Pre-Race and Swim

The whole week leading up to the race was a nighmare for me. I am not very good in the mental department and I kept having visions of not finishing the bike or getting so sick that I had to pull out of the race, things like that. I was even dreaming about the race nightly and walking up sweating. The mental game is a tough one and I need to get better at it when it comes to racing. Chris and I got to Houston on Wednesday night and headed to my mom's house. I had a complete day off on Thursday so after checking in at the woodlands, I did errands, watched Khloe and Lamar and basically tried to keep my mind off the race. Most people stayed in the Woodlands Wednesday and Thursday nights, but I wanted to stay away from the excitement of it all until the very last minute to keep my nerves away.
Friday AM Chris, my mom and I all drove up to the woodlands to do the bike and gear bag check ins and I had conversations with some very nice people. Most of whom were from places like NYC and were petrified of the heat we had in Houston. We nervously chatted while walking to drop the bikes off, and the rest of the day I spent relaxing in the hotel room and getting things ready for the next morning.
People who say you can sleep the night before your first ironman are lying! I tossed and turned until about 2:30 AM when I finally decided to get up and get going. I checked Facebook, ate and got everything ready and woke up the rest of the crew so we could head down to the race site at 4:30. The walk from the transition area to the start was about a 30 minute walk and I tried my best to just remain calm. I got marked and ran into my coach who I had never met in person. I was so glad I did because she gave me some great last minute advice that I used the entire way to keep me going.
The swim start was sort of a cluster f**k. I was one of the first in the water and had planned to stay to the outside and take a longer line into the first buoy so I could stay away from the mass, but it took so long for everyone to enter the water that I was actually in the middle of a huge mass of people. I got elbowed by some guy in my face and my nose and lip were bleeding so I had to stop and tread water for a while so I could calm down and start moving again. Other than swallowing massive amounts of nasty water, the swim was without incident after the start. The hit to the face cost me some time, but I was also slow because I didnt ever want to push too hard. Not knowing what to expect for the day, I didnt want to die at the end of the bike or run because I had a pushed too hard to have a great swim. So I kept it conservative and was about 10 minutes off what I was hoping to do.

Looking over at Chris wondering what the hell I am doing and thinking I really should pull out and go back to bed instead of doing this crazy thing.


The start - Im in there somewhere