So this year we decided to do it right! My friend Sandra and booked a hotel and made travel plans WITHOUT husbands and kids for the Timberman 70.3 race. I love my family to pieces, but buy did it make a difference to not have to worry about anyone else but ourselves!
Here is us on race morning (circa 4 am...) eating organic Pete & Gerry's hard-boiled eggs for breakfast:
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Note the bags under my eyes... and my sleepy face in spite of a great night of sleep. Then look at how fresh an peppy my friend Sandra looks after allegedly tossing and turning all night! Can someone say photogenic?!
We were lucky to find parking about a mile away from the race- it was chaos! Since we had to rack our bikes the day before, we had to walk that mile with all our gear and bags to the race venue... we needed the warm-up anyway!
Sandra and I wished each other luck and parted ways to meet our age groups. The race took off and I felt great in the swim. The bike was going well until I realized my base salts had fallen out of my picnic baggie!!!
The rest of the bike ride was rough. I was eating and hydrating to the point I felt bloated, but I was desperate for salt... at one point, I started licking my arms for the extra salt!
I had another salt tube in transition- which made a world of difference on the run. But I think that the bloating really set me back from achieving my goals in the run. Along the run, I decided that once the race was over, I was talking to a real nutritionist- my race day nutrition was not working for me.
Overall though, I cut over 20 minutes from last year, coming in at 5:50. While numerically this is awesome, it BARELY moved me within my age group... I went from 42nd only to 39th! (...It makes me wonder what kind of super humans are racing in my age group...)
Post race selfie:
The ladies and their bikes:
THIS is how you do post-race fueling... Steak with fries (*note the decorative roughage*), buffalo boneless wings with a large coke, simultaneously served with desert; chocolate lava cake with ice-cream and hot churros.
I felt motivated after the race. Not sure what else is in the books, but MORE is certainly on the way. I don't feel as tired as I did last year... I actually feel incredibly energized (though physically still a little jelly-fied and not quite ready to get out of bed for another week or two).
