I spent several days out of town on a business related last week so my training was limited.  I did squeeze in a 3 mile run Friday morning and it was a good one.  It wasn’t fast but it was very pleasant (probably because I was running in a brand new pair of running shoes).  While I was running I was contemplating the CajunmanTriathlon and wondering how I would pull off those distances.  I wasn’t prepared and I was worried.

Sunday my day started at 3:50 a.m.  It was raining and I felt a sense of doom.  Was I really going to drive to Lafayette and participate in the Cajunman Triathlon?  I knew I would have to ride a bike for 20 miles in bad weather, (they don’t cancel triathlons because of rain).  It rained the entire way to Lafayette and my sense of doom was almost overwhelming by the time we parked and unloaded the bikes. 
As we packed our gear down to transition, we noticed something crawling and biting us, even as we were moving.  What in the world?!  Mosquitoes, that’s what!  We took care of the body marking and it was quite a challenge to stand still while being eaten by mosquitoes. Thankfully Paul and I had consecutive race numbers. By this time, I’d already had a nice little anxiety attack, complete with all over shaking and tears so to have Paul racking his bike next to mine was a blessing.  I know he was probably a little worried about me but he didn’t let it show.  We quickly set up our transition spots because they were planning to start the race early.  The swarms of mosquitoes were taking my mind off the fear of riding the rain.  I was thinking that I may not crash my bike but I could catch West Nile Virus!  We headed off to the port o’cans which provided another challenge.  Try to take care of business in that thing and avoid getting eaten by fire ants at the same time!  I did OK but Blake wasn’t so lucky.

Time to head down to water….and it was quite an interesting body of water.  There were a half dozen miniature submarines docked along the water.  Great, that means the water must be REALLY deep.  No fear here…  Paul’s group started 12 minutes before mine so he had to leave me and head down to the water.  I tried to look brave as he kissed me and walked off.  He left me in good hands; Blake and Cam were there to keep me company.  I made my way to the water and walked down the steps.  The temperature was surprisingly comfortable and I immediately starting putting my face to get used it. We had to wait in the water for a while and I was having serious trouble touching the bottom and getting concerned that I’d be worn out from treading water.  A nice lady moved over on the mud bar (it certainly could not be characterized as a sand bar) so I could plant my feet for a few minutes.  All this time, I’m trying to find the first buoy that I needed to swim to…and I could barely see it.  I wasn’t scared however I knew I wasn’t prepared for this swim so I figured I would be in the water for at least 30 minutes.  The actual swim was uneventful and pleasant enough.  I was able to swim freestyle except for when I was looking for the buoys, the shoreline or avoiding getting kicked in the face.  I could hear Christine saying, “This stroke’s for me, this stroke’s for God.”  Thanks Christine, that really does work!  I swam those 800 meters, made it back to the dock in good shape and the nice gentlemen yanked me clean out of the water which eliminated the need for trying to find the steps.  Blake and Cam were there waiting on me and they ran with me until I made the turn towards the transition area.  (I would like to know who had the sick idea of running uphill on concrete with sharp points in it AFTER swimming a ½ mile.)  As we’re running to transition, I told the boys to get to car because by this time, it’s really dark, it’s raining and the lightening is pretty bad.  I ran through the mud to my bike and attempted to put on shoes and socks while standing up and dodging rain drops and lightening bolts.  I kept asking myself if I was really prepared to do this and if they really planned to send us out there on our bikes.  They did not cancel the race…  My face was really wet by the time I hit the 1 mile mark and to be honest, I’m still not sure if it was tears or rain drops.  I’ve ridden 20 miles a lot of times but never in these conditions and never without Paul.  I settled into a good, safe pace and was finally catching my breath from the swim when I came across a dead skunk in the road somewhere between mile 3 & 4.  That really woke me up, kinda like smelling salts when you faint.  By mile 6, it was really raining hard, the wind was getting stronger and I started praying.  I could hear Paul’s voice in my head telling me I could do this and I would be OK.  Have you ever seen the movie “Days of Thunder”?  That voice in my head was saying something like, “you have special tires that are a perfect match and if you go to the outside, you can hold it.”  I was really hugging the side of the road so if I did crash, at least I would fall in the ditch.  I had to have faith in my bike and my ability to ride so I moved away from the side of the road, shifted to a bigger gear and got down to business.  Before I knew it, I was at the 10 mile mark and making the turn to head back.  It was a rather uneventful ride at that point.  I was getting used to the wet roads and the rain beating me in the face.  There was one terrible hill to climb and as I approached it, I said a few choice words out loud.  Paul’s voice popped back into my head and he was saying “shift woman, shift!”  So, I shifted to a smaller gear like he taught me and made it up the hill in one piece and still on the bike.  Someone had the good humor to spray point the word OUCH on the asphalt at the top of the hill and they couldn’t be more right because that’s when I hit my lowest speed of 10 mph.  After that, the rest of the ride was great, I was hitting up to 20 mph and I knew I gonna be able to do it.  Thank you Paul for always asking those dreaded words on Saturday night….”so, do you wanna ride tomorrow?”  If it weren’t for those Sunday morning rides, I would never have made it.  Here’s your “I told you so” moment!  I made my way back to transition and feeling a little disoriented because I’d been pedaling on that bike for an hour and 20 minutes.  I heard Paul calling my name.  He congratulated me for completing the bike portion but he was concerned about Blake and Cam, he couldn’t find them.  I sent him to the car; they were probably still taking cover from the weather.  We said our quick goodbyes and I headed off to complete the 5K run.

It took a ¼ mile to get my legs working right; after riding the bike for 20 miles, my legs were fried.  Once I settled down, I felt pretty good and it’s probably because I stayed hydrated on the bike (here’s another “I told you so” moment for Paul).  The run was rather uneventful except for the surprisingly big hill we had to run down and then back up; who knew an airport could be so hilly!  I finished the run leg with a very good time and I’m still scratching my head trying to figure out how I managed to do that.

I was so happy to be done and I crossed the finish line with a smile on my face.  Two minutes later, Paul placed a beer in my hand; I guzzled that beer like it was water and two minutes after that I burped louder than I’ve ever done in my life (I’m still scratching my head  trying to figure out how I managed to do that too…).

My stats are a matter of public record since Atomic Racing posted them for the whole world to see so I don’t mind telling you….I swam the ½  mile in under 20 mins, I rode the 20 miles in under 1 hr 20 mins and I ran the 5K in under 32 mins.  I did it!!!!

This is Flash and I’m running on faith that no one fell asleep while reading my race report!