Little Miss Runner Pants

so i guess i more or less covered the ordeal of the swim in my last post, yes!?

what i DIDNT tell you, was..

the swim was SHORT!!!

after finally learning to breathe, getting around all three major buoys and making my way out of the water, i looked at my watch and read 35 minutes and some change and just had to laugh...

no. way.

i don't swim that fast folks. i do NOT swim, THAT fast.

so.. the swim was short.

or.. i was pretty sure the swim was short.

anyway.. i ran up to my bike, went through the bother of taking off my wetsuit-of-death, and was finally to the portion of the race that i'm kinda good at...

THE BIKE!!!!

the bike course for longhorn is pretty fun. there are rolling hills, and lots of turns.. it really keeps your mind in the game, and for once in my life, since i wasn't dead f*cking last outta the water... there were TONS of peeps around me, pretty much the whole time.

that being said... damn did i get passed a lot.

i had a game plan. my plan was to average 15.5 mph on the bike, and save some in the tank for the run.

i was going to stick to my plan. i was determined. i was gunna DO IT!

but less than 3 miles in... my plan went to shit.
i looked down and i was doing 20+... and really barely feelin it.

slow down slow down slow down!!!

i couldn't slow down.

the course, the way it is... it just kind of makes you speedy. that first portion of the race... it was all i could do to get down into the 17 range. i could NOT slow myself down, and while it made me nervous about what that meant for my run...

i was secretly LOVING IT!!!

i'm in fuego. i'm a machine. first a 35 minute swim and now this?! i'm like a racing professional... i could do ANYTHING!!

i could WIN!!!

.... my ego, at times...
*ahem*

yeah.
it knows no bounds.

thankfully, and this goes against what anyone would normally ever say, but...

thankfully... my stomach started giving me some problems on the bike.

about 20 or so miles in, i started to feel kinda shitty.
not shitty enough to pull over or stop or anything, but just... sorta... what the fuck is wrong with my stomach?!-shitty.

i went over my last few meals and did a run-down of my race-day nutrition...

all the same. its what i always eat... whats the PROBLEM here?!... and then just like that, it'd go away.

and then a few miles later.. it'd come back...

and then it'd go away.

i still don't know what happened on that bike, or what was going on with my stomach, but i will say...

it slowed me down.
a lot.

and honestly?! thats exactly what i needed.

throughout the course of the ride, i hit pretty much all the normal race-day cycles.

complete euphoria... i OWN this thing!
pain and nausea... i'm pretty sure i'm going to die.
and total disgust... why is it that i do triathlon? what about this is supposed to be fun?!

but mostly.. i had a good time and it worked to my advantage.

the last few miles of the course is a giant hill...
i knew that, which is one of the reasons i was glad my stomach had intervened and slowed me down...

because a few miles before the hill...

some 69 year old woman passed my ass.

nuh. uh. she did not. SHE DID NOT. she did not just pass me!

..... she is GOING DOWN!

i watched her ride, kept my eye on her, and decided there was just no way in hell i was letting her beat me...

so she turned the corner and took off, and i just smiled.

there are 3 big hills coming up... and i'm gunna OWN her.

by the time i reached the top of the first hill, i could see her in the distance... and i was feeling good. my stomach problems were all but forgotten and had slowed me down enough that i was now ready to push...

and push i did.

i felt like friggin lance armstrong on those last two hills... my IMKS training really benefiting me now... and i passed, just... truck loads of people.

including her.

and I. LOVED. IT.

i loved it i loved it i loved it.

i wanted to die and thought my legs would fall off.. but i loved it.

and then strangely enough.. that was it! i looked down and saw i'd averaged 16.4, on accident.. laughed... rolled into transition.. and that was it.

bike over.

... time to run!