Every September for the past two years, Ryan has headed off to cool places (Austria and Australia) to compete in the Ironman 70.3 World Championships. To be honest, while the places he went to are super cool, I had no interest in competing in this race. It’s right after school starts, and my district is already pretty amazing in allowing me to take time off for Kona, so I never once considered asking to take time off to do a race that doesn’t really even favor my strengths. And then Megan qualified at Madison 70.3 back in June. Since I had already promised a fun 30th weekend (remember when she did Ironman Texas with me on my 30th birthday?), I quickly realized I would be celebrating her 30th in Chattanooga. And since I’d be bringing my bike for a long ride anyway, I might as well just do the stinkin’ race myself! Fortunately, I had a smart race in Muncie back in July and was able to secure my slot to compete in my first ever 70.3 World Championships. This past month has been a bit of a blur with school starting. I’m now teaching both 7th and 8th graders (which I’m totally enjoying!), teaching a new math course that I had been advocating for since I started teaching (YAY!), coaching cross country (LOVE!), and mentoring my awesome new math teammate. I haven’t really had time to think much about this race until I boarded my plane just a few moments ago so figured I might as well write a quick blog about it. Over the past 9 months, I’ve been all over the board with my training, so I’m actually pretty excited to see how the race unfolds on Saturday. Every aspect about this course is supposed to be challenging, so I don’t have any real time goals. And really, I have no idea how I’ll fare against the other ladies in my age group as this is a distance I truly don’t race often, but I am definitely excited to be competing with some of the best in the world! SWIM: My swimming is better than it’s ever been. In January, swimming 100m under 1:50 wasn’t even possible. Just last week, I swam a random 100m after my workout because I was feeling good and did it in 1:29. WHAT?!?! From January through March, I was annoyed by the 4:30am alarms to go swim (but would do it anyway!), but by April, my body was starting to figure out this whole swimming thing and it became more enjoyable. I can’t believe I’m typing this, but I actually welcome my early alarms as they mean I’m off to enjoy a sunrise swim! BIKE: After making HUGE gains over the past two years due to injury (forced time on the bike since I couldn’t run), I felt like I didn’t really improve much in 2017. However, Ryan pointed out that my gains are there, just not as noticeable since they’re smaller in comparison. I’m excited that this is a hard bike course as I’m totally one of the “get better as the race goes on” kind of riders, so this will hopefully suit me well. RUN: Can I just say how thankful I am that I am running pain free? Katy, Earl, Jerry, Danna and Denise have been miracle workers and so patient with helping me come back from injury and Denise is working hard with me to keep injury away. Back in March when I had that random cuboid stress reaction thing, I was really worried that my Kona dreams were being washed away. 12 weeks of not knowing what was wrong really took a toll on me mentally, but I am back in the game and almost as strong as I was before the injury came on. AND I’ve graduated out of orthotics!!!!! This is huge as it means that my body has regained strength and the imbalances I previously had are diminishing. The run course is supposed to be rather challenging and hilly, which excites me as I can’t remember the last time I ran a non-hilly run given where I live! I completely plan to leave it all out there on the run and come across the finish line completely gassed. OVERALL: Let me put it this way. Awards are at 7:30pm on Sunday. My flight is at 5:17pm on Sunday. I’m here to see where I’m at heading into Kona, push my body as hard as I can on a challenging course, and, most importantly, smile all day long celebrating Megan’s 30th birthday!
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AuthorRunner. Triathlete. Math teacher. Run coach. Archives
December 2022
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