I’m going to take a different approach to this race recap. Usually I like to write about each leg of the triathlon (how I was feeling, what I was thinking, and times for each leg of the race) but, something interesting happened to me on Sunday during the run portion of the race and I wanted to share it with all of you.
When I got off my bike and was headed for the transition area one of the volunteers said “you are the 2nd woman”. I was kind of stunned by this and I thought “is there a chance I could place in top 3 today ?"
I hurried through transition and started out on my run. About a half mile into it I got passed by another woman so now I’m the 3rd female (if the volunteer was correct). 3rd – that’s ok. So I kept running. I heard somebody behind me but, didn’t look back and didn’t know if the person was man or woman. Around mile 1.5 the person ran up beside me and passed me – female… now I’m 4th female. The thing is I knew this female. She is part of the MSU Triathlon Club team which is also coached by Matt (my coach). When she passed me, she didn’t go flying by me and I was able to keep pace with her. We ran like this for quite a while and then we got to a part of the course where I started rolling. I am very familiar with this course, and know when I get to certain spots I can really clip along at a quick pace, and other places where I slow down. So I passed her but, I could hear her behind me and knew I wasn’t gaining any ground on her. When we crossed the river there is a little bit of a hill and I slowed down just enough for her to pass me once again. SIGH! At this point, I just stayed with her and thought when we got to the back-side of the pond (about 1/4 to 1/3 mile left in the race) I might be able to pass and finish strong. But, as you know from the results, it didn’t happen. We got to the half mile left mark where there is another little tiny hill and she got a couple steps on me and I just couldn’t catch back up (or so I told myself). I finished as the 4th female! :)
Background info… I never competed in any sports growing up except 5th grade track and that was only because the school principal made it mandatory that everyone in the school go out for track. It was awful! I did not like it! Other than that, I never competed in anything until just a few years ago when I ran my first half marathon. So, this competition thing is pretty new to me.
Here is the interesting thing that happened to me. When I do these triathlons I have never done them to compete with anybody except myself. I set goals for myself and then go out and see what I can do. I have never even thought about what anybody else is doing or worried about “getting that person in front”. If I happen to pass somebody, it’s not because I was ‘trying to get him/her”, it’s because I’m doing what I need to do during the race. It is always about me and am I doing what I need to do to reach my goal. So, racing alongside this other female on Sunday was a totally new experience for me and as this was happening I was thinking “what are you doing?”, “you don’t usually care about this stuff?” but, this is also the first time that I have been so close with anyone during a race too. It was kind of unsettling for me. How bad do I want this 3rd place finish? How much does it really matter? Some of you with athletic/sports backgrounds may think this is really weird. :) Of course it should matter but, like I said, this was a totally new experience for me and I didn’t know what to do with it . I ‘m a little confused by this ‘competitive(?)’ side of me.
So – now reflecting back on that run, I wonder if I did enough. Did I give up mentally (I think I did)? When we got closer to the finish line I felt like I had a little more ‘oomph’ left and might have been able to finish a bit stronger but, my mind said ‘no, don’t do that, you don’t want to race through the finish line’. But, what if I had given just another 1% would the outcome have been different? Matt has said to me – no matter if you think you are done, you can probably always give another 1%.
After I told Pat about my run he said “that sounds like fun"… when he said that, I think I frowned and said “fun”? I was so confused by how I felt and what I was thinking during this race “fun” is not how I would describe it. But, now after having a little time to reflect – I do think it was FUN! :)
My cheering squad yesterday. Thanks for documenting the day for me Pat and Jen!
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I agree with Pat. That sounds like a really fun run. Thanks for sharing.
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