I'm finally sitting down to type my race report and thought it would be best to split up the post into two sections as there really is so much to say and some of you have said you REALLY want details. And you know me, I aim to please! This post is just going to cover the hours before the race started.
Given the nerves, I slept fairly well Friday night. I finally hit the hay at 10pm and slept fairly soundly until my alarm went off at about 3:45am. I had as much as my breakfast as I could but was having a really hard time eating that early. I picked Keith up at 4:15am and he drove me to transition. While my bike & gear bags were dropped off the night before, I had to pump my tires, put my hydration on my bike and put last minute items in my gear bags. I saw some teammates before and all were in good spirits and ready to start our amazing journey. Stew, Michelle & I walked over to HEB where Keith waited for us as he was now going to drive us to swim start which was about .25 miles away.
Wow! Swim start was pretty cool. Everyone was sitting in the parking lot relaxing before it was time to get in. We quickly found Team Strive and after a trip to the (still clean) porta-potties, we too rested. We dropped off our special needs bags and then started taking clothes off so we could drop our morning clothes bag. As Michelle & I walked over to drop our bags, they started playing the national anthem and I looked to Michelle and saw the tears. And then my tears started. Lol. I told you we're quite a pair! It was time to start getting our gear on for the swim. Water temp was about 78/79 degrees which meant wetsuits were allowed but if we chose to wear them, we would not be eligible for age group awards. LOL, no problemo!
Before we knew it, we needed to walk over to the lake b/c the pros were about to go off and as soon as they did, we needed to get in the water. Tears were really kicking in now. I was S C A R E D. I got lots of hugs from Keith, Michelle, Stew,Team Strive family members. Is it too late to back out? I didn't want to of course, I just couldn't believe our time was upon us!
Some of the Strivers had gone up ahead and it was me, Michelle, Stew & Dee heading over to the lake. We got in and I felt like I quickly lost Dee & Stew but Michelle was right next to me. We found the place we would stage ourselves and luckily, found the other Strivers. Now, we wait.
The emotions I felt that morning are hard to explain. Excitement, fear, anxiety, stress, happiness...wanting to vomit. What I had trained for the past 10 months was here. The train was in the station and it was time to hop on. Spending time before the swim start with Keith and my teammates was awesome. ALMOST everyone who played a part in getting me there that morning was there (obviously many of you reading this weren't there and that would've made it perfect).
Stay tuned for the very long race report!
Sounds exciting! Can't wait to read the next one!
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