issue-free and headed off to the start line. I was happy to see Angie Ridgel, the Clev Tri Club VP at the start and chatted with her a bit. I noticed she had the same shoe string clips on her running shoes that I had purchased and so now I was happy to learn what I could not figure out the night before about how those things actually should go on. The first 5K I went out and felt pretty strong. I am thinking it took about 23 minutes and then I was a little slow in transition but hopped on my bike and was off for the 5 loops. I felt pretty good. I could not get into the big gears on my bike so I think I might have put my chain on wrong which I will have to check on. I passed a few guys, a lot of guys passed me and one girl passed me on the bike. I was so troubled by my runny nose and all I could think of was how happy I was going to be to blow it when I got off the bike.

Coming into the second transition, it was hard to get off my bike. My legs did not want to move. It took a lot of effort just to rack my bike. I blew my nose and was off for the last 5K. It hurt bad. I wanted to walk. I heard this happens a lot after biking and heard to just keep putting one foot in front of the other and I did. Slowly things started to feel better and I passed a guy, and another, and the girl that passed me on the bike, and a another girl. I felt tired but wanted to finish my first du strong. I crossed the finish line at 1:42:16. I was 1st out of three in my age group and 5th female over all. Not bad, I figure. It seemed like there were so many people at the starting line but after looking at the results page, I found it strange only 16 women did the du.

So all and all, a great experience and a good start to the day! I had to leave right afterwards as we had a huge family shindig yesterday to celebrate my grandma's 75th birthday, my grandpa's 80th birthday, and my aunt and uncle's 25th wedding anniversary...and that was a good time too!