Goal Reached.

The weather has been hot and sunny and I have been doing some good swims and rides...unfortunately the hip issue I have been having didn't clear up completely...I continue to do my exercises, work on my posture and stay on top of stretching, etc but running wasn't something I could do with enjoyment or pain free...so over the last few weeks, I have done only 4 runs...but on the plus side I wasn't having constant pain so I took that an improvement. I had committed to doing the Bracebridge Olympic Distance Triathlon, as it was a qualifier to the World Championships for 2012 and SV and I had decided that was a race we want to do next year, so the last 2 months have been about trying to get to race day in some sort of shape to get one of the age group spots available. To be honest, I wasn't feeling comfortable that I was going to get a spot (only 2 per age category) my lack of running and the pain I was having, I had a feeling it was going to be a long shot but I wanted to give it a go because it was probably going to be the only triathlon of the summer....and we have a few friends that were doing the race in hopes of a qualifying spot also, which would make for a great vacation next fall.

This was my first Time Trial style start (they started each athlete 5 seconds apart, starting with the youngest to oldest athlete)...which meant through most of the race you wouldn't know where you were in relation to the other athletes you were racing...also, now that I am in the 35-39 age category I had a while to wait before I actually got to start and I ended up swimming through a lot of the field...to be honest, I didn't hate the time trial start but at the same time I didn't love it...hard to get motivated to swim as hard as I could have if there were others to race...but at the same time it was fun to pass so many people...but I think I prefer getting into a groove and swimming with others who push you to go harder...so although my swim time was ok, it wasn't great and I think it had a lot to do with manoeuvring through so many slower swimmers...plus it was my first non-wetsuit swim since 2002... The bike course up here is a great one and I am very familiar with it... we have been biking it a lot lately as it comes close to the house and is one of our new favourite routes... I continued to pass many athletes on the first 20 km of the ride and felt pretty good on my bike, SV passed me at 22km and he looked fast, really fast. I was pumped for him and cheered him on. I felt like I had a pretty comfortable ride, I was only passed by 6 men on the ride and while I could have biked harder, in the back of my mind I was a little worried about the run so I didn't want to push too hard... I came off the bike and a friend that was volunteering informed me that I was 90 sec down on SV...could I catch him...hmmm...didn't want to think about that...wasn't even sure if my hip would let me climb the hill out of T2 let alone run SV down....

Coming out of T2 the race has you climb a grass hill out of the park...I tried to take small steps and just focus on getting to the road...so far the hip felt ok so I just tried to focus on the people ahead of me and tried to not let my mind go to my hip...by the 1km point I could see my training partner Brent up and decided I was going to try to catch him...I caught him by 3km and then decided to just focus on the next man in front of me...this was my strategy for the rest of my run...Just before the 5km turn around I saw SV coming back, still looking strong and I was pumped that I wasn't too far behind him and I decided to try to close the gap a little more...I got passed by another local guy(Joe) and we pushed each other for the next 4km...I pulled ahead but that motivated him to run stronger...around 6km a guy in a pink outfit went flying by me, I noticed he had a 44 on his calf and I hoped SV had enough of a lead..because this guy was moving...I was able to see SV for the last 2km ...but I knew I wouldn't catch him... but I had gotten closer so that was great...I never felt like I was pushing too hard on the run, I was scared to truly go hard because of my hip, but the lack of run training made the effort I was putting in seem pretty hard and in the end I am happy with how strong I did run....I crossed the finish line pretty confident that I had won my age category and I had passed 3 of the men that had passed me on the bike! So that made me pretty happy.

It ended up being a solid day of racing for both SV and I....the flying man ended up passing SV in the last km and because of the time trial start...placed 1st by 16 seconds, but SV still earned his Worlds spot...I won my age category and also ended up placing in the top 5 of the overall women, which I wasn't expecting so I was happy with that....

The hip/leg isn't feeling so great today but I am going to take care of it for the next while and try to get recovered as quickly as possible, it amazes me how adrenaline during the race can block the discomfort...because once I crossed the finish line and stood around for a few minutes...trying to walk almost did me in, lol....but since I have my worlds spot my new goal is recovery!