My coach was right when he called this my “first” 70.3 a couple of months ago. I don’t think I’m finished racing yet.
There were several moments of training when I thought I was through and when I questioned my sanity. When I crossed that finish line, I swore I would never do another race this big. But in hindsight, those moments were always a part of other factors—like Gala planning or lack of sleep or getting sick or an exhaustive 8.5 hour race. In the final stretch of training, I felt great and I felt strong. My workouts were good, and I found myself looking forward to them. The sunshine and warmer temperatures helped there, too.
In those final weeks, I also started thinking about the future. What started me on this journey and what was left to be done toward accomplishing it. I am still not convinced I will ever complete a full Ironman, though that is still the ultimate dream. I can say though, I don’t think I’m finished with the half-iron races.
I didn’t meet my personal time goal for this race, but I still enjoyed myself and I still finished within the time cutoff. Looking back on my five months of training, I didn’t complete all of my workouts, and I didn’t do a great job on nutrition or strength training. Imagine what I could do if I trained smarter and if I ate better? Imagine if I worked on my speed and on other details? Imagine if I did drills in the pool and grew my confidence there. Imagine if I worked on simply running faster and completed more brick workouts along the way?
So yeah, I’m not finished yet… but I am finished for the moment.
I plan to spend the rest of my summer enjoying life on two wheels. I want to race in our local crits for fun and spend Mondays growing the number of women who ride bikes in Nashville. I want to go on long rides for enjoyment, and I want to stop and take in the scenery along the way. I want to eat meals not centered around workouts or the timing of insulin doses. I want to plan a camping trip on my bike, and I want to run without a heart rate monitor. I want to ride with my JDRF teammates and grow our local Ride team. I want to cruise around town with friends in flip flops and enjoy the beauty of Nashville in the summertime. It’s my favorite season in this town.
I have signed up for a few small races to keep me motivated though, and if I can increase my foot speed, I’m considering a full marathon this winter. But for now, it’s all about the sunshine and summertime. (And lots of nachos without guilt.)