My Return to Triathlons

Whew! It's over! What, you may ask? My long-awaited return to triathlons. I have not done one in over a year and have been nursing a bad knee so this has been a nerve-wracking wait. Cale and I have competed in numerous sprint triathlons over the past few years and have always enjoyed the experience. We took a little break from them for awhile but decided to try a new one, the Lone Star Triathlon in Galveston, TX. Since I've had a bad knee for the last 8 months, I decided to stick with a Sprint Tri (500m swim, 12.5 mile bike & 5K run). However, Cale decided to be the overachiever and go for the Olympic which is double the distance of the sprint (no problem for him).
Well, we went to Galveston on Friday evening to check into the race and stayed the night in a hotel on the Seawall. At 1:00 am, we woke up to a crazy storm with incredible winds and hard rain. At the point, I questioned whether we'd be competing in the morning. We woke up at 5:00 am after very little sleep to no rain but lots of wind. My race was set to start at 7:00 am but kept getting delayed due to the high wind making the bay where we would be swimming extremely rough and choppy. Now, I can swim just fine but when you put me in the bay with choppy water, I become extremely nervous. I was also recovering from a stomach bug so the waves weren't helping my nausea. Luckily, after an hour of delays, the race officials decided it was too dangerous and cancelled the swim portion of both races. Can I just say how happy I was???
On to the bike and run...my best event being the run. The bike portion was a little rough with the crazy winds and the fact that my bike was malfunctioning and not switching gears. This was where I had to kick in my mental game. It was about mile 10 that my knee really started hurting from riding against the wind. At one point I acutally came to the realization that I would finish the bike but probably not be able to run because my knee hurt so bad. For those of you who don't really know me well, I'm EXTREMELY competitive and very hard on myself when it comes to physical performance. I work hard, train hard, eat right, etc. and expect my body to perform. Being a "slacker" because of a bum knee is not an option for me (probably the reason why it's taken so long for the knee to heal) and admitting that I might not be able to run was tough for me. I finished the bike, quickly transitioned into my running gear and set out on the course feeling rocks in my quads and extreme pain in my knee-NOT GOOD! After about a 1/2 mile, I settled into the run and either my body went numb or my knee pain went away because I got "Into The Zone". I raced to the finish and actually ran my personal best for a 5K. I ended up finishing 11th out of 67 women in my age group! Not too bad for a bum knee!
The lesson of the day for me for me...Don't count yourself out. The mind is much stronger than the body. Just when it seems you're doomed, almost at failure, at the end, etc., remember it's not over and you don't know what God has in store for you. Somehow all my pain subsided and I was able to finish a race in less time than I ever have in my best shape. I truly believe in the power of positive thinking, prayer and determination. I hope all of you find this useful in your next challenge, competition, race or anything else in life!