It was painful to put on the right sleeve of the wetsuit for obvious reasons. I was also very ginger to put the swim cap over my eyebrow stitches like the doctor recommended.

I had a motto that I kept repeating to myself: "Eventually your shoulder will stop hurting, when it falls off. So just deal with it."

I waded out into the lake and felt the water enter the wetsuit. It brought a lot of the fears about my shoulder to life since this was finally it.

As the gun went off, I put my face in the water and started to pull. The first dozen strokes were awkward until I found some open space. Once out from the ramp a bit, I started to relax and simply go with the feeling. The water was cool and I was happy to have the wetsuit on. Besides providing insulation, the neoprene offered some extra stability to my shoulder.

By the time I hit the first bouy, I was really starting to feel the groove and had established a good breathing pattern. I was simply trying to stay with a good group of swimmers and not stray too far from the buoy line.

After the turn around, I knew I was going to make it. There was no way I was going to stop now. Which is a good thing, b/c at the 2/3 point, my shoulder started to really scream out.

I grabbed the collar of my wetsuit and let some cool fresh water into the suit. This actually seemed to help a bit b/c it cooled off my skin and took my mind off my shoulder.

As I hit the end of the swim, I had no idea what time I had done, but I was happy to just be out of the water.

There was a mini-transition at the lake exit for everyone to put on shoes for the 1/4mi run to actual transition.

I ranked this as a 'Good' swim simply b/c I was able to complete it.

Not fall and separate my shoulder 3 days before the race. :)

I was very careful in removing the swim cap, as I did not want to irritate the stitches.

I took my time taking off my wetsuit. I wiped off my feet the best I could and put on some socks and my bike shoes. Sprayed on some sunscreen, put on the glasses, and buckled up the helmet.

I grabbed the bike and simply started walking it to the end of transition. This was a day to simply enjoy being out there, so no reason to rush and burn my fuel. Better to walk and keep my HR down.

Nothing

I went out on the bike and kept telling myself that the key element was to keep my HR down. It is the one weakness that I've always displayed on shorter distances.

As I was finishing the lollipop portion of the course, I heard a crash behind me and looked back to see a girl had fallen b/c she wasn't looking and ran directly into a road cone with a bike direction flag on it. Fate had taken a 2nd shot at me and missed.

I focused on keeping an even cadence and simply letting people pass me. I didn't chase them, which was a big step for me. It was a day to ride my own race, to focus within my own tested limits.

I was drinking regularly and love my new aero bottle. I consumed just the right amount of gatorade and water. I was taking a Gu every 45 minutes, and took some more Advil at the 1/2 way mark.

One thing that really made the bike so great for me, besides the conditions, was seeing friends out on the bike course. I saw 2 of my club members on the back of motorcycles. Granted they were USAT officials and couldn't really cheer for me, but just seeing their faces lifted my spirits. I knew that, even though they couldn't wish me luck or cheer me on, they were mentally doing just that.

On the way back, I started to pass more and more people. I wasn't getting out of my target zone, but others were starting to succumb to the distance. My back was starting to hurt, but it was the dull aching of cramps so I did some cat/cow stretches while continuing to pedal.

As I would pass people, I'd try to ask how they were doing, just chat them up a bit and see if I could take their mind off the pain. Some were responsive to it and were happy to talk. Others were simply in too much distress to even respond.

I also made sure to thank the police and volunteers who were out on the course.

I was just having such a great day being out there, it was indescribable.

More core and leg strength training

I dismounted and walked my bike to the rack point. Again, not really worried about time, I was just happy to be off the bike. I took off my bike shoes/socks and put on some fresh socks to go with the running shoes. I also brought my UD hydration belt for the run.

I walked to the transition exit, grabbed some water and started to jog around the campground.


Nothing.

When someone tells you that the ambient air temp is 80 degrees, don't expect that to be the temp you feel when running in the sun with no shade.

I kept a solid, but comfortable, pace for the first 1/2 of the run course. I was happy to have my hydration belt since the water stops were actually separated at about every 1.5 miles, which would be a 15-18 minute time between fluid for my pace.

At each water stop, I picked up a water cup, dumped most of it on my head and took a few sips. Later in the race, I also started to pick up some Gatorade.

The course was rocky with potholes in the trail every now and then. The uneven terrain caused my feet to get sore. It was a surface that I hadn't trained on and the arches of my feet were actually hurting.

On the run, I had not factored on how the shoulder would react. It started to throb and then full-on hurt as the up-and-down jarring started to take its toll.

As I was coming down to the last mile, I started to hear the voice of one of my training partners in my head. Back at Eagleman in June, he was about a mile out on the run course waiting for another partner and he saw her walking the end of the course. He started walking next to her and said "How do you want your friends and family to remember your race? Do you really want them to see you walking down to the finish line, or do you want to hold your head up and run through the end?"

His words were echoing through my head for the last mile, and it was certainly the mental push that I needed to get the legs moving and dislodge the thoughts of discomfort from my body.

More run training. My speed was the simple factor of aerobic conditioning. Over the coming years, this will get better.

Water, Gatorade Endurance and phone calls to family and friends.


Shoulder injury.


Just making it to the start line for this race was a very emotional experience. I had trained so hard over the past months, and then to have the accident 3 days before the race was devastating.

As I sat on the side of the road on Thursday, blood streaming from my face, I wanted to start to cry. But I knew that I had to wait until I was checked out to see what shape I was in.

When the doctor looked me over and said that nothing was broken, my first question was "Can I injure it further if I race?" He was more worried about the stitches on my eye getting infected than my shoulder, so he gave me a script for amoxicillin to start taking as a preventive measure immediately after the race.

After all that I've been through in the past year, it was good to finally have this race behind me. The work, the suffering, the sweat, and the tears all led to me having one of the best days of my life. The fact that I was able to beat my original goal time and pick up a 3rd place trophy was simply fantastic.