Thursday, June 03, 2010

My Nemesis

When I was a gymnast, beam was my nemesis. The state meet where I won the floor exercise, I also fell off the beam twice. I was scared of beam. Seriously, it's four feet off the ground, four inches wide, and you want me to do flips on it? You're crazy! But that same summer something happened when I just stopped being scared and dominated beam. I did all my tricks with elegance and stayed on the beam. I scored my first 9 on the event and even won a meet on beam.

This weekend is my third race at the 70.3 distance. I did my first one in 2005 and my second in 2008. The time difference between those two races? Fifty nine seconds. The first race I was happy with; the second race was a little more disappointing because I should have gone faster. Both those races I did all the training on my own and did VERY minimal bike riding. This time around I'm working with a coach and have done a TON of training for all three disciplines. And, I'm hoping to really have a breakthrough this weekend.

Today we leave for Kansas and will be stopping in Effingham, IL. Where? Yeah, exactly. Friday we will arrive in Kansas and will be staying with a family friend (20th cousin, 17 times removed--just kidding!) who we have never met. We hope to stay pretty relaxed and calm on Friday and Saturday. We've been to many big events (Ironman, Boston Marathon) so we've done the big expos and now avoid them like the plague. We just want to check in, do a little warmup, turn in our bikes, then get out of the heat, sun, and away from the action. My wave on Sunday starts at 7:06 and Dave starts at 7:26. I have to worry about him catching me the whole race! I plan on being a little conservative in the swim, using my heart rate monitor to guide me on the bike, and bust out an awesome run. I've got some time goals, but I don't want to disappoint myself or others so I'm not saying them aloud. I just want to have fun, have a good performance, and represent Team Trakkers well.

I don't know if you can track me online, but if you want to and you can, I'm number 988.

4 comments:

Karen said...

Have a great race! You will do fantastic, can't wait to read your report. :)

Michelle Simmons said...

Have a great race this weekend!

Megan L. Killian said...

safe travels!

Michelle said...

Good luck and have fun! Can't wait to hear the results!