What a Week....

Well, mid last week I was turned up sided down at work. It was totally unexpected and untrue...but I am not going to dive into it on an Internet site and be like the lady that bitched about her husband on You Tube as they were going through a divorce. So, the unneeded and unwanted stress didn't really set the stage well for the Hy Vee triathlon in Des Moines.

I traveled to IA with Dennis and his wife Shannon; had a great house stay at Casa del Dane in Urbandale and was treated like family. The home stay and Dennis' parents couldn't have made the trip any better. Thanks a million Bill and Annette, see you '09!!!

This highly anticipated race was changed from a triathlon to a duathlon and back to a triathlon on Wednesday of last week. Here's a race director, their staff and hundreds of volunteers that put together not only a tri in 4 days, but a world class and last Team USA Olympic qualifier just 104 short hours from race day. World Class all the way!!!

My race was less than stellar. The swim start; me and 158 of my closest friends charged into the murky muddy waters of what was a normally small lake, but with the rain and rather large body of water. I was able to cover the 0.9mi swim in under 23 minutes, very happy with my time. I was thinking the entire swim how bad I was swimming and was not looking forward to seeing the clock when I got out of the water. But I was happy to see that my time, for me, was not bad. Now, with the change of venue, came some other changes as well. Like the garbage bags every racer was handed to put there T1 stuff into in order to get it to the finish. That's right, all of the stuff you wore race morning, your wet suit and the rest of you swim stuff needed to be placed into a Hefty sack for transport by the volunteers to the finish area.

Off on the bike I went. I left good the first mile and a half. Yep, the rest was a really struggle. Both physically and mentally. I didn't have any legs to push the gear I needed to on the bike. I stayed the course and continued at a rather slow pace. A pace that was slower than some races last year. I know that I have done much much more training and I should have been faster than what I did. More than once I thought about stopping my race after I finished the bike; totally foregoing the 10km run. I climbed one of the last big hills and rounded a corner to a sea of people. Spectators were lined on both sides of the street 3 and 4 deep cheering, yelling and ringing the cow bell....that's right "I gotta fever, and the only cure is more cow bell!!!" At that point I knew there was no way I wasn't finishing this race. Not only had I been talking all off season and up to this race about being able to finish on the blue carpet, Dennis had told me the finish line chute was awesome; so bring on T2 and the run

Now, similar to T1, we had to set up T2 on Saturday as well, only in different part of town, 2.6 miles away from T1. I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so finding my shoes was a little tough. After standing around for about 10 seconds with my thumb in my butt I found my stuff, changed out of the bike stuff and into my run gear and headed out. I felt slow, again legs didn't seem to have much. But I was able to run sub 7 minute miles and finish the race in 2:18 and change. I am pleased that I stuck it out and finished. I would have been really upset with myself for not finishing just because I didn't bring my A game to this race. Can't race 'em all well can we?

I would like to congratulate Dennis for a strong 11th place finish overall and 2nd in the tough 25-29 age group. I would also like to congratulate Cathy for besting the entire female amateur field by 5 minutes, nice job!!!

Next up is Waconia this weekend. I have been side lined for the last few days with a left foot injury. The x-ray shows that at some point in my short life time I broke the foot, but didn't know it, damn drunken bar league softball days! It feels much better today and I am going to rest it for Sunday and hopefully have a much better showing than I did last week.