Ummm, this is a picture of the finish.It's here because I can't get it to move to the bottom.
The white sweat shirt is Jordan, I'm in the shorts, and Justin is somewhat hidden. They ran the last quarter of a mile with me.
NOW....let's get to the race.
Here's the spoiler!
I got my PR.
Now it happened is quite the story...isn't it always?
The weather: gonna be a cold, wet, windy day. Since I'm the biggest wuss around, I wasn't looking forward to being cold.
But ya gotta do what ya gotta do to be an incredible athlete comme moi.
In this picture, I am already swimming. If you look out further you'll see what looks like a dark shadow in the water. Somewhere in that dark muck is me. I tried to smile for the camera, but you can't really see it.
uh, I'm not in this picture either.
Or this one, but the sky was pretty wasn't it?
About the swim, I went out too fast, caught myself and starting to regroup. My goal was to negative split, but I was already cold and knew that my body was doing what it could just to keep me warm. Just as I was rounding the halfway point, I noticed that the AG women's leaders and pro's had just come around the corner. I didn't know what my time was, but I knew that if I was a little behind the leaders that I was doing well.
I wanted to negative split the swim. I don't think I did it, but I don't know. My effort didn't decrease but it felt like I had to work harder to maintain my speed.
I wanted to negative split the swim. I don't think I did it, but I don't know. My effort didn't decrease but it felt like I had to work harder to maintain my speed.
As I approached the beech, I could see Mike.
I knew he didn't see me, so I stood up to fast to yell MIKE and fell right down on my face.
Yea, hope the photographers got THAT one.
After righting myself, I looked at my watch....thinking that the swim felt slow....and my time had to be around 40 minutes.
No sirreeeee......it was a 7 minute 1.2 mile swim PR.
I started screaming at Mike.
That's when I remembered that I still had a bike and run to complete....calm down missy....we got's a long day ahead of us. (Oh, this picture IS me. Dude, I'm RIPPED. Look at those shoulders--and ignore the fact that I can't get my wetsuit off). Also note the number of bikes racked. Yea, one of the first out of the water baby.
Ooops, out of order...I'm in the center of the picture running uphill. I know, it doesn't look like I'm running. Let's just say I was.
Me JUST out of the water and not yet realizing that I PR'd by 7 minutes.
Ok...no bike pictures, but here's where the story get's interesting. I get on my bike and know instantly something is wrong.
NO....not ONE thing but TWO things.
I will not say what happened, but I will tell you that my bike was sabotaged. One thing can be replaced...the other I managed to fix.
To the person that attempted to ruin my day:
1.) Karma is a b!tch.
2.) I'm flattered that I looked like such a threat to you.
3.) I still managed a PR.
4.) YOU SUCK.
About the bike: AWESOME....I KILLED IT. The biggest PR of the day. I hope I made The Ranch proud. I've worked SO hard on the bike. SO DAMN HARD. Today it paid off with a 53 minute PR. And no, I'm not kidding. I couldn't believe.
I rode the entire distance with a guy from Germany. At halfway, he asked what my goal time was. When I told him, he said, "You keep this pace, and you will easily beat your time." He could climb better than me, but I'd always catch him on the downhills. heh heh. Maybe a little extra weight paid off.
Get this: the 53 minute PR...even beat my AGGRESSIVE goal. The one that I really didn't think I'd hit today.
I pull into transition and see Mike smiling. I found out later that he had just gotten back to the race. He didn't expect to see me for another 30 minutes. (toldya I was fast). He almost missed me.
Here I am making some weird face. sigh....leave it to me to not smile but instead look like I'm trying to decide what to have for dinner. Wait, that's what I WAS doing.
The run....oh geez....here's where things take another interesting turn.
Remember the storm? It hit full force on the run. It was so cold so rainy. I just wanted to be off the course. It was the longest half marathon of my life.
Again, another PR by 27 minutes or so....but still awful. My feet were soaked and were squeaking as I ran. It was brutal. Then out of nowhere some guy starts talking to me. We run the second half together. He was doing the relay. He was from NC. The altitude got to him and his family (who did the rest of the relay). We talked and it really made the half marathon go by quickly. It was kinda nice being able to run with a 22 year old.
As we were rounding the last mile, the rain stopped. Wasn't that nice?
Either way, 27 minute PR is no joke. I thought I could do more but given how cold and wet I was, I'll take it.
So I gave away the spoiler at the start, but if you made it this far then there's a little something special waiting for you.
When I finished, there was no food. Apparently, they didn't order enough. I was pretty much starving at this point. I told Mike and the boys that I was going to check results and leave.
The results weren't up. Cold, wet, and hungry was a bad way for me to be. So I left.
Guess what? I'm pretty sure that I got 2nd place. Could be 3rd, but I think I got 2nd. I know I was first out of the water, but I never saw the 1st place woman on the bike. It could be that she went by me and I don't remember. I've been waiting and waiting for the results to come up but so far they aren't posted.
So maybe the saboteur was right in messing with my bike. Maybe they saw instantly how they were going to EAT MY DUST.
Good company, good race, all in all a good day.
