Or Maybe Just A Velo

Well, yesterday didn't quite go as planned.

After an early dinner, it was an early bedtime for an early alarm. Transition closed at 7:30 for the Myrtle Beach Triathlon and Half Max, my wave was at 7:33, and there was very limited parking.
Julie, Angela and I got up, had breakfast and were off.
I ran into Brianna right away, which was awesome because she is fun to chat with. We are all setting up our transition areas, trying to get our tent/food down to the finish area, and all the other stuff you do before a race when the race director (RD) called everyone over.

Then he made the dreaded announcement. The swim was cancelled. NNNNOOOO!!!!!!!! It's the one thing in triathlon I really like - and am 'good' at. Because of all the rain, the bacteria in the Inter coastal water way was too high, something about ecoli, so they called off the swim. :-( Yes, it was better for everyone's safety - but still! So, there was a time trial start, with a T1 time.

I was with a bunch of our tri club people, which was the best way to past the time. Once it was my turn, I ran through the transition to the cheers of our club members doing the International and sprint distance courses. I grabbed Blain and headed out onto the first loop of the course (which was shaped like an H so you knew who was behind).

Things started off okay. I had the chance to look for lots of people and towards the end of the first loop I started seeing more and more DC Tri jerseys. It was a lot hotter than I expected. And the wind was not fun - again. I am really tired of flat, windy, and sunny courses!!

Loop two is where things started to go wrong. I had already stopped once to help a guy from the club with a flat (he sent me off as his tire wouldn't hold CO2). On one windy section, I saw 2 DC Tri jerseys, pulled over to see if they needed help (and I wanted the break). They were set and I went on my way. At the turn around, I had a tail wind for awhile and my body just started to not be happy. I checked behind me, there was no one, I got as close to the grass as I could, and littered.

All I kept thinking was to finish. Just finish. I was in a division of 1, and I could do this. That helped and eventually, 3 hours, 26 minutes, and 56 seconds later, I was done. And even with the 2 stops, wind, littering, and my legs rebelling - that is my fastest 56 mile split. I don't know if it really counts because there was no swim, but I will take it anyway.

I stumbled around a bit, grabbed a Sprite, and headed to the ladies room. After I littered a bit more, in the proper place, had the Sprite and a roll, I felt much better. Just in time to celebrate our guys coming in first, second, third and fifth OVERALL for the International race, and Janie coming in second and AJ coming in fifth OVERALL. Oh, and for the sprint, Steve and Toby won their divisions, Angela came in third, and a bunch of other people placed too. I am friends with fast people!

To our sadness, all this fastness wasn't enough to bring home the championship. Stupid Columbia Missouri club won, again. We are calling some shenanigans as the RD sounded like he played some favorites - but we are not sore losers. We did really well and I am so proud of our club.