First First

I’ve come in second, third, and (most painfully) fourth several times and I’ve racked up a few division wins.  However, for nearly three years, that pesky overall win has eluded me.  That finally changed at the Capitol View Tri in Madison Sunday morning when I finally crossed that finish line to the sweet sound of an announcer saying, “And here comes our first Olympic distance female.” 

This was a super fun race for me.  It was my first event in Wisconsin since my very first race and my parents were able to come to cheer/Sherpa for me.  Also, because I apparently can’t help myself but to become buddies with race directors, I volunteered at packet pickup the day before which allowed me to get to know some of the staff and to chat with fellow athletes which provided me with some much-needed tri-socializing time.  As an added bonus, I think I told so many people that the weather would be fine (despite a forecast of wind/rain/storms/cold) that the weather patterns themselves were convinced.  I had prepared myself to endure conditions on par with Summer Open 2012 and water temps around Havasu 2012 level.  Fortunately I was wrong (first time ever)!  Going into the race I had no idea what to expect.  I have not raced these people before and I’ve been training pretty hard the past few weeks. 

This past weekend was also my first time racing in the elite wave of an event so I was a bit anxious as our small wave of men and women lined up.  I assumed I would be dropped in a heartbeat.  While a few of the boys did just that, I managed to find my way onto the heels of man going just the right pace (though I still beat the poor guy out of the water because he had to get up and trudge through the mud when the water got shallow and my T-Rex arms just kept chugging along right up to the shore).  Out on the bike, things got a little lonely.  I believe I was fourth (male or female) out of the water with a pretty large gap so I didn’t have any targets ahead of me and there was no one coming up behind me either.  I had to constantly remind myself that I was racing and not just on a training ride with the tune of B-I-N-G-O running through my head on repeat.  The way back towards transition was much more fun as the course was by then filled with a steady stream of age groupers, many of whom were kind enough to cheer me on.  Suddenly, I could smell competition in the air and I rode off, unable to wipe the stupid grin off my face. 

My run, I must say, was far less pleasant.  Having stupidly told Coach Mace that the 10k was the goal area of this race and with the assumption that there was an unknown competitor in the age group division zipping through the course somewhere back there, I took off on the run.  Things went pretty well … for the first sixty seconds.  While the video of the bike course had prepared me for the rollers and somewhat rough road on the bike, the 2 dimensional run course map had not prepared me for the constant hills or the thick grass surface of the run course.  Finding myself once again alone for the first half of the run (until we met up with the sprinters) I had a serious battle against myself.  My legs were burning from climbing and my stomach was starting to cramp from the jarring of the downhills; there was no one ahead to chase and no one behind to push.  However, I reminded myself that thing everything will hurt just as bad in two weeks at my A race and there I will most certainly have some competition so I might as well get used to it. 

41 excruciatingly long minutes later, I crossed the finish line.  After chugging some water, hugging my parents, and getting myself on the massage list, I went out for a long cooldown run (since results wouldn’t be official for at least twenty minutes anyway).  Upon returning to the finish line, I found out that I had not only won the female division by a margin of seven minutes but had come in eighth overall regardless of gender.  Woohoo!  I think the only negative of the morning was that I have no picture to commemorate my moment of glory as the directors had decided to forego an awards ceremony this year in lieu of an admittedly much more convenient awards distribution tent (really, I’m not surprised though as my life of podium’s this year appears to be an Alanis Morisette song as evidenced by the lack of one for my cycling win and the removal of the graduate/undergraduate designation awards at Nationals). 

One deliciously greasy brunch and a painfully good ice bath later and I was packing up Maureen in her traveling clothes (ie bike box) for Virginia.  Hoping to roll on the good vibes of this past weekend as I head into the summer season – less than two weeks until Rev3 Williamsburg!

Glasses Up