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| I love the start of this race... my category is one of the first and I'm in the water while the sun is rising... a GREAT way to start the day! |
I did a 1.5 mile run on Thursday... and it felt good. So the race was ON!
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| I don't often post bike photos because I still don't like the way I look on the bike, but I LOVE the shadow on this photo...I was just starting the bike and my bad leg wouldn't clip in and slipped... OUCH! |
Seriously, racing is half training and half mental and since I knew I couldn't do the training, I had to keep telling myself "treat this like a training brick... you've done this race before... you can push through the pain..." But the voice that kept ringing in my head was, "Don't push too hard or you'll be down for another few months... this is going to hurt... your legs and cardio are now weak, what are you thinking... this is going to suck!"
Add to those negative thoughts that we were going to be visiting friends the night before the race... at Speedway (in Costa Mesa... about 90 miles away from home)... getting home at 11PM and having to get up at 3:30AM... no sleep... before a race... that I haven't been able to train for... I was trying to be cool, calm and collected, but I was a wreck!
I have to say that I knew the lack of cardio training would be tough... shoot... I have been training non stop for the past 3+ years, but not with a (4) week gap before a race! My swim time was great... T1 was good... but my strength, the bike, was HARD! I kept trying to get my computer to go 18-20 miles as I should have gone... but it kept slipping... 16, 15, 13... my MPH were horrible and I was pushing as hard as I could... and I almost threw up twice... who knew the run would be better than the bike?
It is time for the photos to tell this story...
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| Start of the run... and there is NO PAIN (in my knee)! While doing the mental prep for this race, I told myself that the run was going to hurt... so just keep running and it would be over soon... |
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| Long story short, I watch the results in my category and know that "Heather Richards" usually wins the under 40 Athena catgory... but I've never met her. I have, however, seen this gal in front of me at many races, but thought she was in another category, so I didn't think she was my competition... until we came to the finish line and the announcer said, "Here comes Heather Richards and Tracey Locher" and I thought, "CRAP...I hope she is not 40 yet!" I could not have given one more ounce of effort and she beat me by 2 seconds... good news... she won't be 40 for several more years!!! :-) And, yes, I introduced myself shortly after this race. |
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| I was SOOOOO happy to have finished this race... ... and friend Roger is there in the blue... LOVE this photo!!! Even with my issues, I finished my run 1 minute faster than last year... WHAT!? |
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| Superman Matt and me at the end of the race. Matt's first triathlon was Misson Bay 2 years ago... his 2nd race was an international and then a 70.3... he is on the quick path to his first Ironman... he is one of my big time inspirations!!! |
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| I TOOK 1ST PLACE and Tammy Franco took 2nd. I am so blessed for Facebook... and the chance to meet my competitors on the race course and get to know them later online... the Athenas all have a story... and most of them are very similar... health, weight loss, getting our butts out of bed to race! |
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| Do you see something missing from this celebratory #1 photo... oh yes, that would be a medal. The finisher and the awards medals were held up in customs due to the goverment shut down... I didn't think the shut down would affect us... darn it! |
