Post-Race Randomness

It’s five days post-World’s Toughest Half and I can finally sit on the toilet without grimacing and muttering, “ow ow ow ow ow ow” – hooray!  Here are some of the things I’ve been thinking about this week, bullet pointy-like:

• Results are posted and I came in 14th out of 15 for the duathlon.  Ha, ha, ha, ha!!!  There were actually 16 of us at the start and I sure wonder what happened to that last girl.  I saw her on the bike leg quite a few miles behind me, but she still looked like she was plugging along.  Even though they made a big deal of the cutoff times on the website, there are results posted for people who took well over 9 hours, so I don’t think she missed a cutoff.  I hope she didn’t get hurt on the bike.  While we were running the first 3K, she told me that she had signed up for last year’s race, started the race and got LOST during the first run leg!!  The race director let her come back this year for free.
• I talked to SO many people during this race!  Everyone was so nice and it was such a tough course that it was an instant “bonding” situation.  Afterwards, one of the guys I talked to during the run leg shook my hand and thanked me for keeping his spirits up – totally made my day!
• IronHubs told me about watching a girl decide to DNF the race on the bike leg while he was waiting for me to come by.  He said she didn’t look too beat up and hadn’t crashed her bike or anything, but had obviously just given up.  What a bummer.
• I am already planning another duathlon!  I am completely in love with this sport!
• And there will be triathlons this summer, too.  On the books already is a Super Sprint in three weeks that I am really looking forward to.  Big Boy will be making his Super Sprint debut at this race – it’s his first non-kid triathlon event.
• Because it’s a pretty big step up from the kids’ triathlon distances (kids distance is a 150 yard swim, 4 mile bike and 1 mile run, the Super Sprint is a 400 yard swim, 8 mile bike and 2 mile run), Big Boy has his first training schedule up on the refrigerator.  Big Leagues, baby!!  His favorite part?  Crossing off the workout after it’s done.  That’s my boy!
• While I’ve been sitting around on my fat lazy butt recovering this week, I’ve still been eating like I’m training for a Half Iron.  Ooops.  Maybe I should get back out there and burn some calories, huh?
• Except that I’m totally not ready to get back to it!  I went for a little swim on Wednesday, which felt really good.  I did a teeny tiny bike ride yesterday with the boys, which also felt pretty good, so I thought I’d try a short recovery run this morning.  Holy moly that was a suckfest.  Ever start a run feeling like you’re already at Mile 24?  No bueno.  I made it 2 miles, but my legs never loosened up.  I think I’ll stick to swimming for a few more days of recovery!
• My poor feet have spent so much time in shoes lately that putting on my VFFs this morning was really hard!  Booo.
• Wearing regular running shoes for the whole WTH race was a good choice, though.  When I fell off my bike on that training ride, it was because I couldn’t get my stupid shoe unclipped and I was a nervous wreck thinking about that happening on race day.  Sure, you can generate more power from a stiff bike shoe, but safety was my real concern.  There was also the fact that I knew I’d be walking up some hills, which is tougher in bike shoes.  Add that to the two transition venue logistics and it just made more sense to wear one pair of shoes all day long.  All in all, I think it worked out well for me.
• In fact, all my gear worked out well for me on race day.  I hadn’t really had a chance to wear my outfit on any long training days, so I was taking a real leap of faith that it would fit well and keep me comfortable.  Thankfully, I finished the day with no chafing and no lingering “girl parts” pain.  *whew*
• I made my outfit myself (if you couldn’t already tell that from the crooked seams and sloppy neckline).  I loved matching my bike, I loved being easy for IronHubs to spot and (not that I’m an attention hound or anything, except for the fact that I totally am) I loved how people kept cheering, “Go Bumblebee Girl!!”  I know it sounds dumb, but looking cute made my race even more awesome.
• I polished my nails yellow, too.  And it made me insanely happy that the medal ribbon was yellow.  Really, can a girl ever get too matchy-matchy??

• This week’s inability to comment on other people’s blogs is driving me nuts (though I am secretly glad it’s not just me having some annoying user error, which is what I thought when it first started happening)!  Jim, you completely kicked butt in Fargo – congratulations on marathon #11!!  BDD, I’m so sorry about your bike wreck.  I can sympathize and I agree that you need to get right back at it.  Keep your confidence up!  ajh, I would love to talk about all things duathlon related with you!  I don’t see your email on your page, but you can hit me up:  PahlaB2@gmail.com