Season Opener Recap- Nerves? Fueling?

I was really anxious and nervous getting ready for this race. I knew I could get through it but I wanted to do well. This is the start to a big season and I wanted to get it going on a good note. The fact that I had to wear a wet suit really messed with my head and I didn't like that they changed the start time a week before hand. Packet pickup was on Saturday and my plan was to pick up my packet and do a short ride/run brick at the race site- well thunder and lightning made that a NO GO! After picking up my packet went to the gym- did 25 min on the bike and 5 min on the treadmill. I spent a lot of time stretching. We went home and made dinner- corn pasta and ground turkey in the sauce and lots of veggies. Picked a movie and hung on the couch for a couple hours.

Race Day- I got up at 5:45- tummy growling.D made me some breakfast. I am a big eater before a race- 2 eggs, GF toast, and a bowl of cereal. I had a cup of coffee and lots of water. Finished packing up my race clothes and headed out at 6:45. We got pretty decent parking and got to the transition at around 7:15- got some premo spots!

I laid out my transition area and tried to stay calm with my ipod. Scoping out the field around me I settled into the idea that I wasn't going to be taking home any awards at this race. There were some serious triathletes around! I tried to sit as much as I could to get in the zone but my nerves and my stomach were not getting into the game. I got into my wet suit put on my cap and goggles and got ready for the pre race meeting.

8:30- pre race meeting- They went over how the swim would start and possible pit falls on bumps on the bike course. they talked about how pretty the run was too. That's all I remember.... We were the first wave of women so I moved toward the start.

9:00 Duathlon starts- is that I'm hungry or is that I'm nervous?

9:?? SWIM- we walk into freezing cold water. For the first time I was thankful I was in a wet suit. As I was treading water my arms got cold and I felt my feet get really cold- I got that omg I'm cold headache feeling. I decided my best plan of attack with the swim being a shore line swim was to get to the outside far from the shore. The extra 25/50 yds weren't going to kill me and would give me clean water to work with. The start was messy. There was lots of kicking and bumping. I did finally find some clean water. My stroke felt out of sink. Wet suits make my body float too much and screw with my catch. I had some trouble with sighting. I am not sure if it was the cold or the locations of the bouys but I had a bit of a tough time. My lips were so cold. I could feel my bicep tendon not liking the wet suit across it. I was getting close to the end and I started to feel the OMG I am STARVING! I came out of the water and saw my father. He told me I was in the middle of the pack. That bummed me out- that swim did go as bad as it felt. 9:11- slowest swim I have ever had at this distance

T1- not a bad transition with a wetsuit. Dropped everything grabbed my number water and more chomps. headed out on the bike.

Bike- well lets just say things didn't go so great on the bike. First set of bumps in the road and there were water bottles strewn all across the street and out bump my chomps. Well I am down to one pack. I keep drinking my pure sport and water and try to get chomps in me since I was hungry. The rolling course proved to be pretty challenging at times. It was really hard to tell who was in your age group who was a triathlete and who was a duathlete but I tried to pass folks and had a few women pass me. But at mile 5 I started to feel kinda gross- and there it was I threw up. Just as I look at the half way point sign my body decided we didn't like the way today was going. And from there I knew this was going to be a tough one. I muscled my way through the rest of the ride and came into T2.

T2- knowing the dismount was going to be a mess of folks trying to clip out unprepared I clipped both of my shoes out early- since it was a downhill coast. I yelled to D in t2 that I had puked on the bike and he said he knew something happen. Guess my time wasn't too great. Well no time to think now off for the run. I grabbed my water bottle to sip on for the run and took the blocks I had to hopefully refuel a little.

Run- The run started out up hill. Just what I needed after that bike. I sipped on the water and ate margarita cliff blocks. The salt and sugar were a friend at that point. I had to walk a bit up the hill to drink more water. I knew I needed fluids. And just then my friend passed me and said good job jules! It was a great boost! I just slugged through the run. It wasn't pretty. I had really hoped for the 3 mi I could be around a 9 min mile. I had a PR 5k avg 8:45s so a 9 wouldn't be that big of a stretch. Well every time I pushed myself- I felt like I was going to puke again. I got to the point that it was either this needs to be over and I need to finish or I need to puke again and feel better. Well it happen that I finished. It wasn't the race I had hoped but I crossed the finish line.

I am now on the search to try to figure out what went wrong. What is my new way of fueling? Am I not eating enough? Am I not drinking enough water? Did I just have a bad day? SO many variables but I am going to try my damn'd ist to figure it out- I better or that 70.3 is going to be really hard!