Live, Laugh, Learn

Right after KS 70.3, all I could think was that this day happened for a reason and I'd learn whatever I need to from it.

Here are my random musings about being bummed out during my race and for 30 minutes afterwards:

I'd find things to laugh about. Like the pre-swim chat the announcer was having with our swim wave as we waited to go in the water. He said he had made a mistake announcing that there were no coed heats...ours was the only coed swim heat of the day so maybe we could make some dating matches. The only thing was....we 35-39 women were paired with the 18-24 men. I called out, yeah we could date these guys...if we're Cougars! We could have been the Cougar swim heat. Then the announcer said to each wave when the gun went off...see you back here soon! Me, not so much!!!

A bad race can make a good story.

I think about the girl on the run course with the really huge smile on her face. After we finished and were picking up our equipment, I told her that I really appreciated her smile when I wasn't feeling good, and asked her what she was thinking about. Pizza, she answered. Awesome.

Thought about the awesome volunteers from KC Multisport and everyone cheering. They made a lot of effort to be out there. The volunteers were there before 5 AM.

Another club that made a great impression was Columbia (MO) Multisport...they had a camping site and were out in full fun force cheering on their members. And they cheered for me too...which I really appreciated. They were really cool. I think we should do a club mixer with them!

I wondered if this Half Ironman was actually harder than my Ironman, and couldn't decide. Okay probably not :).

Thought about all the really serious issues in the world, which this one was not. Perspective please.

If I had quit, I would not have FINALLY received my finisher medal from Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington. That alone was worth any bad day. If you quit, you could also miss out on something amazing.

Mind over matter is a very very interesting exercise. It's weird.

The bad days make you appreciate the good ones a lot more.

It's not good to sell yourself short. You have to believe in yourself and do your best (whatever that is) any given day and let the chips fall.

You can't be too hard on yourself or think one bad performance totally defines you as a person. It doesn't. Life goes on and you figure out how to go from there.

I need to figure out what my goals are and should be for the rest of this year and next year.

I need to figure out a strategy for better dealing with power swimmers pummeling me.

Need to have some FUN, and I think that means some group training and trying new things. Also, some new scenery which I will have for my last two triathlons of this year.

Be happy for your friends and celebrate their success! If you are feeling down, it will make you feel better. How would you feel if a bummed out friend didn't feel happy for you?

It's also funny, because in this experience a few friends shared some of their heinous race experiences...and I have to say mine is not as bad!!! There were PLENTY of bad things that didn't happen to me. No flat tires, no bike wreck, no vomiting in the water, no major equipment malfunctions. Maybe I feel more lucky after all.

Cheers.