Chisago Lakes Tri

NOTE: PICTURES TO COME

this past Sunday was the chisago lakes tri...my all time favorite one to take part in. it was the first TRI i took part in last summer when i became a TRI athlete! goodness!!! and the week before it God really wanted to get my attention. last Tuesday i pulled my hamstring while out on a nice short slow jog with a friend. at first i didn't think much of it- it didn't really hurt that bad. that is until i woke up the next morning and couldn't walk. so- spent the next couple of days trying to heal and stay off the leg in high hopes that i would be fine for the TRI. Friday i went for a trial jog and lasted 3 minutes...not a good sign. Saturday morning i woke up and had a small fever and a head cold. Nice timing! the fever i didn't really care about but the head cold and the cough that started could be a issue for race day. so...again, i laid low all day and hoped and hoped that I'd be ok come Sunday morning.
Sunday morning.....still had a cold but seemed to kill it for the time being with enough drugs. the leg on the other hand was going to be a challenge. so- i set my mind to doing the best i could do on the swim and the bike and just figure out the run when it came.
the swim was good. 1/4 mile in 12:00 minutes. although a bunch of us racer all agreed that it was longer than a 1/4 mile. i used zero legs while swimming and hoped if i saved them I'd be able to bike hard and maybe, just maybe, run! i kicked (excuse the word) ass on the bike. 20.5 miles in 1 hour and 8 minutes...which means i averaged about 19.3 miles per hour. i was very happy with that. compared to last years tri i took about 11 minutes off my bike time! than the run. i knew once i got off the bike that running was going to be nearly impossible. my good friends Jen, Sara and Ben came along to watch and support me. Sara started to walk the 3.1 miles with me. at about mile 1 i decided to to try to jog. went for about 3-4 minutes and got a cramp in my lower butt....Sara had to rub it out! it hurt so bad i actually was in tears....and for those of you that know me it takes a lot to bring tears to my eyes. so we walked til mile 2.1....and i looked at Sara and said..."i am finishing this thing in under 50 minutes, i don't care how bad it hurts. so we took off jogging. i am pretty sure i cried most of the time, and had a cramp in my leg the whole time- but managed to finish the run portion in 48 minutes. which is a horrible time, but i knew it was going to be. total- i finished the whole TRI in 2 hours 15 minutes. my goal was to finish under 2 hours. but- i guess!!!!! i will give myself a little slack. I know God is teaching me something- i am just not sure what it is yet. i was humbled....and thankful that i finished. and was very happy with my swim and bike...just got work on that run! anyhow. pics to come!