you gotta know when to walk away, know when to run

USAT Collegiate Nationals was this weekend.
Wow.

I have explained my experience during this race to just about.... everyone I know. My apologies if this is redundant. In short, it was pretty rough, but I learned a lot. Let me break it down.

I had many goals going into this race. Two main ones being that I wanted to average faster than 17 mph on the bike and I wanted to finish in under 3 hours. Let's just say these did not happen. I averaged 16.3 (.1 mph faster than my latest sprint) and the entire race took me 3 hrs and 42 minutes.

My swim was surprisingly satisfying. Granted, my two goals were to come out of the water and not cry... seriously. Both of which I did. I was actually incredibly proud of myself because although I am a super slow swimmer and swimming is easily my weakest leg of the race, after the first few 100m I was able to continue at least 75% of the swim in freestyle with reasonable sighting. Granted, I zig-zagged all over the place (partially because I was all by myself - so much for drafting) but I was still really satisfied with how that leg went. Until I came into transition and saw that most people had already left. Whoops.

The bike was great, but it's my strongest leg. I find it interesting because I came into this sport as a "runner" (or you know, with a running background) but biking is definitely where I make up for lost time. I passed a ton of people and had tons of success with maxing out on downhills. I even was able to successfully eat and drink on the bike. However this is where problems arose. The gatorade in my Camelback made me feel nauseous and while I thought the pain in my abs and back was from biking for so long, it was actually dehydration. All I really wanted was water.

I came into transition after the bike and immediately my abdominal area was destroyed. I thought my abs were just not strong enough, but I pushed through the first mile of the run in 90-degree heat. Despite the fact that I tried to run, the pain was unbearable. I came to the first water station just after the 1-mile mark and downed three glasses of water. Then my vision started blurring and blacking, so I sat down and they gave me potato chips to up my sodium levels. I stood up again and felt much better, ran another mile or so, then started walking again. I stopped at nearly every water station and proceeded to finish the longest 6 miles of my life.

The experience was honestly horrifying and disappointing, but I learned a lot about olympic distance triathlons and am excited to do another one knowing what I know now. Honestly, this race was unlike anything I've ever done and as much as it was "horrifying and disappointing," I have never been so happy to cross a finish line. Plus, the event itself was tons of fun. I have really grown to love my team and feel like we bonded and supported each other like never before. I have grown to love the sport more because I have realized how much of it is about athletes supporting each other to FINISH and not necessarily to out-rank or "beat" each other.

For my next trick, I will attempt a 10k next weekend. WOOOO! (Then comes the half marathon!)

Just before Anna and I ran over to the river to start our warm up!

On that note, I just signed up for the Evergreen Lake Olympic triathlon on July 16th. Here we go again, folks. Take 2.