As I wrote in my previous post I celebrated my 30th birthday on Friday. Although we celebrated a little more Saturday night, Friday was pretty mellow. Kerry and I enjoyed a nice dinner, a few girlfriends stopped by, but with the Turtleman triathlon early Saturday morning we were busy with the usual pre race ‘stuff’.
For some reason I had a hard time getting my head in the game all week for Turtleman. Maybe that happens when your doing your 11th race of the year, but regardless, I didn’t feel I was where I needed to be to have a good performance, and that sort of freaked me out. Kerry was able to get in at the last minute and engaged in a fun challenge with Coach Kris and his Ironman Canada campaign. I’ll let Kerry tell the story on his blog, but it certainly added to the fun come Saturday morning. AS race time drew near, and they made the announcement that it was actually wetsuit legal (official water temp was 79.999), I pulled out the rally cap and I was ready to go! I was initially devoured by everyone else in the Elite wave, but I finally got things together and pulled off a great swim. It was a huge PR for me in what felt like an accurate 1500m swim. I guess those tough swim sets from coach Jared are paying off (after a conversation with him a few months ago, I realized that the intervals were indeed for me and not actually typos like I thought-wishful thinking I suppose)!
I got out of T1 with the top guys, and therefore rode very hard and aggressively on the 21 mile pancake flat course. We had plenty of tight turns which I love to ‘go after’ but it was the final turn into the park where I failed my riding test. I really don’t know what happened, but I must have lost focus with the amazing spectators going crazy. I took the corner very HOT, and down I went. My bike slid out to the side and it seems every part of my body made contact with the asphalt. I did a quick body check, pulled myself off the ground and rolled myself into t2. I was still shaking/dizzy but luckily I had no mechanical pain, just plenty of blood oozing from the wounds. The adrenaline was flowing and I used every ounce of it to get through the 5 mile run. I guess all my xterra experience is good for something! I ran with my new race running partner NICK
for the majority of the run (we did the exact same thing at HOTL). Despite high levels of pain as sweat crept into the wounds, I stuck it out and picked up my first Turtleman title. 
I think the highlight from the race was when two little girls (must have been 5 years old), came running up to me with their mom to see how I was doing at the finish. Their mom said they saw me go down and couldn’t believe I got up and went on to win. They were simply adorable.
My dear friend Julie hosted a fun backyard BBQ birthday celebration Saturday night. I was still riding my high from the morning, enjoying the great company, and celebratory champagne so the effects of the crash had yet to set in…
HOWEVER, those effects came rushing in about 5am Sunday morning when I could hardly move. OMG- GETTING OLD SUX!! OK, this was real…no more of the ‘Oh I’m fine it’s just skin" comments, I couldn’t get my arm over my head and my right hip area was throbbing. I laid in bed for most of the morning, and couldn’t fathom doing much more than that. Eventually I got up and ran a few errands (I don’t think people are used to seeing adults with road rash everywhere-I could have used a shirt that said – YES I CRASHED, AND YES IT HURTS (but I won the fight). As I walked into the office monday morning it was much the same, but everyone there could easily guess what happened. Painful indeed, but it certainly led to some fun office chatter...oh yes, my new office nickname is SCRAPEY!As my range of motion slowly improves in my right shoulder, I’m getting very anxious to get back in the pool. I know... PATIENCE lady, and my priority should be to heel as quickly as possible. My elbows are also very tender and riding in aero position is currently unbearable. Luckily I have my monthly maintenance session with my Osteopath on Thursday, so I except to be functional again soon. In the grand scheme of things, I’m so thankful and LUCKY that it was not worse. I've heard too many frightful stories, and have stopped whining as a result. YES, this has been added to my blessings list that I count each day.
We have a 6 family camping trip coming up in a few days. This has been a tradition with Kerry and his friends for over 10 years now, and I’m shocked we were able to get it scheduled again this summer (it gets increasingly difficult as everyone's kids get older and more involved). The kids really look forward to this each year, and it should be quite a hoot…For the last few years we rented the entire hostel at Itasca State park , but this will be the first year in a long time that we’ve done it exclusively in tents without electricity. “SADLY” I have to miss Camp clean up... I'll be off to catch a ride with 6 roadtrip buddies en route to Cedar Rapids for Pigman Half Ironman on Sunday.
It should be an action packed weekend. Just the way I like it!
Here's my birthday cake- Jen knows the way to my tummy/heart!!
