HyVee 5150 US Championships

I was more than excited to race this race again. It's a great venue and a course that appeals to my strengths. As I was planning my trip, I realized my girls ran on the Friday evening before the race. As important as this race was to me, being a Mom and supporting my girls at their Cross Country meet was still a step higher on the priority list. I was hopeful I could slide in the day before and still have a relatively successful race.

A few things happened that created more stress than I anticipated. When I arrived at the airport Saturday around 1pm, my car that I reserved was not there. They had no cars and there was a line waiting for the returns to come in. After about 45min, I was able to finally get to my already tight schedule. I stayed downtown last year, but for some reason my memory and google maps were not getting me to the right place. This added more time. After another 30min delay, I checked in, headed over to the mandatory mtg and packet pick up, then built my bike and got it to Grey's Lake by dinner time. Phew!

Race morning came and it was dumping cats and dogs! This caused an hour delay, but thankfully it turned out to be a great race morning. 

My goal for this race was to get into the top 10, close to 5th would even be better. My swim brought me out 12 or 13, I biked up to 9 and was set to hit my goal until the bottom dropped out at mile 2 of the run, in a bad way! Sooo I ended up 16th.

Looking back on that Saturday, I was not in my normal pre-race routine and probably did not hydrate and eat  nearly enough that day. I am pretty sure it was a dehydration issue. For many of the obvious reasons what occurred post race, lack of urination, dark color and when I arrived home and got on the scale two days later, I was still only 115.6.. Yikes! The past couple months I've been fluctuating between 117-118.6.

As I write this, I am en route to Lifetime Tempe. Saturday at 4:19 pm. My girls ran this morning and I left Denver at 3:20pm. I have made a better effort this time to stay hydrated and eat better today. I will build my bike and roll into transition at 5am tomorrow to get my packet. And I heard it will be 100 degrees when I land. Let's see if I do a better job this time around. My girls are my number 1 priority, period. Hopefully, I'll learn to be more resilient to this.. 'Mad dash travel to a race and back'... routine I have going :) Enjoy your training =) 

Photo: Client Justin Little and I; He won taking home the Gold and $750 in cash prizes in M35-39.