Pleasant Prairie Triathlon - International Race - TriathlonOlympic

I am a firm believer in the saying, "Everything happens for a reason." Now even more so since this whole goggle incident. Not only did the goggles not get water in or fog up, but being that they were mirrored, I could see WONDERFULLY!! Now, if only I didn't let the swim get to me to the point where I chicken out. The first straight away towards the buoy, I did great. But, as soon as people from the next waves start to catch up with me, and I start getting jostled, I lose my nerve...EVERYTIME! It doesn't matter how much practicing I do in the Lake downtown, I NEED to be able to swim away, find some space and keep going. I've said this before, I think this just comes with time.

Overall though, my swim time was pretty much what I expected. And I can't be too hard on myself, that was my first OLY swim - WAAAHHOOOO - I made it out ok!!

GENDER PLACE: 234/246

Borrow someone's Balls of Steel and just do my thing without getting so rattled.

Anyone here that can loan me those?? :)

Helped being in the second rack coming out of the water, knew exactly where to go. I think I was a little delirious coming out of the swim, because normally I shove my goggles/cap in my 1/2 zipped down wetsuit in order to make sure ponytail is far enough down to slip through bike helmet, and this time I didn't, so that probably cost me some time.

I also decided to go sans socks...will this help me or hurt me??? I did it at Racine and loved it, but this is double, so I wasn't sure.

Move ponytail before you get to bike.

Was REALLY happy with my bike time, even though, like so many others, I am pretty sure it was short. My average on my cateye for the distance we did said 19.2, so I'll take it.

Not much to report here...I went hard when we had the wind as an advantage, but really slowed when it hit us, which I just need some more TITS to help get better at this. The couple of hills or overpasses I felt ok, could be better...nothing that a bunch more rides out in the burbs can't help...Maybe next year, I finally hit Bull Valley???

The one thing that did stick out to me was, and again, the same place that sold me the goggles also sold me my bike (don't want to rip them on here, just in my head) so this really fired me up out there....when I would switch to the other ring to go up a hill, and I would try to bring it back to the other ring, it took a little bit to "click" back, and that kind of made me mad. Going to have that checked out in offseason.

GENDER PLACE: 97/246

At the end of this bike is where I believe the race took a turn for the worse for me and the stomach pain. I should have gotten out of my aero bars sooner, but I thought I had more time, but since the race was short, I didn't do a good job of this and I think it really killed any chance I had to finish in 3 hours, which was my super secret goal.

So, in Racine, I took my time here, to hopefully let the stomach muscles get elongated and stretched and not be in such a hurry. While this was my plan, as I said above, I think I stayed in the aero too long, so when I got back to my spot, after having to rearrange other peoples stuff to get my bike back on the rack (what the heck was up with the gynormous duffle bag girl next to me that prohibited me from hanging the bike, and then the guy next to me, he took up so much space, he could have had his own fricking zip code). Whatever, I threw Betty wherever she fit, and ripped off helmet, shoes and threw on running shoes. I then, just because I thought it would help, not only tried the situps thing from the thread that someone wrote about side pains/situps, but I also stretched some to try to get stomach to loosen up.

Nothing really...when people put their shiznit in your area, not much you can do.

Oh boy, what a dissapointing run this was. I so thought I would be able to make my goal when I saw that I started the run at 2:01 on my watch, but this would not happen.

My stomach just wanted no part of this run today.

I walked through the water stations and stretched - even did the situp thing 5x throughout the race, did the deep belly breathing, did the "blowing out the candle breathing", did the breathe out when the other foot strikes the ground, but no luck.

Well, I take that back, between miles 4 and 5, I was ok, almost felt like I had a chance, and then it just went kaput.

I hit the last water station, and had to stop to drink and pour some on me, and when I hit the path (where I had visualized I would be hauling ass, chills all over, so excited to get to the finish) is where the heavy, deep labored breathing started...I tried to stay as upright as I could, but everytime I took a breath, it got worse, and I just wanted to be done.

It was then, about a 1/4 mile from the finish where I saw my 3x Ironman sister there, who was such a terrific cheerleader all day for me, and the tears came. I told her, as best as I could muster up, I needed ice, ASAP...and then I just went as fast as I could, not caring how loud I was exhaling or what anyone thought...I was in pain, and I had not trained all these months to not leave it all out there...which is what I did.

The last 3/4 mile, when I was in unbelievable pain, I just kept thinking, no matter how much pain I was in, I was still doing this, and under the circumstances, doing a descent job. I tried not to think of how upset and frustrated I was with why I could run 10+ miles with no pain at all, (sometimes even managing to run that long and pump out sub 9 minute miles the whole time), but to think of all the people that aren't able to race like I do...for whatever reason...whether it be Mom, or my fellow BT'ers who have gone before me, or who are ill, and that is the God's honest truth as to why I finished the race sprinting like I did...when I wanted to just say screw this, I thought of them, and left it all out there.

Splits:
Mile 1: 9:30
Mile 2: 11:12
Mile 3: 10:49
Mile 4: 12:25
Mile 5: 10:17
Mile 6 and end: 13:11

GENDER PLACE: 209/246

I think this is obvious and in need of no further explanation.

Ended up in the medical tent, which was kind of funny, because when I crossed the finish line, I laid down at the first place I saw to try to get my stomach from spasming, and my sister and a paramedic picked me up by my arms and brought me over to a cot where I laid down with the bag of ice on my stomach. The paramedics in the tent then proceeded to lay cold towels all over me, thinking it was heat related, so I said, "While I sure do love all this pampering, I'm not in here because I am hot, I have an old injury that has flared up." They got a really good kick out of my sarcasm, and I assured them I was not trying to be snotty or anything, I just was in so much pain at that moment, and they understood.


Hmmm, let me guess.


Even though I had the stomach issue on the run, I ABSOLUTELY love this race and I will come back every year I am racing. The race director is great, the volunteers are great, the lake is great, run is flat. I just think once the oly bike course goes back to it's usual route, I will love it that much more.

It is now Tuesday at around 10 after 1 Chicago time that I am finally finishing this, and I just want to give another shout out to all the BT'ers for being so supportive of me yesterday when I was still really beating myself up about this race...I don't care what teams are out there, or other website like this there are, I've seen it so many times, and now with me yesterday, we really support each other, in good times and bad, and that is really special. My mom would be so proud of you all for helping me lift my spirits yesterday...so thank you!!

Cheers! :)

GENDER PLACE: 200/246