Lake San Antonio, California United States Tri-California 75F / 24C Sunny

Total Time = 00m Overall Rank = / Age Group = F18-24 Age Group Rank = 18/18

Before I publish this race report, I feel a significant amount of shame about the fact that there is now a DNF next to my name. That I feel anything besides pride at attempting to do something that I would have called impossible less than a year ago is ridiculous, and is made even more so by the fact that I have spent the past 36 hours in ERs and doctor's offices, after being diagnosed with terminal (NOT fatal, just a horrible word for it) eleitis, which is hopefully a fluke that will pass, and at worst is Crohn's disease. I did my damndest, followed my plan, and sometimes, as one of the best Age Grouper athletes I know says, "I am a great athlete who had a bad day." However, I also feel it's important to publish it, on the off chance that this happens to someone else, and they know that they are not alone, and taking care of your health is way more important than racing. If I could only really convince myself of that, that would be great.

Drove up on Thursday and checked into a hotel in Paso Robles. We didn't camp, as my boyfriend has his own competition at the end of the month - a classical guitar competition, and needed to practice on Thursday and Friday. So, to protect the guitar (and his sanity) we stayed in a hotel. We got to the hotel around 10:00pm, so we went straight to bed.

On Friday, woke up, had normal breakfast of bagels, peanut butter, cream cheese and banana, and had to get my car lights fixed, as both had simultaneously gone out the night before, on the darkest highway outside of Nebraska. So, I did that, and a bit of antiquing on the side of the road, where I found a fabulous 1950's hat. Irrelevant, but still fun.
Got back to the hotel, and had to fix my speedometer on my bike, which had fallen off. Then, was going to go for a ride, but it was raining hard, I didn't know the area, and it didn't feel worth the risk. So I subbed a 10 minute run for a 20 minute run, and went for it. Threw in a few sprints at a 5:32 pace(!!) but was comfortable at a 9:20-9:40 pace, which is just awesome for me. We had lunch at a chinese restaurant, had chicken, vegetables, rice (with a lot of soysauce for extra sodium) and a few bites of really bad soup. Went back to the hotel, drove down to the race site, went in the water, swam about 400 meters, the water felt perfect. Went to the pre-race clinic where I ran into Tim Bomba - I literally almost crushed the man by jumping into his arms, I was just so happy to see him. He really is an inspiration, and more importantly, a wonderful friend.
So, this is probably the part of the evening that was less than perfect. First of all, walked a solid mile and a half uphill, on top of a day that already had too much walking. Because the clinic went till 6, and Paso Robles was an hour a way, we didn't get to the restaurant for dinner until 7:15, and didn't eat our entree until 8. I had pasta and chicken, but the pasta came cooked in butter, so it was a bit rich for me. I ate it (they gave it to me free and I felt bad) but definitely avoiding fats the night before a race from now on.
Packed up, and went to bed around 9:45 for our 3:45 wake-up call.

Woke up race morning, had a larabar and my bagel, and drove to the race. There was no traffic, and it was a GORGEOUS morning. My beloved (who is the most incredibly supportive man alive, it's truly a gift!) walked with me, and hung around while I set up transition. Everything was all good at this point, felt good. Probably didn't have quite enough water.

Went up, hung out with Colin, put some sunscreen on, did plank for about 40 seconds to warm-up my core, stretched out, and focused in by listening to my fabulous friends and family mix (asked my friends and family to send the names of their favorite warm-up music my way, which resulted in the best music mix EVER!) and I felt awesome. Prayed a bit, got suited up, and headed to the swim start.