Race Day Anticipation

The week is here! I'm a weird combo of stressed and excited.  My coach Hollie  has been super encouraging and so have my friends.  A few of us keep going back and fourth of being freaked out ourselves, then  we suddenly switch gears to the "you can do it" song and dance as soon as we hear a comrade freaking out!

I THINK I can, for real though I KNOW my numbers, I know what I can do and the gap is TOO close to call!    Hollie has been great.  She talked me off a ledge yesterday.  I really am worried about my times.   I know my times for each sport.  I am ahead of many in my training and 'mental' preparedness, however my stupid EDS puts me behind in many physical respects.  I have done the distance in each sport, MANY times. Some people going into a Half may not have done this many miles until race day!  My brain knows what to expect, I just need my body to cooperate.

I did an open water, no wetsuit swim on Tue, 1.2 miles in 40 min.  I think I'll be faster than that on race day. My swim wave starts at  6:30AM so that puts the time around 7:20-7:25AM to start the bike.

The 56 mile course is very hilly. You pretty much climb the first 45 miles, then when you come into Providence the roads are a mess, you cross several railroad tracks and just have to hang on.  I will do well on the bike If I have room to descend.  It sounds stupid but I can descend and hit the flats like a speed demon, but if there's no room to pass on those opportunities I may be screwed. I am an absolute terrible climber, so I have to hope I have room on those downhills!  I should be between 4-4:30 on the bike.  That puts me into T2 by noon and off to the RUN!  


I thought I might like running by now.. NOPE I don't!  But to get this off my bucket-list, I have to run my 4th half marathon for the year!  I'm a 15 min miler and I'm not afraid to admit it.  I'll actually be pretty darn happy if I can pull 15's for the whole 13.1 miles!  I should get to loop 1 of the 2 loop run course by 1:45 (1:55 is the cutoff).  I can crawl for a little bit, then I HOPE to get back to the finish line by 3:30!  

I hate how close my times are to the cutoffs!

I sit here and dwell on this whole thing, and another thing that is so irksome.  I don't expect people to understand what goes into training for a Half Ironman.  Only those that DO it (or the tri-widows) would get it, but I want to walk away from some people in just disgust.  They think its like going for a little hike over the weekend.  I was basically asked to not take PTO from work, or to 'reschedule' the race. - UM NOT!   Luckily my direct boss gets it!

Another of my favorites is "good luck in your Marathon."-- Um, no.. I don't wish to run 26 miles, but this is 70.3!  I bet half the people that do 'marathons only' couldn't workout HARD for 5 hours BEFORE They started their 'run.'  Yea Bring it on One sport only people :).

Now that I've said what some of you are thinking... onto a different subject:

It's  pretty funny to see people that are freaking out that are SOOO much faster than I am!  They are a good 5-7 min /mile faster than me on the run and are still freaking out.  Hey it is what it is now. 


The training is done!
The race is Sunday!  
We just have to bring our game face and attitude that WE CAN DO IT!


Because you know what? we WILL do it!


I know I WILL because I am dedicating this to Abby!  


You will see me with her picture on my back.

"Courageous 3 year old Abby fighting cancer, My pain today is nothing."

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