First race of the year.......

I guess that's not entirely true. I raced a marathon on January 15th. But that's not the same.

We're talkin' Tri Season and suddenly, it's here. Mother nature doesn't seem to know we're ready to jump in the lakes and spend 5 hours on the roads, but we'll do it anyway.

I have 45 min left before my little ones come home from school. My goal for the day was to 1) get ready this morning 2)complete the short pre-race workout and 3) chill---- put my feet up, nap? , just breaaaathhhhe.

Somehow, steps 1 & 2 took until 1:30!!! I had to clean my chain, take off the big heavy bottle cages, and on and on. It took me all morning to get to this stage. Now, I'm out of time. The nap ain't happenin'... what else is new.

Polarbear is here. It's a short race at Bowdoin College in nearby Brunswick, Maine. I have a love/hate relationship with this race. I love the pool swim. I love to see everyone. Nearly all Maine Triathletes show up for this show-down. I also hate the pool swim. I hate racing in a pool by pushing off the wall. It's not how I start a swim race and it throws me off. I hate that I can't seem to breath until mile 5 of the bike because I've gone 110% on the swim. I also have a nice record of mishaps on the bike. Let's see---there was the wipe out coming into T2 or the slow leak in my tire last year that left me feeling like I was pedaling through mud and analyzing my workouts with my coach after. I love the run through the woods and yet, there's never Quite enough time to 'catch' that speeeeeeddy girl just ahead of me.

Maybe this is the year.

But what I DO love about this race and what keeps me coming back is the way it shakes us all up. It gets us out of our day to day to day training routine and lets us pour all our hearts into the day. It's a fast and furious test of will. You must not miss a step. There is no room for error. No time to stop and think about what's next. You just GO GO GO GO and think about it after. It's the best way to dust off the cobwebs and see what your body is ready to do after loads of hard work all winter.

I can't wait.


I'm going to wake up early, go through my morning of race rituals and leave nothing out on that course. Let's see if I can put it all together this time.

35 min left. Long enough for a nap?