I'm not going to lie, life has been really hard for me lately. Mostly it's a flare up of anxiety that has made dealing will all aspects of my life really difficult to handle. So with Boulder 70.3 approaching, I had no idea how I wanted to race it. I felt very apathetic towards the race and didn't really care how I did. However, a quick email from Dan helped me refocus just enough to get my head in the right space to race. Race morning I was feeling very nervous. Bruce and Jeremy were racing too and they seemed perfectly calm. That would be nice. Even lined up at the swim start I had my usual race butterflies, but I also had this underlying stress that was making it really hard to feel ok. However I'm pretty sure I was sent an angel in the shape of a college-age girl who was racing her first 70.3. She was pumped and excited. When the music started playing, she started singing and dancing, and got me to join her. It was fun. It was distracting. And I actually smiled a real smile.
The swim was uneventful. I swam pretty straight. I swam pretty much alone in clear water. And I came out ready to focus on step two. That's all I could do at this race, just think about the next step and nothing more. I didn't look at my watch the whole race so I wouldn't add stress to my load. But apparently I was first out of the water. It has been a long time since I've been able to do that, so that was really nice.
On the bike my instructions were to hold the front at all costs. Since I knew I was out of the water near the front of the pack I knew that the strong bikers were going to slowly gain on me. It was my job to hold them off for as long as I could. I also knew that Jeremy was going to be chasing me. We did the math and realized that we might be finishing the bike at the same time, so I was watching for him too. One reason I like racing Boulder is that there are no surprises. I know the roads and the course, and it's easy just to settle in. So without looking at my computer or stressing about power or speed, I just rode. My other instructions were to feel the race. I really liked that. It made me reconnect with why I race at a more intimate level. The first girl finally passed me at mile 35. I was pretty happy with that. The second girl passed me at mile 50. By then I was starting to feel tired. I also knew that my nutrition was off for some reason and I wasn't feeling settled. It was hard to eat. Luckily I was almost done with the bike though and that's always a big sigh of relief.
Out of T2
Onto the run I kept those instructions in my head, feel the race. My first lap of the run felt amazing. My cadence felt quick and I felt really comfortable. I still hadn't see Jeremy so I was hoping that I would get a chance to glance behind me on some of the turn-arounds to see how he was doing. I was on the course at the same time as the women pros and that was fun. Here I am with Emma Pallant who went on to win. The only difference was in this picture she looked like she was feeling amazing and I could feel myself starting to falter.
My nutrition was starting to catch up to me. I was running out of energy but nothing sounded good to eat. I just hoped that I could finish before I threw up. I could see other women who were stronger runners starting to catch up to me. I knew I was near the front, but I was worried I was falling too far behind. I was supposed to have a killer finish 5k. Not looking at my watch I wasn't sure what pace I was running, but it didn't feel like a killer 5k.
When I crossed the finish line I started crying. This has been such an emotional journey lately that I was just crazy proud of myself for doing the race at all, much less doing it well. I felt ill at that finish line and a medic kept an eye on me to make sure I wasn't going to lose my lunch.. Jeremy crossed the finish line not long after me. He had a good race too. Good enough that we decided it was worth sticking around for the roll-down because he might get his spot to worlds! This is how we celebrate after a race...laying on the hard cement because we don't even care how tired we are.
While we waited for Bruce to finish we hung out with the kids who had come to cheer us on. I had only seen them once during the race, but McKenzie and Kelton had run along side me for a brief second and I loved seeing their smiles as they chased me. These guys make the cutest support crew.
Keeping mom's medal safe
McKenzie looks pretty good in my aero helmet doesn't she?
Here comes Bruce
It was a good day at the awards ceremony. I finally podiumed at Boulder. Had I been able to keep that last 5k together I might have taken second instead of fourth, but I'm just going to have to be okay with that.
And Jeremy did get his roll down spot. So now both of us are going to worlds in St. George in a month. Bruce also cut an hour off of his time and was pleased with how that went. All in all it ended up being a great day for a race, even with the crazy smoke and haze in the air.
Annette: Swim 28:16, T1 2:09, Bike 2:34:17, T2 1:11, Run 1:47:51, Final 4:53:45
Jeremy: Swim 34:11, T1 2:12, Bike 2:28:16, T2 1:40, Run 1:51:08, Final 4:57:27
Bruce: Swim 38:34, T1 6:19, Bike 3:02:04, T2 6:24, Run 3:04:56, Final 6:58:18
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