Terrible at Turtleman

Saturday morning started out great. A light rain in the early early morning; nothing to ruin race day. Nice cool temps and little to no wind. Gonna be a good race, right? Wrong. Since Rachel has moved to NC it is has been a little lonely coming home to an empty house. For the last 7 or 8 years we have lived together, married for almost 5 of those. Now the one person that, at least seems to care about my racing is gone. I know that we talk on the phone at least daily, but its not the same as having her here. So motivation is more than likely at an all time low. Mentally drained from a long season, a great season and the effects of training pretty hard since last November. I crashed the end of last year and my off season started in July so the Nov start was a good time to get back on the horse.
Water temp at the 25th running of the Turtleman Triathlon was 77.999 degrees. Now if it were 78 or warmer, no wetsuits. So for the mile swim, I was immediately in a place that I didn't like; over heating. Having a full wetsuit, than adding a swim cap, not much exposed skin to try and let the heat out of the body. At the turn I was starting to feel myself fade, was told by a fellow racer that is the point that he lost his "free" ride from my draft as he was dropped, but I felt like I was slowing so I pushed on. Apparently way to hard. I've never gotten sick during a race and actually puked, until Saturday. T1 was seemed to take for ever, I was puking. The first 3 miles of the bike, again took forever, more puking. Now these were not full on flu pukes, more of the heart burn vurps (vomit burps). About 1/2 way into the bike I was able to keep my Heed drink from wanting to come back up, didn't even think of taking my gel for fear of a major disaster. I thought a few different times of calling it quits when I out for my bike ride. But than I remembered they got a sweet finishing pin last year, "what am I going to get for the 25th year?" I know, but I do all of these races for the free shirts, bags, hats, etc that we get (yes I know that is all covered in the entry fees) So I came into T2, racked the machine that had zero umph and started off of the run. The opening mile went so so. Walked some of mile 2, damn aid stations and trying to take in too much water and Heed. So I walked to relax my stomach, started running again and enjoyed the rest of the day. I have referred to "the Hurt Locker" before in posts, this was not a trip there, this was a good ol' slug fest of wits. After the race "Swimmer Jim" asked how it went, he said he knew something was up when he saw my stellar T1. I told him about the day and he was said he was glad that I fought through it. I too am very happy for continuing on. By the way, we got a pretty nice wind breaker jacket for racing.
So, being total spent mentally, my '08 season is DONE!!!!!! Yes, that means I am not driving to Palo, IA this coming weekend to do the Pigman Half Ironman race. I can not complain about any of my races, including this latest one. I busted my ass this year, off season and race season and made some huge strides. I have Dan at SCS Multiport to thank for getting me there. This was the 2nd year that I used him as a coach and am very very happy with the results I got from his guidance.
Now that the off season is here for me, you probably ask; "What are you going to do with all of your free time?" Today I bike for 6 hours and covered just under 100 miles. I ate 2 Chipotle burritos when I was done and watched the Olympics. Tomorrow I will probably start my off season frozen pizza and beer diet. I might try to sneak one late season "fun" race in, plus I have the Beer-n-Brat 5k and Capt Jack's 2 mile swim to get in before the snow flies. I know that all of my posts are race related, but I will try to keep posting. For those that are still racing this season, good luck and we can toe the line together next spring.