Last Triathlon of the Season

Tomorrow is my last triathlon of the season. It will mark the 10th year I having been doing triathlons. My first one was the Desert Grande in Casa Grande in November of 2000, which was a pool sprint. I had no training plan, other than the one I made up, and the only bike I had was a mountain bike. I was totally clueless. I had no one to support me or to cheer me on. I felt kind of tired and loopy during the run. The feeling of accomplishment was a high, though, and after this race I was never the same.

My race tomorrow is at Lake Pleasant again, which is a tough venue. It is the same transition area as the Prospector race I just did, but the course is more spread out and it isn't endless loops. The run and the bike are still very hilly. I don't expect great times and I am adopting the same attitude I had at the Prospector race, which is go hard, have fun and don't worry about the crappy results.

I always have a feeling of dread and anticipation before a race. Will things go wrong? Will I race poorly? Will this be the best race ever? Until I actually start the race, my nerves wear on me and I can't stand it. There seems to be a thousand things to do and things to remember to bring. It doesn't help that I have to get up at god awful hour in the pitch dark when I am half asleep and drive somewhere in the middle of nowhere. There are always the long porta potty lines when you urgently need to go or worse yet no porta potty near by when I need to go NOW. You have to drag a mound of equipment from your car to transition. Sometimes you freeze waiting around for your wave to start. Yet somehow it is worth it when you finally get to start.

So I am hoping that this race is a fitting mark to the end of the season and my ten years of doing these crazy races. I am hoping that there will be food left by the time I finish. I am hoping I won't be dead last. I am hoping I won't get a flat tire. (Praise be to the tire gods). I will be sad and relieved that I am going to put my wetsuit away until next year in a lonely, dark corner of the closet. With it, I can also put away the unpredictable anxiety of swimming in open water that sometimes makes me panic. Until next year.