Back! And with a Race Report!

I know I have said it before but this time I mean it.
I am back!
Back to work, back to life, back to blogging.

I do apologize in advance though for the footnotes. I have been reading a lot of Chuck Klosterman recently and well, you just can't help it! Pick up "IV" to see what I mean.

RACE REPORT
St. Anthony's Triathlon has come and gone.
It was definitely a great birthday! As far as birthdays where you wake up at 4 am and torture yourself for upwards of three hours on anyways. ;)

The day started a little hectic as the three alarms (one clock radio and 2 cell phones) EL and I set managed to not go off. Not a one! Hindsight says a wake-up call should have been in order as well but hey, we made it! EL luckily had the foresight to wake up without an alarm and the rouse me from bed just in time to sunscreen, force a bagel down my throat, get dressed and make it downstairs in time for the early shuttle to the transition area.

Although this was my third St. Anthony's, the feelings of nervousness and excitement felt just like the first time* in 2006. The feelings might have been a little elevated as I realized this would be my last year in my 20s and in my age group I eventually got over it and had the body marker write "29 TODAY" down my left leg. Boo yeah!

Transition closed without incident at 7 and we headed over to the beach to get ready for the wave starts. Two. Hours. Later!**

The SWIM started pleasant enough but turned vicious fast. I don't recall ever having a swim as brutal in terms of kicks to the stomach, scratches to the arms and actual pulls and shoulder push offs..not to mention the swim-over by the Relays. ugh. I managed to escape the water somewhere around 33 minutes. Totally underwhelming.

T1/the BIKE went well until I realized too late that a fellow competitor's powerbar had gotten all up in my grill, er, had wedged its sticky, nasty mess into my cleats and pedals. Seriously?!?! It was horrible. I could not clip in for 6 miles even after stopping to try and dig what I could out from the recesses of the crevices. Blah. I decided to use a speedbump to my advantage and hit one hard to force my feet into the speedplays. It Worked!
Other than that incident the ride was fine, even fast. For me anyways! Maybe it was the aerobars. Or maybe it the adrenaline. Or possibly it was the total lack of regard for proper hydration*** I don't know. I do know I managed to get out of that leg right around 1:23. Sweet!!

T2 was pretty uneventful. I did take the time to reapply sunscreen with a quick spray of the shoulders, arms, legs, changed the shoes and then remembered to place my Birthday Tiara on my head over the hat and hit the course. As usual, it was HOT! This is to be expected when you start a race in Florida at 9 am and hit the RUN somewhere around 11am. Blah. It was great though seeing lots of familiar faces on the out-and-back run and somehow managed not to throw up somewhere around mile 4 where I was forced to walk for a short time. Fortunately I pushed through and finished the run in just enough time to get me out of St. Anthony's, FINALLY, with a sub-three finish****! What a great birthday gift!


*- "Feels like the First Time". One of the Songs in the Foreigner catalogue and one of the songs I heard live accidentally when staying at the Mandalay Bay in Vegas. Hanging in our hotel room Sunday night waiting till we had to head to the airport for a red eye flight the sounds of Foreigner suddenly wafted through the windows. Close inspection showed the actual Foreigner (with probably nary an original member) on stage 30 stories below on the pool stage. I guess you can't play stadiums forever!

**Except for people like TE and KC who started in their age group waves right after the pros at 7:04. My age group went at 7:58 or something like that...a whole 4 minutes before the final TNT waves. There went my chance to actually see people finish instead of seeing them blow past me on the course!

***huge mistake! I only drank 3/4 of one of the two bottles I brought. It came back to bite me hard on the run where I almost threw up.

****2006 results had me somewhere around 3:04. 2007 brought me in right around 3:10.