Think big, believe big, act big, and the results will be big. -Anonymous

This past week has been a pretty crazy one. I did my best to recover from the last weekend where I had never quite felt so tired and worn out and luckily, my efforts seemed to work. I had an easy week of training in preparation for the Cardinal Harbour Half Ironman. Surprisingly, I didnt get all that nervous last week, leading up to this event. I dont think it has quite registered that competing in these events is a big deal and is physically taxing. To me, I kept thinking about it as another training day, with just a bit more intensity and structure. Well, that thinking was great until about Thursday, then I started to get nervous. It was a good nervous- I was pretty excited to test myself and see what I could do, but at the same time, I am a super competitive athlete and I wanted to make sure I did well. God was looking out for me last week, with record low temperatures and little to no rain. We were SO blessed by that weather, and I was pretty confident that if I could ever have a good race, this was the time to do it.

So Friday afternoon, Madelyn (a friend I met at my last triathlon in Shelbyville) and I went out to Cardinal Harbour to pick up our packets and scope out the route. I had ridden parts of the route a fwe times before (the bike route is mostly the Ironman route, but abbreviated), but I had not seen where we would swim or run. So we scoped it out and it sunk in that this course was going to be tough. There were tons and tons of hills on the bike and the run was not flat, as they had said on the webpage. There were 3 pretty big hills that we had to deal with, during 3 seperate loops, making for a tough route. But hey- God was blessing us with the most outstanding weather we could dream of, so now was the time to take advantage of it...

So Saturday morning, I got up early, had everything packed and was ready to go. My dad was awesome enough to take me and my bike down there to save from having to walk from the parking lot to the start, so he came along, as did Bentley, my new number one cheerleader! Bentley hopped right in the car and I didnt have the heart to put him back inside, so bike, gear and puppy in tow, we headed down to the start.

I got there early enough to get a good spot for the transition area (you want one closest to the start of the bike, on the end), so I had that going for me. It was pretty cold out, but no one was complaining about that! We were set to swim in the OH river which I used to think was disgusting, but now, having swam in it- its really not that bad. I havent hit a dead body yet! As I looked around at all these professional looking triathletes, I couldnt help but feel a little out of place, but I was so thankful for the opportunity to even be able to do this. Its an amazing accomplishment for anyone and its hard to register just how much work goes into all of this preparation. Gratitude is what I felt as I stood there and looked around.

After getting all set up, I headed to the water to warm up a little. I am not sure if that was a good idea or bad one since it was FREEZING outside once we were wet, but Sarah and I decided to go for it. For the swim start they let the men go first (sexist!)- 39 and under, then men 40+, then "everyone else"- including all women, relays, and duathletes. I cant stand that type of start because that means the swimmers (this is the only part that I am confident I can beat most people in), have to swim over all sorts of guys, get kicked, etc in order to get to the finish. You might be surprised, but many, many people compete in triathlons with little to no experience swimming. I can tell it is a humbling experience for those who cant swim, but I know how they feel- I didnt know how to bike or run before I started all this!

So Sarah and I swam together, side by side for the entire swim- kept a controlled pace and go to the finish relatively easily. On the way out, you exit, run through the grass and down the row of bike until you find yours, then transition and get onto the bike. So we did all of that together and basically got on our bikes together. Seriously- with Sarah and I together, this was a best case scenario. We tried our best to stay together without drafting (you have to stay 3 bike lengths behind the person in front of you unless you are passing), but it was hard given that we are about the exact same speed. We rode "together"- with the two of us passing each other every few minutes for the entire ride and the 3 hours we spent on the bike went by SOO fast! I was having a blast and was so glad to have Sarah by my side. The ride ended with a scary downhill and 180 degree turn back towards the neighborhood. We safely navigated that and got to transition- passing my dad, my Aunt Debbie, and Ryan on the way in. It was great to see familiar faces cheering us on!

From the transition, we got all our gear for running and took off, Sarah just a fwe steps ahead of me. We ended up running together just about the entire 13.1 miles which kept us both going and provided a way to distract us from the pain. The run was 3 laps of a particular loop so we were able to see all of our friends running which was also a good distraction and kept the painful thoughts out of our heads. I truly never got a negative thought in my mind the entire run and was very impressed by my cheering section- it really helps to have people out there! My cheering section quickly turned into the water station, as the two kids that were handing out water were not quite cutting it. So everyone jumped in to help and it was fun to pass them again and again.

The run ended by going back out to Rose Island, back through the neighborhood and then through a guys yard and across a field for about a mile... in 6 inch tall grass. This was where I got pissed. We were trying to run across this field and no one even thought about cutting a path for us to run on, so we were dodging holes, mounds, etc to keep from turning ankles. It was the most painful part of the day by far. But eventually, I got past it and crossed the finish line AN HOUR faster than I thought I would go! Even my run was 10 minutes faster than I ran the mini marathon in. The best part about all of that was the confidence that I got from that, knowing I have a full ironman in less than 6 weeks. On that day, I knew I could have done it.

As I look back on that and type this long post, I cant help but think how much I am enjoying this entire process. Sometimes when I am on my bike or out running, I wonder what I would rather be doing- how else should I spend my time? More and more lately, I cant come up with anything else I would rather do! I loved the race, I had a blast doing it and it just proves to me that I can do this ironman.

I ended up 4th in my age group which is great and I am happy with. The results are linked below if you want to check them out. Sarah won her age group!! She did awesome and I dont think I could have gotten through the race without her.

http://www.headfirstperformance.com/Results/09Cardinal.htm

So back into training I go... 6 more weeks left, 3-4 of which will be pretty tough. Not too much longer!!