Devastated..................................

 

Devastated, crushed, and embarrassed beyond belief. That pretty much describes my race today in Lubbock. So far this season I have made some pretty big strides in both speed and endurance and I had been training for today super hard for the past four weeks. I wanted to have a strong showing against a tough group of racers and get an idea of where I stand in the Tri community. Well if today was any indication I stand somewhere between the tile on the floor and the grout! The weather in Lubbock today was brutal! Water temperature started out at about 55 degrees and peaked at 57. Combine that with the 49-51 degree air temperature and you can get an idea how bad it was, but the good thing about tri’s is that everyone has to battle the elements and you can’t be a baby about it. I put on my wetsuit and eagerly awaited the start.

I made a few mistakes to begin with and one of them was not warming up in the water soon enough. Everyone was freezing and no one stepped into the water until about 15 minutes before the race started. I swam out and back about 100 meters and then spent the rest of the time messing around with my goggles which totally SUCK by the way! As soon as the gun sounded to start the race I entered the lake and began with a nice easy stroke. I didn’t want to get the heart pumping to fast, too soon. After about 50 meters I was having some trouble spotting and was probably 100 meters away from everyone else. Yep, I was the idiot that looked like he was competing in his on race off to the side! Once I corrected course I felt an incredible pain in my right calf. At first I thought I snapped my Achilles, but soon realized it was cramps. I tried to keep swimming, but my entire right leg was just dragging in the water and wasn’t getting any better. I made it to the side of the lake about 150 meters into the swim and tried to work out the cramp, but nothing was working. I told myself to take your time and just work the cramp out and then finish the swim in what ever time it took, but the cramp just didn’t go away. So my $400 weekend race (race fee, rental car, gas, hotel, food) lasted 5 minutes!!!!!!

To add insult to injury as I was limping back to the start, one of the race officials thought I was part of the sprint race that was about to start and began telling me that I need to hurry up and get ready for the swim L Oh ya that’s just what I needed.

One positive was that I did get to see Cody and John race and they both did a great job! Cody is getting faster every week and it reminds me why I need to work hard everyday. Not sure I will end up doing the 70.3 in June now. I just don’t have the confidence to get back in that lake. I have to admit that lake swims can be a little nerve racking and then when you have an experience where you can’t swim and you are struggling, it makes you not want to do it again.