The Outer Banks (OBX) is rumored to be stunning and a wonderful playground for beaches, interesting sites and sounds, vacations, family time, etc. I am going because September 10 is my nephew's wedding. I had searched for a destination triathlon in that area around that time and came back with nothing. Then, there it was, a full page ad in Triathlon Magazine. The OBX Triathlon on Sept. 10 & 11! The sprint is on the 11th and with the wedding reception being on the evening of the 10th, I figured I better do the Olympic distance on the morning of the 10th.
The scary part is that I never swam in such open waters before. Lake Zurich last summer was my first real open water experience. That was scary enough and that was a SMALL lake! The picture on the main page behind the title of this blog is a photo of that lake with my wave waiting to start. I was terrified and had a panic attack almost turning around and exiting the water within five minutes into the start. All I could think of was, "This is not what I trained myself to do...quit five min. into a race. Keep going...Just take it one buoy at a time." And so I did. Five buoys later, and I was on the home stretch. The race was a real challenge for me at that distance (also an Olympic distance and my first one). I looked forward to repeating that race and improving my time. Unfortunately, injuries struck and I spent most of the off season at a chiropractor and then a physical therapist. Once I was nearly recovered from one thing, I made the terrible mistake of running in old shoes and developed plantar fasciitis! I still have it, but it is mild to moderate and I've been able to run through it so long as I tape my foot. I hope I can build up to the 10K distance without making it worse. Time will tell.
Today, I almost ran a 10K. I did my long distance run on crushed limestone and did a slow run/walk/run for 5.7 miles in 1:17. Very slow...nice and slow for a hot weather conditioning run. Time is of the essence. SLOW time. The slower, the better on this kind of run. No problem!
Tonight....an open water practice at Centennial Beach in town. Hoping to try my new wet suit out. Friday, off. Saturday, a swim in Lake Michigan. COLD water, hot air, a good wetsuit.... We'll see how that goes!
Happy Trails.... Ten weeks...Ten weeks....Ten weeks....
