Father's day and first race of the year...

Okay so on the Father's day front I win wife of the year as well. Tom got... NADA! It took me until after his nap... after my race to even say "happy father's day" I did get Jason and Lily to say it! :)

The race... I'm not sure how to describe it. Let's start by saying that I did a 2 hour run yesterday (the day before the race) b/c afterall ... this race was just training. I also did my first open water swim yesterday, but only for about 30 mins. Needless to say I was a bit tired today going into the race. I felt pretty good before hand, but when I got in the water to swim I felt it. Okay.. I could also tell my legs were tired on my 2 mile ride to Marie's house to catch a ride to that start.

My plan was to not race it.... and I didn't really thrash myself out there which is probably good b/c I'm not sure I would have finished... ha The swim sucked balls. Not because it was particularly hard - it was in a quarry and it was CALM and not too cold, but we did have to do three laps... getting out of the water to cross a timing mat between. I was in the last wave (39 and under women) and the first lap was okay... other than the fact that I felt really slow (b/c I am) and that I need to practice siting a lot more. Every time I would lift my head out of the water I would get throw off any bit of groove I may have had. I did way more breast stroke than I even want to admit to. On to lap two. I got PUMMELED by all the men passing me... most likely on their third lap and thus giving it all they had to get out of the water. Third lap was pretty much like the first except that I finally was getting into a rhythm. don't get me wrong I was more than ready for it to be over!!!! Onto the bike. YEAH!



When I got out of the water I was already hungry. Bad sign. I was starving when I woke up this morning. I hadn't been paying much attention to my nutrition all week b/c I wasn't working out too hard and I wasn't planning on doing this race. Well, I FELT IT FOR SURE! My nutrition during the race felt okay, but I was starting at a deficit. Not good.

I got my stuff together and headed out for what I knew was going to be a very hilly bike. I biked the course a couple of weeks ago and remember being whipped afterward. i had to constantly remind myself to stay honest b/c I had to run after this. I'm known for just punishing myself on the bike. (when I have any punishing in my tank!) I felt fairly strong on the bike. Hills are definitely my weakness, but I did okay and I felt strong on the flats... i could go a nice pace w/o killing the legs. I dropped my chain once and didn't freak out about it. :)



As the bike came to an end I was actually excited about the run b/c running has been my real strength lately and I had a great run yesterday. Well I got out on the run - and though I know I usually feel slower than I am - I had nothing to give it. I was going to just go ahead and kill the run as hard as I could... which I guess I did, but unfortunately I just couldn't. I'm hoping it was my lack of nutrition... was starving the whole time... even drank the horrible Heed drink (GAG!) to try to get some oomph. The run had 2 decent hills and 2 not so bad hills. I was coming up the 2nd decent hill and really struggling. I didn't expect to see mom and dad and the kids until he finish... well I came to midway on the hill and I looked up and I saw mom and dad, the kids AND TOM! I started choking up immediately and it was all I could do to keep it together. This has never happened to me. I'm not sure where all of the emotion came from. I guess just a release from all of the stress we've been through over the last week. It meant so much to see them there and I knew now that there was no way I could quit. I had two more laps of the run to complete and they would worry if I didn't come around again. I stopped at each lap to kiss them and thank them and it felt great to just be out there enjoying it. By the last lap I felt okay...no more weepiness and I was back to my old self encouraging others on the course and feeling positive about my experience. Not that I was feeling negative about it before. It was hard, but I never wished I hadn't done it. I did think about quitting until I saw the fam, but I knew I wouldn't.



When I got to the finish the fam was there again. I got through the shoot and decided to wait there for Marie who was just behind me, but when I looked over Lily was running along the shoot to get to me. It was the cutest thing ever so, of course, I had to run to her. Mom said that Lily wanted to badly to run the shoot w/ me. How sweet! I balled like a baby as I hugged everyone. Again, a flood of inexplicable emotion. Glad to be done, glad I did it and so thankful for my wonderful family.



Marie came quickly behind me and I ran the shoot w/ her (on the outside) and met her at the end for a big hug. This was her first ever triathlon and she did great. The first words out of her mouth, "it's scary how much I loved that. I could be in big trouble." haha I'm so glad that she had such a good time. She did awesome! She said she was just going to treat it as a training run and not kill it.... she totally killed it! :) Go Momma!! Go!!

We hung around there for a while. Jason ran off and ran down the shoot about 1/4 of the way before I could catch him. Lily rolled down the hill. They picked out water bottles and got me snacks.

Tom looks like he's in pain, but I think his allergies/eyes were bothering him. Poor guy.




Later in the day they were playing in their little pool in the yard and had some cups and both started running like they were running through water stops and dumped their water on their heads (just like the racers) then through them. So cute. My future racers.

The decision has been made that I WILL be going to Seattle and I WILL be completing the Half Ironman!!! We were undecided as to what would happen w/ our trip after Tom's back injury. Turns out I am going to go w/ just Jason and Tom will plan on taking Lily out after he gets the all clear from his PT. I'm also still raising funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society with Team in Training... recommittment is on July 1st and I need to have $1000 raised in order to stay with the team. If you haven't donated yet, please visit my website: http://pages.teamintraining.org/wi/chitri08/lmount