Taking One for the Team

One week after Vineman, I was on a run and tripped, pulling my glute or hammie in the process. All I know is that my entire right leg was very tight. In the days following, I tried to run but had this funny-looking gait where my right leg would swing out and around to recover-I looked like one of those dogs that run with their hind legs skewed to one side. I had one week week to resolve this gimp before I raced an olympic distance race. There was no option not to race because it was the club championships and our team had a shot at winning the series; and I was going to take one for the team.

During the race day warm-up, everything felt okay, gotta love race day magic. The plan for the race was to hammer the swim, ride control, and don't die on the run. I was not going to go balls out and risk another disaster. Instead, I decided that I rather have a solid race rather than try and go fast and risk disaster. I got out on the swim and did not see anyone around me after 200 yards. I didn't feel any tapping on my feet from behind, and this lack of contact slowly made me think that I might of swam off course. But soon, I saw swimmers from the earlier waves. I felt great and thought I was swimming really fast. I was first out of the water but once I saw my split, I realized I was not swimming fast, everybody else was swimming slow-no wonder that swim felt like it didn't hurt. Out on the bike, I tried to stay control which is hard to do. Guys would go by me and I would want to put the hurt down but then come to my senses and pull back. Thus, there were lots of speed changes on the bike. I think I accomplished my goal because the bike felt extremely short and I arrived to T2 mentally fresh (and 2 minutes off my best bike split here which was the goal). I had some major issues with transitions at this race, unable to find my spot both during T1 and T2. It must have been entertaining for the spectators to see this guy run all around transition looking for his stuff. Onto the run, I wanted to go by feel and let my body naturally pick up the pace. The first mile felt long and though my turnover was quick, my stride felt like it was 2 inches long. I felt like there was a whole lot of spinning going on but not a whole lot of distance gained. But as the run went on, I felt better and better and my stride opened up. I didn't wear a watch but I'm sure that I negative splitted my 5K's. Coming into the last 100 yards, I slowly shut it down but then immediately heard the crowd raise their cheering. Right then, I knew I was a target for some guy from behind. So I got up on my toes and duked it out...losing by three-tenths. No worries, he was 31. My overall time was 3 minutes slower than last year and seven minutes off my PR, but I'm happy that I found some speed...and the race was not a disaster. I found may way onto the podium and scored precious points for the team. And yes, we won both the championships and the series. Go Big Blue!