What a crazy week! I woke up Friday and refused to use my crutches. It wasn't too horrible to walk on, just felt like a bad case of PF, not like I was going to die when I walked.
I got ready and headed off to Burley around noon on Friday, met friends in Tremonton and then headed up. Got everything set up and ready at the transitions, all the walking on grass and just walking around really kind of bugged my foot - especially the tendon on the outside of my foot, because I was compensating from my injury. So, when we went to wal-mart to grab a few things my friends decided I needed to sit in the wheel-chair. It was SO stinkin' squeaky!! I just laughed and laughed the whole time. Especially when I remembered I needed yogurt for breakfast and it was clear on the other side of the store! Oh memories I will never forget!! I love these girls and Burley!! Steph, Jen and I have been friends since...well, forever. Steph did the tri and Jen was there just to have fun with us. We'd all go up to Burley as teenagers and be delinquents up there for a week during the summer - Steph was born there and her grandparents live there.
We grabbed some good drive-in food and shakes (of course) then crashed at grandma's for the night and caught the end of opening ceremonies.
The next morning came too soon...as always. Jen was our chauffer and took us to our transition stations to get the final touches arranged and tires on the bikes pumped up, then she took us to the start and we squeezed into our wetsuits - ready for the start!! I'd KT taped my foot to make sure I'd get some extra support, and put some arch supports recommended by the PT in my shoes. I was ready. The tendon on the outside of my leg was bugging me more than the heel! But, I knew I'd have the swim and bike to warm it all up. Pain point was the name of the game for the day.
We got in the river with about 7 min to our wave start. I could tell the KT tape wasn't going to last the swim, but I had hope. Then, before I knew it we were off! I've never been so molested by strangers! :) kicked and grabbed all over, but nothing horrible...just worked my way through the crowd of swimmers and didn't drown! There wasn't anything good to sight - no bouys or anything, so I just stayed with the crowd. Well, at one point I was clear in the middle of the river almost past the boat - oops. Swam more to my left. Well, then before I knew it I hit a rock with my hand! I was on the shore - oops. So, a little lost time on the swim due to not swimming a straight line. Next time I will improve that one! Hit the right shore to exit on and swam as much as I could then stood up in 10in deep gravel - yuck. got through it and limped to the bike. KT tape did come off about 1/2 way through the swim!
Swim time: 21:11 (.93 miles), 19th/94 --T1 time: 3:32 (58 seconds slower than the fastest) 31/94 -- yeah transition time could've been faster, but I enjoyed chatting with Steph! :)
Pulled the wetsuit off put bike stuff on and took off. Steph came when I was about 2/3rds of the way done getting out of there. I did slow down my pace and take a second to chat and say hello before I took off on the bike. I carried my bike the whole time on the grass on recommendation from a friend who said a TON of people get thorns from that transition area. Set my bike down on the gravel and I was off!
I didn't get it. SO many people seemed to just go slow at the first. Was I making a mistake pushing now? Well, if I was whatever! I didn't need to save anything for the 'run' so the bike was it for me. I had to put it all out on the line here. Passed people like crazy on the bike and I loved it! I felt like I was hauling. There were a few groups of people (like serious pros!) that passed me on the bike, but they didn't just pass me - they BLEW past me! Crazy how fast they go! I was over 20mph and they passed me like I was standing still! I leap-frogged with a couple ladies at the first, they both passed me at one point, but I caught one of them about 10 miles out from the finish- I never did see the other one, but only one passing? yeah, I'll take it! I'm still just a wee baby on the bike. Jen and Steph's family had gone to where the bike crossed their street and cheered for us, it was a VERY welcome sight! Oh, and blocks in Burley aren't like here. We went to 600S then to 600E (from 50E) I swear that was like 15 of the 24.5 miles!!! Mental game for sure. Oh, and I really do need a new seat - butt hurt!
Bike Time: 1:13:46 (20.21mph average) 8th/94 (only 3:30 back from top finisher) ---T2 time: 2:11 (24th and 48 seconds behind 1st; WAAAY too much whining and crying while I put my shoes on!!)
Made my way into the 2nd transition, racked my bike and then started whining. I didn't want to walk the 10K. I wanted to run. This is MY sport of the tri. This is where I excell, this is MY time. But, I couldn't. I couldn't do it. My stupid broken body made me have to take a rain-check on the race part. I should've been happy I could just be out there, but I wasn't. I wanted to race. The bike had put it in me and made me realize I was really doing a great job. Now I had to just be done and give up competing and it killed me to the core. KILLED me!
With the inserts in my shoes I actually didn't feel a ton of pain in a slow jog, but the tendon on the outside of my leg hurt more than my heel when I'd walk. So, I took a 9:30-10mm pace. I quickly caught up to Kevin - my gimpy friend :) He had a knee brace on and when I passed him he was readjusting it and I said "Man, I guess the gimps should stay together!" He laughed and said he was supposed to walk the run too. So, we 'walked' together! He was going in for his 3rd ACL replacement on Tuesday. After exchanging injury stories and getting into the flat stretches of the run we just got into a groove. Passed mile 3 at 30:30 - with our couple walk breaks we were doing just fine on our little 'walk'. Steph passed me here and she was running strong! I was so proud of her - this was her first tri and she was going to kick butt!! I think I probably could've finished faster, but it was SO nice to have company that would commiserate with the annoyingly SLOW pace on a race and being injured it was worth the couple walk breaks Kevin needed to take to hang with him. He did make a stop just a quarter mile out from the finish and I told him to finish strong and I'd see him at the finish. I thnk he ended up only 20ish seconds behind me. My finish time for the run was 1:02:51 - so depressing!!! But, I've got bigger fish to fry and have to save the foot. Jen yelled at me as I was coming in and said "you aren't supposed to be running!" I said back "this isn't running!" :)
So, my final finish time came in at 2:43:33 - blech. I was 24th in my AG, Steph finished 12th!! I really think that I could've easily finished the run 15 min faster on a normal day. Looking at that I would've taken 5th in my AG and 1st in Athena. Poo. I know it all depends on who comes out on what day, but that dumb slow run at the end really frustrated me. REALLY. I'm still kind of hung over and frustrated about it, but whatever. I need to recover and then I'll be able to kick it hard at the half IM and take my rightful place in a race, right?
I was really good about pain on the run, and it was worse walking around Friday than at any point during the run. So, I let the pain determine the pace. At the end when I'd left Kevin, I did try to pick up the pace, but the foot rejected that idea so I slowed down and all was good again. So, even though I didn't walk, I really did let my pain scale rule what I did. The foot actually didn't feel any worse after the race either.
We went back to grandma's and showered and then stopped by Jack in the Box on our way out of town for lunch and headed home. I was back by 5PM! My friend across the street was having a reception for her daughter at her home Saturday night and so I went over there and started helping get stuff recovered after the wind/rain storm that had just passed through. I spent the whole night over there helping with it all until 1AM. My foot was sore after being on it all night and forgetting to put my splint on when I went to bed. But, again the tendon on the outside hurt more Sunday AM than anything. After the race I put my insoles in my new Altras I got at DesNews and I've been wearing them around for support since, and it all seems to be helping. I hope just one more down week will be enough to get rid of all this!! Fingers crossed. | 
