training stuff
The story of St George begins the evening before we hit the road, when DJ and I drove out to Hagg Lake to take part in an open water swim race. I hadn’t done an open water swim since Blue Lake Tri in 2008, when I panicked and had difficulty just getting through it. I recall sitting up and treading water, my breath fast and ragged, waiting for everyone to swim by me so I could begin with the tangle of arms and feet around me.
I’ll admit it: typing “race week” makes me a bit nauseated. Nervous excitement! I’m going to have to figure out how to not be nervous all week long; usually I just try not to think about the race at all until race morning, but with so many things to pack and prepare for, I don’t think that will be possible.
Everyone has asked if I’m tapering for the race. Apparently I am, although it doesn’t necessarily seem like it from looking at my workout schedule. The workouts are generally shorter, but harder. We’re “sharpening” my fitness. I keep imagining a pencil sharpener for some reason, although that’s not very intimidating is it?
Just in case you’re up early on a Saturday morning and have nothing else to do, you can live track my race! Well, it’s not actually “live” per se, but you can see the results coming in over the course of the race with some delay. I can’t recall how it actually works on the website, so unless you’re interested in downloading an app, you may have to do a little digging. I’ll update this if I find out more specific instructions.
When: May 7th, my wave starts at 7:20am Utah time, so that’s 6:20am PST. Should take me somewhere between 5-6 hours, so if you just want to know if I finished, then wait until noon.
My bib number: 1431
This is main event page, I think a link will appear when it’s race day. If not on the homepage, then try the results area and see if it updates to 2016 (currently it’s on 2015).
I admit, one of the hardest things about racing is _not_ racing–holding yourself back when you need to. Especially in a 5+ hour effort. It’s so easy to get carried away and try to get pass everyone in eyesight.
St George is coming up very soon, so soon that I’m starting to get a bit nervous about it. I’m not really too nervous about my actual performance; I’m worried about all the other things. I do dumb shit in races _all_ the time. You can hear me laughing at myself as I circle around the infield at PIR during the summer short track series, as I run into a tree or miss my pedal, or get my bibs caught on the saddle trying to sprint; I’ve done it all!