Unfortunately, I wasn't the one doing the whoopin', and a good mental test pretty well sums up my Tri-ing for Children’s Triathlon race yesterday. I went in with hopes to have a strong (for me) swim, the fastest bike split and a solid run, but I only made it through only the first 20 minutes as planned before the wheels started to wobble.
The swim went well and I exited the water in 20:28, limiting my losses to the top guys by a minute, less the freaky fast swimmers who usually come back on the bike anyways. But then came the bike. The plan was to hold 330 watts, but right from the get-go I was struggling to hold 300. Then 290, then 280... I’m not sure exactly what was wrong, but I think my recent travel and the past two weekends of racing finally caught up to me, because my legs wanted no part of it. I was hurting like mad and all I could think about – or hope for – was a flat tire to put me out of my misrey.
My wish was almost granted a mile or so from the finish as I took a wrong turn, and long story short, ended up soft-pedaling back to T2 going the wrong way! A bit embarrassing, yes, but my main concern was that I would be ahead of folks who should have been up the road. Turns out I needn’t have worried, because I figured I lost another 90 or so seconds with my special detour.
I decided to stick it out anyways and see if things would turn around on the run, and although it wasn’t too much slower than planned it definitely was a LOT more uncomfortable than expected. It was fun to see Pete and Terry on the out and back sections of the course, duking it out with guys up the road, as well as the rest of the team sporting the WI Multisport colors.
At the end of the day, I got a good whoopin' and was definitely happy to have pushed through and finish, even if I did take the road less traveled towards the end of the bike. A character builder, as they say. Not sure who ‘they’ are and don’t remember asking for any, but character I got.
