The days leading up to the race, I started to cough a lot. I pushed it out of my head though - its race prep time, there's no room for getting sick! Unfortunately, I wasn't sleeping much since I was waking up multiple times through the night to cough. I lathered on some vicks and sucked on some cough drops and hoped for the best. Patrick, only now, told me that he knew I was super sick but didn't want to psych me out of my race mode. Its pretty amazing how you can trick your mind into believing what you want it to believe.
Anyways, here came the actual race:
The day started off really early but fortunately, it was not hot - as is the case on a typical wildflower day. As the waves kept being called up to to the start line, I sat behind a sign and tried to keep calm. A 10:25am start is pretty late after having to rack our stuff at 7:30 in the morning.
But through the wait, I was able to see my love run out of the water and he looked great! I am so proud of how strong he has become at the swim. He truly shows how practice and determination can help you improve!
When my wave finally came, I was surrounded by so many women! 30-34 women had 3 waves! This is my first year in the 30-34W age group and my nerves were going a little crazy! I had no idea what to expect. Good thing cause when we took a warm up swim in the water, I could only see black! It crazy! I had to tell myself that it was okay, we were just taking a little mud bath. Our bodies love this stuff!
As the gun finally went off, I knew that I just wanted to feel good in the swim and enjoy it. I was going at a pretty slow pace but once I hit the first buoy, I got my stride. It felt great. I know I'm not a fast swimmer right now but I knew that my time wouldn't be too off from the other girls.
Once I got out of the water, first thing I hear from the volunteers was to wipe our faces! EVERYONE was leaving the water with mud beards. It looks pretty awesome, actually. Must be the hipster in me.
Anyways, once I got to my shoes, I felt SO dizzy! I couldn't understand what had caused it! I felt terrible! Running up that ridiculous ramp was no fun but once on the sand, I started to get my stride back. It was pretty terrible though. Throughout those measly 2.2 miles, I kept having these thoughts of quitting. "Once I get to the bike transition area, I'm quitting. Why did I sign up for this race. This is ridiculous". While running I also remembered, in the midst of all the shuttle frenzy that the production group created in the morning, I forgot to put my bike chains into the easiest gear. I have seen too often people getting on their bikes only to realize they were in their hardest gear and flop over from the first hill climb.
Once I got up the ramp and to my bike (just as planned :) I take my time adjusting my chains. No need to look foolish in front of the crowds! Once on my bike, I felt great! I climbed up lynch hill with ease. Training camp a couple weeks prior really helped prepare me for what was to come! I loved every bit of the bike! I didnt let anyone pass me and helped myself to a couple passes up the hills. I felt beast! I think I took the bike a little too easy though. I was over-compensating for the run - which I always do! I need to learn how to race at an appropriate pace. Not dying but also not leisurely.
Anyways, arriving back at transition was great. I felt strong and didnt want the bike ride to end! The bike was definitely too short! Not many bikes were back from my transition row area and I felt great! But once I started running, I found weird difficulty. During training camp, the run was a breeze (with a swim and bike prior) - it was fun and I felt fast. But this day, I was anything but fast. I dont know what happened to me. I just couldn't run. Every couple minutes I'd have to walk. I kept telling myself that I could endure the pain, I too can push through it - like my awesome pacwest teammates. I was mentally down. All of my training made no sense. Those 4 miles were horrible. I just couldn't do it.
To make matters worse, by the last mile, a woman my age passed me! I built up some energy to try to catch her but as I sprinted down lynch hill, there seemed to be no way to catch her. I tried hard but found that by the finishers shoot, i missed her by 6 seconds! 6 SECONDS!
6th place in my age group - 6 seconds from podium. I was bummed... but which sucked cause this was still my fastest wildflower olympic distance yet! I should have been ecstatic! But I knew that I didn't push enough during the run. I was disappointed in myself cause I couldn't seem to figure out the run. BUT this was my first time at Wildflower Olympic that I clocked a time under 3 hours! 2:55!
See the pain?
The following week, there was something wrong. I couldn't stop coughing. I was miserable at work and was having coughing attacks while I spoke with students. Up until the race, I had forced myself to be ignorant of any signs of sickness. I had to brush them off and believe that I was race ready! But now that the race was over, I was full on sick.After speaking with my fiance, he let me know that he knew that I was super sick before the race but didn't want me to tell me since he knew it would jinx me. It had been almost 3 weeks of terrible coughing... so by the end of the week, I decided to go to my doctor (now that it was a good period between races!).
Welp, my doctor said that it was bronchitis. Yuck. Makes sense though. As much as I tried to run through this, I just couldn't.
But even now (a couple weeks since), the doctors are still trying to figure out whats up since my body isn't getting better! Hopefully its an easy fix cause there are still lots of races left in the season! I'm crossing my fingers for a quick recovery so I can get back to full training!
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