1 bad race + 1 long trip = 2 years

Tuesday was the 2nd anniversary of my very first blog post. I reread it. It was extremely uplifting and happy while Monday was filled with self doubt and the strong desire to quit.  I always imagined getting better and better as each new season begins but reality punched me hard in the face this weekend.  Sunday was my first race of the season - Rev3 Knoxville Olympic - it was a rough race for me.  Last year this race was my first OLY distance race and I was so nervous the whole drive down (all 12 hours) but this year I just knew I'd crush last year's time.  Not only was the race a billion times harder but I finished 6 minutes slower than last year.  I came in 2nd to last in my age group - to say this race was a monster failure would be an understatement.

I've now spent the past 2 days wallowing in my own self pity and trying to figure out how much I can get when I sell my bike.  I have more triathlon gear than Chris McCormack and was hopeful I could make some money on the deal.  But now that 2 days has gone by I'm starting to see how this race was not a metaphor for my life - or at least I'm trying really hard.

Today I went over the exact times comparing this year to last years race and it seems perhaps it wasn't as bad as I originally thought.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

• Finished the swim 3:00 faster than last year;
• Transition was 4:25 slower this year;
• however, BIG however here, they moved T1 much farther away than last year;
• 5:01 slower on the bike;
• :38 slower on the run;
• 20 degrees hotter than last year
• Overall - it comes down to Transition!  I added 5:14 to this year's race and 4:25 of that was transition.

And just like that, I found those 5:14 minutes and it wasn't so bad.  The water felt like ice cubes and the run felt like being on the face of the sun.  I think those are just excuses that people make for a poor performance.  When all is said and done - you get out what you put in.  I did not put enough in - didn't train enough, long enough, hard enough.  I deserved every one of those extra minutes plus some.  As the saying goes "Train Fast, Race Fast" but since I train slow and not very seriously then that's how my races will always end up unless I change my ways.  Last week I tried to teach Maddox a lesson that he was not allowed to quit baseball just bc he struck out 3 times.  He needed to practice and work hard - quitting bc you aren't good is not an option.  Don't you just hate eating your own words??

On a high note, my sweet NLLP took 1st place (of course he trains so hard everyday - lesson learned).

24 days left until the next race but thankfully I will not be running in the next one - bring on the RELAY!