"3am is just not a good time for anything!"

Well, other than sleeping, which I certainly was not doing at 3am last night. (Neither, incidentally, was Jamie Whitmore, whose status quote I stole.)

I have noticed a couple of trends in my racing season this year:

1) The week before is particularly stressful.
2) The night before is extra-short, despite my best efforts.
3) If 1) and 2) don't happen, the weather is too hot and I race poorly.

Today was my first Olympic distance race of the year. Last week definitly qualified as stressful, for reasons I do not wish to get into here. I decided to do laundry far too late last night, which meant an 11:30 bedtime. No worries. Five and a half hours will be fine. I asked Charisma to sleep with Justin so that I could have a better sleep without him, but he would still have someone sleeping with him. 2am - the bathroom calls. 3am - Charisma comes downstairs to inform me that Justin is really crabby and she can't calm him down. 4am - I give Justin a dose of ibuprofin, because by now I figure that something is definitely bothering him. 4:30am - I finally get back to sleep. 5am - my alarm goes off.

Thankfully, I was prepared. The coffee machine was ready to go. Caffeine... Only on race mornings. Otherwise I generally drink decaf.

5:40am - on the road. Ok, 3am would also be a great time for driving, just like 5:40am. No traffic. Most lights are flashing (though this makes the ones that aren't incredibly irritating when they are red). It was slightly foggy in the city, but nothing that affected visibility. Once I hit the highway, it was a different story, however. The other side of the fog provided a beautiful view, though, as the sun was just rising.



The rest of the drive was uneventful as I enjoyed listening to my traditional pre-race tape - DC Talk's Free At Last. If DC Talk ever has a reunion tour, I am SO there!

As I walked into transition, I saw Kim. Kim and I are, in many ways, cut from the same cloth. She is also definitely one of my favourite competitors. We have a great friendly competition that drives me to do better. She also inspires me with many things that she does. At any rate, we immediately proceeded to exchange excuses as to why today's race was not going to go well. No need to make excuses after the race. ;) Mine essentially consisted of lack of sleep and training. I hadn't biked 40km since July 1st, run 10km since June sometime, and hadn't swam 1500m since last August, and now I was going to do all three. She had biked 88km yesterday at an average pace of 33.5km/hr. The only question that remained was whose excuse would survive at the end of the race.

My warm-up, as usual, was virtually non-existent. Take the bike through the gears to make sure it's still working, run to the port-a-potties, swim long enough to get the wetsuit ready to go (100-200m).

The swim went surprisingly well. Yes, the second lap was definitely tougher than the first, as was expected. I really didn't get much opportunity to draft. But I was out in about 28 minutes, and that made me happy. Of course, there was some help from the current...

I ran into T1 and found my bike easily, as it was the only on on its section of the rack. I took a quick look and noticed that Kim's bike was still there. But my wetsuit did NOT want to come off, so T1 was definitely on the slow side.

The bike was relaxing, mostly because my legs didn't want to pedal hard. My heart rate was low, and I wasn't breathing hard at all, but I just didn't have the legs. As we went out onto the second lap, the sprint racers were just going out on the bike. This made for a lot more traffic, which ended up being a good thing. There were about three of us riding at the same pace, so we kept passing each other. We kept it legal, but there was also a whole lot of drafting going on as we passed through each others' draft zones. It also made the ride much more fun. :)

T2 ended up being not much better than T1. The ground was incredibly soggy from the ridiculous amounts of rain we've been getting, so my socks did not go on my wet feet very well.

As I started out on the run, I was almost shocked at how good I felt, especially considering how bad my "warm-up run" felt. The good feeling didn't go away, I was able to get somewhere around an even split, and smile as I crossed the finish line. Oh, and Kim? Well, her excuse held up. She was hurtin' on the run, but she pushed through. Of course, she's also only 2 weeks out of her first 70.3 race, which I know she will do wonderfully at...as long as she trains smart for the next two weeks. ;) (Yes, she's reading this.)

My goal for the race - sub 2:50, and if all was going well, sub 2:45. My final time - just under 2:47. Success! I guess the 3am thing didn't turn out too badly after all.