The day after my race, and I'm still all smiles about how I did. I can't think of anything in recent history that has given me such a sense of satisfaction.
I started in triathlon in either 2005 or 2006. I can't remember the year, but I certainly remember my first race like it was yesterday.
I want to stress something. Coming in 1st place, doesn't matter to me. Placing has never mattered to me. Yesterday, it was the icing on the cake. For everything that I did right, my day ended with a HUGE 1st place. It was pretty cool.
It was the first time where I felt like I really deserved that win. I worked so hard for it on every level. I didn't feel like I just "got lucky". I didn't feel like a poser. I worked hard. I deserved everything I got yesterday.
Believe it or not. It wasn't that I PRd across the board. It wasn't that I came in a commanding (if I do say so myself) win. It was that the door opened.
That is the greatest feeling I've ever had in my triathlon experience.
It wasn't that I did a negative split. It wasn't that I paced correctly because I didn't.
I feel like I've been learning so much. It's all the intangibles that I've been learning.
We all do basically the same stuff: we do power intervals and tempo runs and long runs and master's swims.
We take recovery & rest days. We eat well. We get sleep.
Those are like the pieces of the puzzle that fit together nicely. But if you don't want the puzzle to fall apart when you lift it up, you need glue to hold all the pieces together.
The glue is the intangibles. It's all the other stuff that is equally.....I could argue, it's the most important part of racing.
It was what I was missing. The intangibles are what I needed to make the jump from "doing" triathlon to "racing".
Trust me. For years, I thought I was racing.
I really think getting to this point was a mental jump that I couldn't have done by myself. I couldn't do it without the help of my Coach. I didn't know what I was doing wrong. I didn't know I was doing anything wrong because I was doing all ^^that stuff above^^. What else is there?
I'm excited because I took the first step to finding out who I can be as a tri-athlete.
I have an Oly race coming up. I'm excited and anxious for it just like I was for the sprint.
I'm not hoping for any magical PRs or huge wins.
I'm just going for seconds at the Eat Pain Buffet.
