Whew!

Crazy! Time flies when you are having fun! And no, it has not been all swimbikerun. Actually I have been busy doing mom things and wifely things. Oh yeah and there was that race in Texas. Then we traveled to Philly to see Larry's family, then school started and I got a little swimbikerun training in. Now the next hurdle is swim meets! One on Saturday which will be Reiley's last one and then Madie swims pre-lims on Monday! How cool to get out of school and go swim with your buddies! She is such that it will freak her out and she will not want to skip school! Hmmm..don't know where that comes from! I ditched school every chance I got(it is a good thing my mom does not read this!) all the way through to college!

On to the race..I got sick the week before and then got sicker and sicker! It was not fun. Saturday night before the race my left ear was so infected that I could hear nothing out of it. I was afraid to take my cold medicine because it makes me super groggy, and racing with medicine head did not appeal to me. However, at midnight I was in so much pain I had to take something. So by 3am I was finally asleep and the alarm went off at 4:30. No worries! I have raced plenty of times with zero hours of sleep so I figured I was already ahead with 1:30! I rolled out of bed and nearly fell back down I was so dizzy from the medicine and congestion in my head! This was not going to be pretty. We drove to the Lake and it was like deja vu (sp?)! The same thing as last year, hear comes the storms! Not possible, anyone who knows Lubbock knows it dose not get chilly and rain very often! But two years in a row, look out cuz next year it is gonna be HOT! As we walked down the hill to transition the wind was howling! There were white caps on the lake, silently I cheered! I am a decent swimmer and the conditions were evening the playing field! However, my lack of being in the pool and swimming was worrying me a bit!

The gun went off and this year there were no cheaters!! I felt strong to the first big turn even going into the chop. But after I felt like we should be halfway back I could see 3 more big triangle buoys! WTH? This felt like the longest swim ever! Coming out of the water I checked my watch, 35 min, great I guess my lack of swim training showed! Coming to the top of transition I saw only a few bike missing and lots of my waves colored caps still swimming! WOW, not too shabby! On to the bike where the winds prevailed. I have done this race a handful of times and this was the windiest it has been. And then came the rain, and more wind. It was brutal and I was happy to be in transition faster than last year! My head was killing me and my body was tired. I don't just mean sleepy, I am talking nothing in the tank blasted. No I did not ride too hard, I was just plain sick. I knew the weather was perfect for running fast and even not feeling well I knew if I just kept moving I would do okay. At this point I was hoping for top 20. I had no idea who was ahead of me or how many were behind, but I knew they were coming so I ran. I finished with a run split faster than last year and my best on this course, but I was shelled. Completely and utterly spent. I told my husband that was the worst race ever and I just wanted to go home.

An hour out of town I called Kathleen and was near tears. She says to me, "it is better to have a bad race feeling bad, than a bad race feeling good...oh and by the way you are 6th! Not so bad after all!" Oh so true, I knew I could count on Kathleen to cheer me up! So 8hrs later we pull into the driveway, yes we drove straight through after the race, I was home! The kids were happy to see us and proud of mommy for finishing the race even sick! Note to self, don't do that again! I passed up the Clearwater spot, I'm just not that into that race. There are a lot of issues with the race and if they ever move it I would love to compete in the 70.3 championship's, just not now.

The kids are back in school so I hammered out some nice swim, bike and run workouts! I am looking forward to recovery and getting some speed back into my legs. I know I have the fitness for 70.3, I just need to get some speed! My next race is Boulder 5430 70.3 and then I am in the market for a new bike! Any suggestions? Oh and any of you that want to ride in the next two weeks let me know, I'm game!

Cheers!