I have a huge HICKEY!

Bad things might happen if you wake up at 4:30 in the morning.

So yeah, I have a hickey. A huge hickey on my neck. It hurts like a bitch, but I'm kind of proud of it. In fact today, at work, I wore my hair up so everyone would see it. Its from my new love. I got rid of the old guy because it was just too small, and as it turns out, size does matter. So I upgraded to a bigger and better model, and I tell you, a little bit bigger made a world of difference in my swim. Swim? Yes, swim, my new WETSUIT, made a world of difference in my swim. What did you think I was talking about ...?

Anyway, get your mind out of the gutter ...

This past weekend was possibly my final tri of the season (sort of, there might be one more informal, impromptu one, but for all intents and purposes it was the final tri of the season). The water was going to be cold enough that most people would be wearing wetsuits, and since we've established that my old wetsuit was the cause of most of my open water issues I decided to upgrade. I went to a store and paid full price for this guy. I even had a wetsuit expert of sorts helping me. It was interesting. I tried on three suits (which I really don't recommend. ever. it was perhaps expected that i would be sweating profusely by the time I put the third suit on, but my hands? they were sooo sore ... almost more sore than the rest of my body today, after the tri ... and rubbed raw in two places that i apparently over used in an attempt to not rip the wetsuit) and my expert friend determined that my old guy was in fact too small. He initially thought I should get (and I really wanted to get) this cool women's specific model because it had pretty pink accents. But, I am apparently not women's specific enough (or as the expert guy said "its kind of big in the chest") so I wound up with the cheapest blue 70 wetsuit in a size S/M. It seemed like it would work, but I wanted to try it once before jumping into the water Sunday morning.

You call this calm?

Sara and I made it to the race sight around 2 o'clock on Saturday. The race had a day before pick up and was 2.5 hours from our homes so we had to travel the day before. The plan was to go straight to the race sight so that one or both of us could go for a pre-race swim. But this purportedly calm bay water was choppy and not welcoming at all. I did not want to put Sara in a position to have to save me if I drowned so I decided to forgo the swim. So yeah, good things don't happen when they revolve around a 4:30 am wake up. Fortunately, we had 16 hours for the wind to die down.

You call this a football game?

After packet pick up we headed to the hotel (much, much nicer than the extended stay america which is what all triathlon weekend hotels will forever be compared to) and settled in to watch our college team play football. So.not.fun. I have never played football in my life but I think I could have played better than our team. At half time I couldn't take it anymore so we decided to watch the rest of the game from a bar while we ate dinner. Yeah, the game was so depressing that the bartender refused to put it on. Needless to say we lost.

Your oatmeal is exploding ...

Pre race nutrition did not go smoothly in room 32. Sara's oatmeal exploded and she opted for a granola bar. I forgot to get the ultra-fuel that I usually drink pre race with a cliff bar. I substituted gatorade which tasted much better but probably had 1/5 of the calories.

Does anyone have a flashlight?

It was DARK when we arrived back at the race sight. So dark that we couldn't tell if the water had calmed down. Many people brought flashlights and running head lamp things. Not us. Next time. I scored a key end spot in transition and set up my spot ... I spent a fair amount of time making sure that my front wheel that needs to come off when I transport my bike was on properly and the brakes were not rubbing. I kind of suspect they were rubbing in the last tri and was hoping for a more enjoyable bike this time around.

The hour or so before that start went quickly. Long port-a-pottie lines and tedious wet suit shimmying made the time fly I guess. Some random girl asked me to help her apply copious amounts of body glide to her neck. If only I had asked her to return the favor.

I'm not even showered this early on a work day ...

Our wave went off at 6:44 am. Dear lord. This was my fist in water start where I couldn't stand and my first time getting the new wetsuit wet. With the old wetsuit I never felt that it added that much buoyancy. But this thing ... it was like wearing swimmies. Just bobbing along waiting to be told to start. I probably could have positioned myself up a bit more if I kept my off to the side position. But given my typical under trained not in it to win it state I hung back ... next year with a bit more confidence I'm going to try some more aggressive swim placement. Maybe.

[to be continued ... among other things, i'm waiting on official times, i'm sure they'll be impressive]