Just want to say thank you to all who supported the Girls On The Run charity that I raced for this past weekend, together I beat my goal and raised over 700 dollars! That money will go towards scholarships and running programs to keep young girls in school and running! Whats better?!
Rise and shine 4am Chicago time, 5am our time which was actually lovely! I was in bed the previous night by 9pm their time so I was still on NJ time schedule so it didn't seem so bad. Transition opened at 4:15am. My cousin, Kim let me crash for the weekend and she was 1.5 miles away from the transition and about 3/4 of a mile away from the start of the swim. I walk out the door and there is a small park out front of her house FILLED with rabbits. Bunnies running everywhere it was insane! Cycled over to transition with all my stuff and racked my bike in a decent spot that was easy to find. Racks were all marked too which made everything easy. The sprint race started at 6am, the olympic didn't start until 7:38am so I went back to Kims house to eat and relax for a bit. I then warmed up around the neighborhood and headed over to the swim start. The swim was in Monroe Harbor, we swam along the bulkhead and the water was a nice 70 degrees. I was honestly almost too hot in my wetsuit. My right calf (the one that was previously injured) started to cramp up again for whatever reason but I was able to stretch it out while swimming and had no issues once out of the water. We swam to the up about 1/3 and then did a 180 turn to swim back the rest of the way....Never ending swim. BUT I did pretty well. I wasn't far behind the top 4 women, sitting in 5th place maybe about 15-30 seconds back. The run out of the swim was 450 yards or so and the swim time didnt stop until we hit the mat crossing into transition so that added quite a bit of time to everyones swim. Out of my wetsuit and onto the bike in 1 minute 39 seconds. Could have been a little faster but it was ok. The bike was an out and back out and back. Relatively flat, some rollers but nothing crazy. There were quite a few bumps and holes though that I had to watch out for and I saw a few guys with flats and one with a busted disc wheel. I had no issues, if you payed attention you were fine. The weird part was they made us stay to the left and pass on the right, in any other big USAT race thats illegal. So I found myself drifting to the right a few times and having to get back over. At one point an official told me to move and I thought I had gotten a penalty as I saw her writing something but lucky for me I did not! Phew! My bike was 1:07:59, way down from last year where I struggled to be under 1:10 in many races. I have found my bike has gotten faster but in the end my bike was still the thing that cost me first place since my run and swim were on par with the top 3 women. Off the bike and onto the run. At this point it was getting warm. The run turned out to be long, Id say about .15 long in both directions. It got to the point where I had to look back to make sure people were still coming and that I hadn't missed the turn around! Then I saw it up ahead and I knew it was way long. I spoke to a few people after the race and they both said the same thing. Unfortunate bc it was hot! I hope they fix it for next year. I managed to pass one woman on the run but the other 3 were a little too far ahead off the bike and although my running was a tiny bit faster than theirs, it wasn't enough to catch them. I placed 4th overall woman, 25th overall and first in my age group 20-29 in the elite division. No pro card this time around but now I know what I need to work on for next year and I expect big things from myself. Overall the race was good, the course was nice and it was well run. Definitely will do it again next year with faster splits and a triathlon coach guiding me.
To celebrate we went out to the street festival that was within walking distance from Kims house. We decided it was a good idea to Sumo Wrestle in the blow up sumo pit with Sumo suits....
Monday I felt my calf bothering me again. I may have masked the pain by taking advil before the race but I wasn't about to quit during the run so I had to deal with it regardless of advil or no advil. But now I am in pain again although it seems to have moved up the calf and to the right. I will be going to see the doctor soon and I am calling it a season. As much as I want to get in a couple more races, I know it is not smart. I need to get myself healed and back on track. Injury is the worst part of the sport but something we have all dealt with. I find the hardest part isn't the injury itself but knowing when to tell yourself enough is enough and I have reached that point this season. I feel I am causing more harm than good and I don't need to be out any longer than I will be because I wasn't smart about it to begin with.
A side note: Bikeflights.com was awesome. My bike was at the fedex location when I arrived, put it together, raced, disassembled it, dropped it back off at fedex and it arrived back home two days later! You can have it shipped to bike shops to assemble and disassemble for you but I chose to do it myself. You can also have it dropped off at a house and picked up as long as someone is there to sign for it since its value is over $500. A great company, take advantage of it if you are traveling as it will save you some money!
Train Happy.
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