Tri Waco - July 25, 2010

You take the good, you take the bad. You take them all and there you have.....Triathlon or The Facts of Life. Whatever.

We woke up early in Waco after enjoying sleeping on a king sized mattress!! We were confident all our bike mishaps (I won't go into details.) were over with and we walked to the race site. I got signed in and chipped with no problem. With mounting nervousness and stomach cramps I settled into listen to the pre race meeting from HELL.

The volunteers had all been so nice and the race director was a complete pumpkin head!! He began to lecture and berate all the athletes about the course, how clean the river water was, littering, swim belts, his philosophy on swim belt use, ipod use...blah, blah, blah. Listening to his personal race history and angry ranting was making me even more nervous so I tuned him out. All I heard him say at the very end, six minutes before my swim started, was, "Bike rack 1239 - 1300 was knocked over. No bikes were harmed, but your bike may no longer be by your equipment." What? No body to blame and no time to go fix the problem.

I got in the water. This is the first race I have ever done where men and women start the swim together and the waves are only three minutes apart. I hope NOT to do another one. This is the most contact I have ever had in a swim. I was literally punched in the ear. And then some guy grabbed me by the shoulder and DUNKED me! Triathletes are usually so nice and encouraging to each other so I don't know if male race philosophy is, "Drown the competition." or if it was just an inadvertent result of their flailing around in the water. Anyway I was first out of the water in my division. Finally I win! Usually I award myself some fake prize in my mind like, "Cutest hair", or "kids ate the most free pizza." So at least this time my fake prize is race related. I won the swim. Woot.

Then I headed to do the bike. I had to round up my helmet and sunglasses that got seperated from my stuff in rack crash. On and off throughout the bike I could hear my front brake rubbing up against the tire. I don't know if it was a result of the rack crashing or earlier bike stress The Coach and I had. I don't think it really mattered though. My legs were like lead. I was going no where fast.

I was quite worried about the run. I figured if I stuggled on the bike I was doomed on the run. But I did ok. I even passed some people and buzzards weren't circling me or anything. I didn't get lapped by a five year old. I was surprised to learn it was a 3.54 mile course instead of 3, but who is counting? I finished that in less than 40 minutes and I ran the whole time!

We had to wait FOREVER to get my bike from the transition area, because the officials made us wait until the Olympic division which began after the Sprint was over. I am sure it was Pumpkin Head's idea.

Overall I was 10th in my age group which was smaller than usual because of the way they split up the age groups.

We finished the race with a trip to Taco Bueno!! Cuz if I figure if I have burned 1251 calories before 9 am, I can throw caution to the wind and eat whatever.

We still had another night in Waco as The Coach and I are used this time for a get away. We hit the Dr. Pepper museum and some local hangouts. I may write about them sometime, but I am MOVING on Tuesday! Yes. The time has finally come for us to close on our new house!