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The perfect race.  After my chain came off at the Grand Rapids Triathlon, having a perfect race was all I could think about.  Caseville was a last minute switch, but it was for a good reason.  My husband passed all his licensing exams and was now working full time as a Pharmacist, which meant he was thrown into the rotation without time to ask for enough time off for us to make the trip to Minnesota for the Life Time Triathlon.  We had raced Caseville 2 years ago and really enjoyed the race company, Tri To Finish, so we decided to head there to race instead.  

Due to a local festival, it was hard to find a hotel, but we ended up finding a pretty nice place in Bad Axe, about 30 minutes away.  As we settled in for the night, we began checking the weather and noted lots of storms coming through.  I figured there was no use in worrying and hoped we would still be able to race, so we headed to bed early.  In the morning I woke up early for my pre-race run.  It was sprinkling lightly as I started my run, but as I progressed through my 20 minute warm up it progressively began to rain harder.  With only a few minutes left, I had to bail and headed inside to get changed.  We loaded up the car in pouring rain, but by the time we made it to the race site the rain had stopped.  Yay!  The race was saved!  

Unfortunately no one told the wind to stop, and it was whipping up the water pretty good.  After delaying the race for 20 minutes in an attempt to save the swim, the race director had to throw in the towel and cancel the swim.  After the announcement, I instantly started to panic.  I needed the swim!  How else would I get ahead of the runners?  As I packed my Xterra Speedsuit back in my bag I knew I had to change my thinking.  I looked for the positives: I would know where all the women were heading into the bike, this would be a great opportunity to push my run and I’d had really great run workouts lately and I was ready!  I was a little worried about my Achilles, which had showed some improvement after one week of physical therapy, but was no where near healed.  Seeing familiar faces in the transition also helped.  It was really cool to see some of the guys from the U of M Triathlon Team and a fellow alum from the MSU team, Renee.

After the bike warm up I finally settled on a wheelset and decided to keep my back disc wheel, which I’m sure annoyed my poor hubby because I changed my brakes and back wheel twice and made him run back and forth to the car for my wheel bag!  The wind was strong, but most of the course had good tree cover that blocked a decent amount of wind.  Since no swim warm up was needed, Todd and I headed out for another quick run warm up then to the start line.  A duathlon start is always tricky, there are a lot of people crowded into a small area and lots of nerves lead to a fast start, but my husband and I had talked about paces and I was determined to run my paces.  No taper before this race meant I had heavy legs, but my first mile was right on pace.  My second mile slowed a little due to a hill and a woman ran up alongside of me.  I decided to conserve some energy and run the remainder of the 5k with her since I am never sure how a run-bike-run will tire my legs for the second run.  But being in a race side by side always leads to a quicker pace!  We finished the slightly long 5k in just over 20 minutes and headed out on the bike together.

I was excited to be on the bike!  I was happy about deciding to stay with my disc and my bike felt light and fast.  The wind was at my back for the first half of the race, which helped me to keep pushing the pace.  A little ways into the bike I noticed a right turn ahead... I had read the course description numerous times and it said “out and back.”  I found out after the race that the course had to be changed the night before the race due to construction.  I turned right onto the road and came up to a sign about a turn around ahead.  There was a man sitting in a chair who yelled something at the guy ahead of me, but due to the wind I couldn’t hear what he said.  He just waved me on to keep going, so I kept pushing my pace.  Over a mile later I reached a sign that said “Half Ironman Turn Around.”  I asked the guy there where the Olympic turn around was and he frowned and said it was  “way back there.”  My heart dropped.  I turned and began biking hard.  The guy ahead of me asked if I had known the previous guy was at the Olympic turn around and I said no, we had both been directed to the wrong turn around.  I began calculating how much further I had gone: 2.5 miles.  All I had wanted was the perfect race!  I began to think maybe it would be best if I just stopped or dropped out after the bike... but of course my heart could never quit and I continued to push the pace hard as all these thoughts came into my mind and were quickly discarded.  

At the next turnaround I was able to see how far behind I was.  I wasn’t sure if I would be able to catch the lead women again, but the way back was into the wind and I am pretty strong biker, especially into the wind.  The miles ticked off and I slowly started to catch some women, but as I rolled into transition I didn’t see the first woman.  But as I racked my bike I saw the top two women heading out of transition.  I pulled on my shoes as quickly as possible and headed out onto the run, intent on catching the two women.  

I caught the first woman fairly quickly out of transition thanks to a hill and caught up to the next woman as we crossed the road onto the main chunk of the run course.  I greeted Sarah, who I met last year at the Boyne City Triathlon and then sold my “old” Felt DA to her.  We chatted briefly, then focused on the run.  I knew my legs wouldn’t hold out for long due to my hard effort on the bike, so my plan was to pull away quickly and then try to hold my lead to the finish.  My first couple miles were right on pace and I pulled away with the lead.  At the turn around I saw that my lead was decent at about less than a minute, so from there I attempted to just hold on!  My legs felt like bricks and I almost tripped a couple of times because my feet started to drag. I focused on my form and made a few quick silent prayers for strength.  Slowly, oh so slowly, I neared the finish line.  I tried to muster as much energy as I could for my finish line smile, but it was more of a grimace!  But there I was, I had finished in first place!  It was far from the “perfect race,” but in a way I wouldn’t have changed anything about that race.  I proved to myself that I can run and that no matter what happens, just keep racing.  You never know what strength God will give you as you push your bike as hard as you can into a 20 mph head wind!  

Unfortunately my husband also got a little lost due to the change in the course and missed the right turn completely.  My husband is one of the most honorable guys I know and he told the race director to take his results off.  He didn’t want an unearned first place finish.  He still had a great race, well training day!  It was great to see the U of M guys and to make some new friends.  Congrats to Louis Chee Cayedito on first overall in the Olympic!  Unfortunately Jacob Bremer flatted, but I know he will kill it at his next race.  And it wasn’t my sweet bike that sped Sarah Squires to 2nd Overall in the Olympic, she had an amazing run!  Some of my best tri buddies were at other races over the weekend, it was a busy weekend!  Congrats to the Oak Park YMCA Tri Team members who finished Muncie, including their amazing coach Kathi Shipley who made her racing debut after kicking cancer’s butt!  And congrats to all the other members who raced over the weekend.  Also congrats to Todd Buckingham, or “Other Todd” as he is affectionately known around our house, for his 2nd place overall finish at the Grand Haven triathlon-turned-duathlon to Jimi Minnema.  Also congrats to the Lansing Triathlon Team for their great performances at the Clark Lake Triathlon.  And a huge belated congrats to LTT member Kim Albin for qualifying for Worlds 70.3 in Sweden!  

Finally I want to give a huge shout out and thank you to my pro team, Tri4Him because I couldn’t do anything without their support.  The women on the team are such an inspiration to me.  Abby Geurink had another amazing weekend with a 6th place finish in Minnesota.  Missy Kuck finished 7th overall at Muncie.  And of course, there is Stephanie Jones.  She has been a huge inspiration as she has set the model for dealing with a difficult season with grace and strength.  I wish her all the best and pray for a quick recovery from her clavicle surgery.  

Next up is a vacation and a destination race in Mackinaw City!  I love this race and I’m very excited to be racing with my whole family, including my little sister who will be racing the 5k.  Can't wait!