The pre-season has gone by in a blur, but it's been promising. After a solid run in Napa Valley Marathon March 3rd, I took some recovery time before ramping up for the HITS 1/2 Iron distance last weekend to kick off the tri season.
HITS was a bittersweet race. I felt ok about the training I had put in, but I wasn't sure how fast I'd be in the Texas hill country heat. As it turns out, all those indoor trainer and treadmill sessions paid off as far as heat preparedness goes. My body certainly didn't like it, but I didn't shut down, even after crashing on the bike less than a mile from bike-to-run. A large pickup truck decided to blow through traffic cops and turn directly in front of my line, leaving me 2 options: 1) hit him straight on and splatter, or 2) swerve as much as possible out of truck-splatter range, but still hit pavement. Option 2 was the better of those and I skidded to a stop on my right side just under his bumper.
After unclipping on the ground, I didn't feel too badly damaged, so I picked myself up, assessed that I was dinged up, but nothing broken or sprained, so the next question I asked was "is my bike ok?". After the cop got over his shock of my not wanting EMS called, he handed over the bike for me to check out. I determined it was still good to ride the 3/4 mile to transition and I would finish the race.
Running 'easy' is not easy when you're hurt and pissed. I passed the #1 girl within the first mile of the run and kept truckin. I knew I was doing well, and that kept me going - I was not going to NOT finish and NOT win at this point. After a total of 5 hrs and 9 mins I tasted my first 1/2 Iron distance WIN.
It's almost a week later and the road rash is healing well, although it's still a bit painful. The bike, thankfully, will just have some cosmetic scars like me, but nothing structurally damaged. I will be taking it easy for another week or so before ramping up and getting ready for my Olympic distance season.
I have nothing but thanks to all my sponsors this year, especially CSHP and Cafe Velo (Specialized) who helped put me on an amazing bike, Hammer Nutrition who keeps me properly fueled, HumanaVitality who just helped with my fare to London, The Colorado Running Company who has been there since day one with advice and LOTS of shoes, blueseventy for the race suits and wetsuits to keep me comfy this season, and Rudy Project for keeping my brain intact!
Over the past week, I've had several people comment that they don't know how I do what I do, and that if it were them, they wouldn't have finished the race. Why? is the question I've been hearing a lot. Well, why not? I still had a fully functioning body, it was just feeling painful and bruised/bloody. But it wasn't bad enough to justify not finishing, and what a sweet feeling that was. You can't buy that feeling with any amount of money in the world.
Looking forward, this will be a tough season but a very good one. Hopefully the crashing is out of the way...
