Peaks and Valley's

Lesson learned form my last race at Lifetime Fitness in Minneapolis on July 9th is that life has peaks and valley's and sometime no matter how much you plan, things don't got as planned.

On the Tuesday before the race I asked Dana to Marry me and she said yes, which of course is now one of the best days of my life. That went as planned. The rest of the week was supposed to be one of the best weeks of my racing career. I am from Minnesota and I was bringing my Fiance back home with me to race in front of my friends and family. This part did not go as planned.

I did not do anything out of the ordinary before the race. I have a routine and I stuck with it. The race was a little different as Lifetime Fitness brought back the equalizer. They send the women off so far in front of the men and who ever crosses the finish line first wins a bonus. I knew that was not going to be me, but I knew I had a chance for my first top 10 finish and my first pay day. After waiting for 10 min and 43 seconds after the women went off they sent us off (this was determined by previous years and the time gaps between the men and women). I was lined up all the way to the right. If I swam straight I would be right along the sighting buoy's.  The top swimmers like Andy Potts and Cameron Dye were off to the left. After the gun went off all the swimmers went way to the left to try and get the draft off the top swimmers. I was swimming straight along the sighting buoy's and the entire field was about 15 meters to my left . I wondered why they were so far over and should I move over for the benefit of the draft, but I remembered what happened in the swim at the Capital of Texas triathlon and just swam straight on course. Unfortunately they did not all go off in a strange direction and left me to swim the course correct for an advantage.  I could have used it. I came out of the water in 10th, I was currently in the money. But as soon as I was on my bike I felt exhausted. Throughout the bike I tried different things to try and get my legs feeling better. Lower cadence, higher cadence, drink fluids, but nothing worked. By the time I was off the bike I had moved down to 12th and I went from exhausted to really exhausted. I knew if I did the run I would have walked it. Since there was no money on the line, I dropped out, there was no point to push my body further and have it even more broken down. It was the first time I dropped from a race. I was embarrassed. I felt like I let a lot of people down. My new fiance, my family, friends, and Scott, the owner of Champion Systems (they make my uniform for me and are an amazing company with great people). I really felt bad as they have all invested their time and efforts into me. How I felt racing was bad, how I felt after dropping out was even worse.

But I did perk up later. My family and friends got together for a BBQ and my God son Jack who is 5 came up to me and said I raced fast because everyone cheers me on, it made me smile and made me feel better. He does not care how I finished (or if I finish at all), my family is still my family and they love me regardless of how I do and Dana is still going to marry me. The next thing to do is just get ready for the Chicago Triathlon in about 6 weeks. Keep training and keeping plugging away. Maybe I can get into the money there. I really hope so. Dana and I have been looking at wedding stuff and they are not cheap.