So...I RACED! And Then I Went To Placid To Ride Up Hills.

Yup.  The title pretty much says it all.

My friend Joe and I made the 7.5 (or 8.5...er...maybe 9.5, okay, it took us like 12) hour drive from Boston to Cambridge, MD for Eaglman 70.3.  Joe is about 134 years younger than me so he didn't know any of the songs on the 80s pop Pandora station.  I found this to be quite alarming.  We solved this problem by listening to the Justin Timberlake station for many, many, MANY hours straight.  This station happens to play a lot of 'N Sync.  We heard the song Girlfriend so many times that it's permanently burned into my memory.  This makes me sad.  The George Washington Bridge in NYC also makes me sad.

ANYWAY, we had a great time.  We got to Maryland and it was hot, humid and windy.  That pretty much sums up Eagleman.  I hadn't raced in 9 months.  I was afraid of all sorts of things.  Like that I forgot how to race.  That I forgot how to hurt.  That I forgot how to go hard.  And most importantly, that I forgot what order the sports go in.  It would be a shame to mess that one up.

But then the gun went off and I just knew.  Maybe my fitness isn't quite there yet but my heart and head were!  That's the more important piece of the puzzle, in my opinion.  I got out of the water 9th.  Got off the bike 4th.  And then ran into 2nd.  I was pleased as punch.  For a good result, for sure.  But also just because I GOT TO RACE.  And because it felt good.  And because I still loved it like I always have.

If it looks like I'm melting, it's because I am.

So that was that.

We drove the 10,000 hours home.  I MIGHT have had to pull over to sleep at a rest stop for 20 minutes in Connecticut at 2 am.  #powernap  But we made it.  Barely.

A few days later my roommate Marie and I loaded up the little red car and headed north (north?  or west?  I'm not good with directions...) to Lake Placid.  We are both doing IMLP and she was doing a QT2 camp while I (and another friend Lauren) did our own little training camp.  

Lake Placid is beautiful.  Absolutely breathtaking.  

Not a bad place to swim.

Also not a bad place to do work.

Annnnnd not a bad place to have fun either.

I swam the course twice, biked the course twice and ran the course as well.  It was a motivating and awesome place to train.  The weather was beautiful.  We had fun.  We stayed on top of a huge hill and I biked up that dang hill every day.  #ouch 

And now, I'm back home and back to training and regular life.  Feels good to be home.  #lifeatthe441