My Total Preggo and healthy blog

Do you remember when you were a kid and you waited ALL year for Santa to come and fill your dreams of grandeur?  Well, that is kinda how I feel today.  ALL that training and work over the last several months only to be over in less than one hour and a half.  HUMMMMMM…..  Anyhew, the race went fine.  Started at 7am in the water, not too cold but choppy.  We all looked like pirana out there, just a bunch of purple caps bobbing.  300 yards, not that far in the whole scheme of things, BUT in open water with over 100 other women aged 35-39 TOUGH.  I stayed to the outside, tried to go freestyle and gave up when I ended up ingesting over 32 oz of lake water (yuck!).  Ended up doing mostly sidestroke and breaststroke.  When I got too tired, backstroke.  My many years as a competitive surfer definately paid off here, I was used to currents and knew what to expect which helped…There was a lady who was NOT doing good at all so I pushed her over towards the noodles so she could rest.  Came out of the water (more towards the front of the pack) then ran (hobbled) to the transition area.  I did take my sweet time drinking my NO Explode and goo, 11 miles is no small feat!  Especially for a NON biker!  Off on the bike and started strong.  My hips started to cramp up, probably normal for someone who has been on a bike a total of less than 10 times!  Pushed through it and transitioned to the run.  AHA, the run, my strength!  HAHAHAH. Right!  Not after all that!  Off to a slow start, BUT just kept telling myself "one foot in front of the other, repeat", I am sure people thought I was CRAZY!  Got to the half mark and the lead runner was on her way to the finish line.  OH MAN!  Guess I won’t win?  LOL- I had a good time complementing the other ladies, telling them what a great job they were doing.  I think allot of them needed that extra push, I know it helped me!

Finally with less than a mile left, it hit me…  Side stich cramp.  SHIT!!!!!!  I slowed down, pushed forward not up and finally had to walk to catch my breath.  It was then that a woman came up behind me and said "You can do it!  You are almost there, just push through it".  That was it, like a LIGHT went off.  I sucked it up and pushed it out.  I started passing ladies and WOW did it feel good!  Passed a 53 year old woman (yes, she was ahead of me for awhile!- It is AMAZING how fast those heavy bottom women are on the bike!) and got the the final stretch.  The cheers almost made me cry as I approached the finish line, they said my name and took my chip.  It was over. 

Was it fun?  Uh, no not really.  Was it hard?  Yes, the hardest single thing I have EVER done in my life!  Would I do it again?  Ask me in a month!

Until Tomorrow,

Cya!

This entry was posted on Monday, August 18th, 2008 at 6:44 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.