It Must Have Been The Toenails

I think they had to be the reason I just didn't poop out and give up when I seemed to not have a head attached to my body for most of the weekend.

Kyle and I drove down on Saturday morning and I was pretty sure I would be missing quite a few items as I packed my bag while a bit tipsy on Friday night (too long waiting for food, too much of my favorite red!). We left a 9:30am and by 1:30 we were hitting the race packet pickup and I was standing in line behind Terranzo. At first I was like, "who's this guy wearing these tight pants all pulled down and a wrist warmer, when he turned around he looked at me like "who's this girl standing in this line for elites and I have no idea who she is." Glances were passed, and he was out of there. I couldn't help it my number was 82 (which is my lowest number, EVER).

It was nice to rack my bike up front, that was a first, and I thought, WOW, it will be so easy to find...(more on this later). After a wonderful dinner at Noodles (man, I sure wish they had one closer!), we headed in the for the night and packed the bags for the next day.

The conversation about the torrential rain that was supposed to ensue happened like this:

Kyle - "What time do you want to leave tomorrow?"

Kim - "I don't know, probably pretty early, are we taking the car or the shuttle?"

Kyle - "well, what time does transition open?"

Kim - "Um...not too sure, did they put a schedule in my bag or something, I guess I forgot to print out the race packet, ooops! sorry?"

Kyle - "What about how we get back if we do take the shuttle, we have your bike, and when are the awards?

Kim - "once again, not too sure and we don't have to worry about the awards, I won't be getting one of those, remember, I'm a bad little triathlete"

So, basically, questions upon questions and no good answers were the order of the day. This trend continued as I brought the wrong Mark Allen drink for my bottle on the bike, thought I understood which way I would be biking out, but didn't etc. etc. etc.

You know all those rookie mistakes, well, I got all those out in one race.

The good parts were: being so close to the pros and watching them start the race, getting to start in my first elite wave with the men which was interesting, not giving up after I saw my swim split which was so slow I felt like it, not giving up after I followed a girl into far into the 1500 rack before having to turn around in transition to run back to the 64-96 rack (which still doesn't make sense to me, all of us should have been going to the same place dang it!!), having a decent bike ride, not getting passed - once, running off the bike like I hadn't really biked (not sure how that happened but I would like to keep that feeling going!), running with Courtney Brown (I think she's a first year pro and SO amazingly nice & encouraging) beside me the whole time and us using each other to make it up the hills, seeing friends and watching Beth & Lindsay do so well at the race (1st for Beth & 3rd for Lindsay - go Mark Allen Online Team!).

All in all, it was a good race and very well organized and fun. I just wish I would have had my head in the game a bit more before the race so I could have really done a better job. I've made a commitment to myself, my Mark Allen team and my sponsors to really have my act together for Buffalo Springs - NO ROOKIE MISTAKES (if possible!). I WILL print out the race packet! I WILL know what time the awards are so I don't miss them (yes, it continued to even after the race - they did the open women & men first, before the pros, and I did not know the location or exact time = big fat bummer).

I appreciate all the good lucks and the support of Kyle, my family, friends, all the other great athletes and spectators cheering for me out there (which was nice as the rain pelted us on that bike!), Mark Allen Coaching and of course my sponsors, Washington Reprographics, Super Donut, Powerbar, Serenity Dentistry and Big Bang Bikes!

Lindsay and I pre-open women swim. We were both like "this whole starting first thing is weird, VERY weird!"

Running into T1 after a swim that inspired me to get into the pool more!


This is the only biking picture we have since I decided to do so much screwy stuff in transition and try to run out wrong ways confusing the photographer. So, if you race with me, this is going to be your view - ha! kidding...just wanted to say that someday!

Coming out of T2, with a smile. Right after this I threw Kyle my heart rate monitor that had un-cliped during the swim so I biked and ran with NO heart rate the entire time. It just floated around in my sports bra the whole time! That was fun.
Courtney about to catch me so we could run together! I just love her!

I saw Chrissy out on the course and yelled "Way to Go Chrissy!" & she smiled! It was pretty cool. She was handing out metals to the finishers and missed the awards herself. How amazing is that!?Almost to the finish!
The MAO girls and Courtney (we adopted her)

We took my award picture by the car with my new helmet that I guess I won for being the fastest first timer. Pretty cool. Now I can give that helmet I've been wearing back to my Mom!

Hope everyone had a great weekend of racing! Can't wait to hear about it!