Nanticoke Race Report - May 3rd

Ok - I decided to do one of these race reports. My biggest fear of a triathlon was the swim. Thanks to Cindy Gilbert, I was coerced, strong armed, and thrown in the pool last October - I took a lesson from Rebecca after my first time I tried to make it to the end of the Y's pool. The only swimming I had done for the past 10 years involved floating on a noodle, and holding a bud light. It became a little easier after the lesson......HOWEVER - the swim at Nanticoke made all of my worse fears come true. The kicking, the splashing like shark frenzy feeding, I hit some ladies rear end at at least 5 times, I was passed by a woman doing the back stroke, the black line was absent from the river - I zig zagged my way to the last buoy, then made the turn. From an endurance stand point, I knew I could make it, my mind was not convinced. Blaine and I swam in together - and I was thrilled to head to the land based events after what seemed like an eternity in theriver. Congrats to you 3 milers - you are my heroes. My goal was to come in around 50 minutes on the bike. I came in at 49:07 - I was psyched with that. I love biking, fast slow, doesn't matter, I was happy to be on Maggie my Madone. (Yes, she has a name) Then the humbling run - my enemy much worse than the swim. I am the turtle of CMS track nights, and loathe the experience every week - I keep showing up, but mainly for the comraderie, and I know I wouldn't do that workout on my own. OH - and the super humbling part - I ran with a 13 year old - YEP 13. She talked the entire time, and I told her towards the end that her Mom wuoldn't want me in the picture at the finish and to go ahead and run in.....little does she know that was for my pride and not her Mom!!! Those damn numbers on your calf hurt your feelings sometimes!!!I hear people calling my name acrossed the river, I make the turn, and start heading in. My family surprised me and came down, and my little girl was screaming Mommy....that was really special. I give a big smile at the finish as I don't want Rebecca to post my race picture as worst race picture of the year. I finish the race in 1:55 and change - under 2 hours - SWEET. I pick my little girl up, hug my hubby and parents - and then Tracy Mac - tells me I wasn't running hard enough I could still talk.....boy does she keep it real!! Crash and burn high...right down the toilet...but she was right - I didn't push the run, and I needed to hear that. It has me motivated for the next sprint - although for my run time, the only place to go is better. (Giving you a hard time Tracy - and glad you keep it real - seriously)For my oscar finish - I want to thank Cindy and my Dad for all of their support and training- Rebecca for her swim sessions, Sean for his God awful run practices, the Warwick bunch for riding in horrible winter conditions, Jimmy for his encouragement and many emails, Blaine for his support, and Bob for his "Bob'isms". A big thank you to all CMS'ers, and it is awesome to see the green on the course. Plus the high fives and encouragement, everyone knows what I mean. Scared to death about the Eagleman swim, plan to smoke the bike - and use Kemp's run a pole walk a pole philosophy for the run. Signing off - the turtle of CMS.....but I'm still a CMS'er!!!