On Friday October 7th I flew down the Atlanta with Andrew where Mark and Scott live - to finish out the this season with one more race in Anderson, SC.
I had no idea what to expect it was only 3 weeks after racing in Muskoka and I had come down with a bad flu that put me out of commission for the last 10 days.
Saturday morning we packed up the cars and drove to Anderson which was only a short 1 1/2 hour drive from Atlanta.
We went right to the race site to check in and go the mandatory athletes meeting - it was our first Rev3 race and to be honest they put on a great race it was very well organized - I was very impressed. This this race was different to any other race I have done so far in one major aspect that I feel changed everything for the rest of the day - coach Anne. I have been working with my coach since just before my first Olympic race in July of 2010 - when in mid-May I realized that I had not done a thing since my last/first race and only had less than two months to get ready for a race that was twice as long as I had done - we have come a long way together and make a great team even though until Saturday before this race we had never meet - only emailed, chatted on the phone and of course “seen” each other on Facebook. I was so great to finally meet in person and put a real face to the voice, the words and advise I take to heart so much...
So this is what race day had in store:
Half Rev3 Anderson, SC
Results: swim 0:35:30 T1 1:55 bike 2:56:07 T2 1:04 run 1:41:13 total 5:15:51
Age Group Finish 3/18
Pre-Race:
Didn’t sleep really at all as always the night before a race and I was sharing a room with and his snoring all night didn’t help - I think I just dozed - if that.
Got up at 4am - had some oatmeal and grab a gluten free Protein bar for the road - I have stayed away from Gluten for the past 2 weeks hoping it will help my stomach on the run.
Had the Protein bar in the shuttle on the way to swim start at around 5:50 along with Nuun water and then a banana about 15 min before swim start.
Warm - Up:
We were not allowed in the water to warm-up until 6 min before our start time - didn’t really do much warming up at all
Swim:
I decided to start on the far right an the front - to just get out there - the plan worked out great - got the front of the pack pretty quickly and stayed there. This was the roughest swim so far - it was a war zone out there I got kicked an punched more times than I can count and it didn’t want to seam to stop - by the second buoy we had caught up to the wave ahead of us and then the current that took me by complete surprise made it feel like I was swimming in place - I was so happy to be out of the water.
T1:
The run from the water to T1 was short and I managed to take out one more girl along the way.
Everything went super smooth - there were two transition areas so we were given a T1 bag that we had to place our wetsuits and goggles in because we were not going to be coming back to collect them - I had my shoes on my bike and our transition racks were wood boxes which are nice but my shoe got caught trying to pull my bike out - I kept thinking of when coach Anne was going to yell at me and it happened right at the T1 exit - it was a first for me to have splits yelled at me - I have always told Laura I don’t want to know where I am - but I think this race changed my mind. I was 8 min behind the lead pack ….with these times I headed out to chase them down.
Bike :
I honestly did not know what to expect of this day - having raced Muskoka just 3 weeks before and then coming down with a flu and fever and not really doing anything to get ready to race again I was just going to make the best of the day and see what my body had in it - I was determined to push just out of my comfort zone and hope that my legs would hold up on the run but I felt if I was going to make up any ground it was going to be on the bike.
The bike course was a little odd - lots of turns in the beginning. I’m normally pretty good with directions but after the first 15 miles I had no idea where was up. I had taken everything off my watch but my cadence because I was free to race as I feel - which I love.
I really do love the bike part of this sport - the setting was beautiful - couple more hills than expected and at parts against the wind felt like I really wasn’t moving at all - the first part of the bike was pretty uneventful - the second part of the bike is when I started playing hop scotch with some of the other girls.
T2
T2 was great - was in and out in no time and ready to get this day over with and maybe run down some girls along the way - again I was wondering when I was going hear coach Anne’s voice to let me know where I was at - but she was nowhere to be heard - I saw Mark coming out of T2 who seemed much more excited than a couple weeks ago I took that as I good sign and kept going.
Run
About 1 mile into the run I saw coach and got the low down on what was to happen - I was still 8 min back from the lead - I was going to have to have the run of my life to make that up or the girls ahead of me were going to have to blow up.
My legs felt surprisingly good much better than the start of the run just a couple weeks ago - the run course was very odd there were so many loops and U-turns it almost made my dizzy and I just could not get a nice flow going not until we headed out of town - I was little scared to push too hard - I think my biggest fear racing this distance is the fear of my legs just giving out on the run and just crashing - it was such a great feeling to be racing with a team for the very first time - I saw other Team EC athletes along the way and got big shut outs from their supporters too - just amazing. I would say around mile 4 / 5 I saw Scott - smiling and happy - and I knew this was going to be a much better day.
I was feeling good and strong and starting passing people which gave me more strength - then the turnaround in downtown Anderson - I had made sure to thank every volunteer and police officer along the way throughout the day - none of this would be possible without them. Always remember a small “Thank you” goes a long way.
Then it got very lonely I saw no one ahead of me and no one behind me - and I felt myself slowing down and that is when it happened somewhere on a street in Anderson I realized that I had only myself to race against and my own personal best to challenge and take down and a switched clicked and I started pushing then I saw the mile marker 10 and I said it’s now or never I’m not taking anything back to NY.
I finished the season on the biggest high of my life - a PR by 20 min and finally breaking the 5:30 but most importantly I finally feel like I learned how to better race the 70.3 miles.