I couldn't have been more excited to race this morning!! After my Kansas episode, I was ready to put the hammer down and see what improvements I was going to get at the Olympic distance since St. Anthony's back in April. It was a great morning and my swim got off to a great start. It was very fun swimming next to a client of mine Gretchen Bruno for half of the swim. It was hard not to smile at each other each time we took a breath =0).
As I exited the water, I ran up into Transition, peeled off my wetsuit, dropped my goggles and cap, then put on the helmet and optics. As I pulled my bike off the rack, and started running forward with it, I looked down, as I must've rolled over my goggles and low and behold; they had rolled up and were stuck between my brake, frame, and wheel. I quickly tried to joggle them loosed as they were completely wedged in there! I pulled and pulled and finally the nose piece flew off, but now I had one goggle on each side of the brake! After pulling them to one side, discovered that the goggle was much bigger than the hole. I'm quite sure I yelled out, "You've got to be kidding me!!" So I start pulling as hard as I can to break that darn strap... after about 6 pulls, I was set free!!!
So I'm off! I race through Transition, wave to all my fans (okay, just my coach who was cheering for me and a couple random "Go Timex" cheers) and I leap onto my bike. Don't ask me what happened, but I missed my shoe, landed back on the ground, and thought... "Wow, that hurt." No biggie, I just did it again and was off. Well, I felt my foot a little on the bike, and then a little on the run. When I had crossed the finish line and had finally stopped moving, MY TOE REALLY HURT! I couldn't hardly walk. "I broke my toe, I really think I broke my toe". Well, when I removed my shoe, it wasn't looking so hot. Now I am getting yellowing over the top of my foot as well and it's pretty obvious which one is the unhappy piggy.
I would like to say after today, I've seen it all. But as soon as I do, I'm setting myself up for something else. In my racing, I have been stung by a jellyfish, hit by a car, stepped on a staple, passed out on my bike with hypothermia, screamed at during the swim, called bad names for passing someone on the bike, rescued a panicking swimmer, listened to my CO2 cartridge "ping, ping, ping" behind me as it fell off my bike. I'm sure there are more and I'm sure you have some of your own to share. It's all apart of the racing experience!
Aside from all the drama, I had a good day out there. Although there wasn't significant improvement on my swim and bike for this course, I ran 37 seconds faster per mile than I did at St. Anthony's. YAY!!!! The leg is getting stronger. I don't plan on being "FRESH" for a race, until my speed is back. I will continue to train, train, race, train and enjoy the journey of rebuilding.
A big congrats to all my TIMEX Peeps for outstanding performances on the course today... and to all my athletes for spectacular finishes and big PR's!!!
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