Rock'n Route Triathlon

Today was the race my friend Kerri and I, for the past 11 weeks, have been training for.  The Derby Rock'n Route Triathlon!  I was actually pretty excited about this race.  Since doing Mudwater, I knew where I fit amongst the "pack" of people that would be there, so I wasn't worried about being last.  The swim was in a pool with a staggered start so I wasn't worried about drowning or getting run over so much, I really liked the route for the run, the temperature this morning was about 10 degrees cooler, and, as a bonus, I wasn't sick this time!  Last night, I realized I wasn't nervous about the race, that I hadn't been having nightmares about forgetting things, so then I started worrying about not worrying and that since it wasn't on my mind all the time I probably WOULD forget something.  See?  Even if I don't have anything to worry about, I'll make something up!  :)

Yay!  Number 137!

I woke up this morning at 4:30, got ready and headed out the door.  I met Kerri in the transition area and we set up our stuff together, and went and got body marked, and got our timing chips, and wandered around, and finally got in line to wait our turn to start the race.  The swim went really good, I thought.  I have no idea what my time was since I still don't have a watch, but my body felt good and I was able to swim the whole distance without stopping.  I bounced out of the pool and ran to get my bike stuff on.  I got on my bike and started to mentally prepare myself to chase people down and blow past them. "relax your shoulders, pull with your feet, tighten your core, regulate your breathing, ignore the annoying water drips going down your legs, don't shift down just keep pushing until the pedals feel easier - then spin, etc..."  Somewhere around mile 4 maybe, the road felt different under my bike.  I pushed on, just sure it was that the texture of the road had changed for a second, but the weird feeling didn't go away.  I tried to take a look back at my rear tire to see if something was wrong, I couldn't really see anything too much, but it still felt weird, then I notice I am slowing WAY down, and I know exactly what is wrong.  I jump off my bike, hoping I'm wrong, but there it is.  A big, fat, flat tire.  I have no spare tube and even if I did, I don't know how to change my tire (guess it's time to learn).  I. Was. So. Bummed.  I walked my bike back about a mile to the last intersection where there was a race volunteer and a police officer and had them radio in to get me a ride back to the start line.  I couldn't believe it.  I'm not sure why I'm so surprised, I seem to have an issue with flat tires, but so far they have only been on my stroller, I've never gotten one on my bike, and what are the chances that I get one during a race?  Ugh.  I'm just so depressed about the whole thing.  It's so anti-climatic.  All this preparing, all this building up, all those early, early mornings when I didn't want to get up, but I did, to get to this point, only to not finish.  The constant obsessing over the past week about what I'm eating, how much am I drinking, am I hydrated enough, am I getting enough sleep, am I making sure I don't workout too much so my legs and arms feel good just for this day.  Everything I had worked so hard for this whole summer ruined by a teeny, tiny, little rock.  I found the little rock stuck in my tire that has caused all my angst, and at the moment I felt like hurling it as far as I could down the road.  But instead, I saved it and am thinking about framing it because I hate it so much, and I am now trying to channel all my rage and frustration into it so I don't make a giant batch of chocolate chip cookies and eat them all.  Because you all know that's how I deal with things.  I stuff my feelings, and then I stuff my face....

And just to show you how tiny of a dagger the stupid thing is....did you notice it on the picture above of my race number?  If not, here's a close up.

How in the world did I manage to run that one little rock over?  Out of all the places I could have ridden my bike, it was in the path of this stupid tiny rock.  *sigh*   I'm sure tomorrow I'll feel better, but for right now, I'm depressed and angry.  I hate you little rock.