The Racing (and training) Continues....

Rev 3 Williamsburg Olympic Triathlon 
4th Female (fastest women's run split)

After a brief email exchange with my Dad I finally decided to update this blog of mine.

Dad: Where’s the new BLOG?

Me: I’m so uninspired!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And drained. This sport is so d*mn hard. I don’t have anything positive to say. Just that I’m slow and tired and it might take 10 years before I turn pro.

Dad: If we keep doing what we’re doing, I guarantee you that you’ll turn pro before I get my Black Belt in Jiu Jitsu. At the rate I’m going, I estimate two more years to Black Belt. I give you permission to quit the day after I quit! P.S. I turn 66 in a week!

So there you have it...my agreement with my Dad.

Realizations

Training day after day is hard. Psyching myself up for an AM workout isn't easy. Psyching myself up to train again after work is usually harder. Balancing three disciplines (swim, bike, run) is tough, and testing my limits in races is outright painful. But you know what I've found to be the most difficult? PATIENCE - accepting that I won't get fast overnight and learning to embrace the minuscule gains.

Rev 3 Williamsburg (July 8th)  - mostly told in pics and gifs because I'm lazy and don't feel like writing :-)

The cool thing about racing is that each venue, distance, and atmosphere is totally unique. You can't even compare the same race to the previous year. Funny how something as simple as wind or humidity can make the same race you did the previous year feel like a totally different experience. Rev 3 2016 was practically a walk in the park compared to this year's race. 2016 - smooth, downstream swim, bike with no wind versus 2018 - 55 minute delay (I literally stood on the pier shivering and wondering what was going on for nearly an hour), choppy swim and super windy bike. 

The Swim (1500m)

I did my usual swim warm up at 7:05 then seeded myself towards the front of the line on the pier expecting that we'd start on time at 7:20 am (about 30 minutes after the half iron athletes started). By 8 am I was cold, cranky, and about ready to call it a day. As I stood there thinking about how I was going to rip the Rev 3 brand to shreds by the time I wrote this blog, they made an announcement that we were starting. As I made my way to the take off point, there was a guy personally apologizing to each athlete for the delay - I believe he was the race director. Apparently, they had to pull some of the half iron folks out of the water due to the current / chop, and supposedly a buoy got loose. Kudos to Rev 3! Safety first. And if in fact that was the race director, he ROCKS.

I hate making excuses for a poor performance (everyone deals with the same conditions) but my hands and feet were numb for the entire first half of the swim. I also kept thinking about food for some reason. Is that normal?? By the time I reached shore I knew I was pretty far behind the other women. Seeing a lot of the bikes gone from transition confirmed it. 

The Bike (27.2 miles)

Holy wind!! We rode out for 10 miles into a head wind. I kept telling myself "stay strong, you'll have the wind on your back on the way in". Nope! I don't know how it's possible to have a head wind on a lollipop course but we did.

On paper, I got out-biked by the top 3 women. But you know what? I rode 7 minutes faster this year (much tougher conditions) versus the same race in 2016. I'm closing the gap!!! Plus I'm feeling stronger and more confident on the bike with each race.

My favorite part of the ride...the dismount ;-)

The Run (10K)

 

I headed out onto the run course in 10th place for the women, and went through the first mile in 6:45. I spotted some females in the distance and tried to pick up the pace, working my way down to 6:30s. I saw tons of friends on the course and that helped push me through the bad patches.

Thanks Lilly (Soliman) for the video and for the cheers!! I look like I'm casually jogging haha

I crossed the finish line smiling because I didn't give up. I fought and ran the fastest 10K split for the women which moved me into 4th place.

And I won my age group!

I'm going to be honest. During the drive home after this race I called my Dad and told him I wanted to train for a fall marathon. "All this swimming and biking isn't for me. I'm too slow. If I can run these times off of 20 miles a week imagine what I could do with 60, 70, 80 miles a week." My Dad basically said, in not so many words, "shut up...no one cares about you doing a marathon...you need to stick with this and have faith in your coach...besides your bike is improving, you are just impatient." Tough love! But he's right! After every race I usually google the women that place ahead of me (not sure why I'm admitting this publicly!). And you know what I typically find? They've been doing this a LONG time. Case in point, the woman that won the race...she was winning her age group at Ironman 70.3s since 2007!! When I did my first 70.3 in 2016 I knew it would take a lot of months, perhaps years, to get good. But what I didn't take into account was how committed you have to be to the daily grind. Now I understand why they say this sport is a lifestyle.

Plus this "journey" has been so worth it. Believe me, when I first started this blog I never intended for it to have much of an audience outside of my family and close friends. I mean ... who really wants to hear about my pre-race jitters, bike struggles, work / training balancing act, and random thoughts on diversity and inclusion in the sport? Well, apparently there are a lot of folks out there that can relate. My story really isn't unique, I just happen to put it in writing, which has afforded me the awesome opportunity to connect with people.

More pics from Rev 3 Williamsburg

Shout out to FastChix!!!

With Nikki Bailey <3

Pre race day swim and bike check

Congrats ladies! With Michele Moore and Zsa-Zsa Porter

Ramblings....

• Triathlon has afforded me the opportunity to write for online sports publications. I enjoy sharing my thoughts on diversity and inclusion in the sport. Here's my most recent article: The Power of Image in Triathlon
• I did the Tidewater Triathlon on Saturday during a rain storm! It was ...interesting. I came in 2nd for the women. I'll blog about that next week.
• I qualified and punched my ticket to the 2018 Ironman 70.3 World Championships in South Africa (at Ironman 70.3 North Carolina). Unfortunately due to the time I'd need to take off from work and the whole expense of the trip I've decided to do....drum roll.... Ironman 70.3 Atlantic City in September. I've heard lots of great things about this race. This will be my "championship" race. 

I'm looking forward to ramping up my training over the next month and giving it my all in Atlantic City. For now, I'm off to Jamaica for some fun and relaxation <3