Friday, May 25, 2007

Butterflies...

...have taken over my stomach.

Tomorrow is my first race of the season, and I'm absurdly nervous. Why? I'm not sure. I know I've gotten a lot faster, but I'm willing to bet that everyone else has as well. This is a tiny local race. My coach doesn't see this as a big race; he has me training through it, but I'm still sweaty-palms, knotty-stomach nervous.

See, it's the same race I did last year as my first tri ever, so I'll have some real, concrete, same-course comparisons to use to measure my speed. Which is good.

But last year, I just went into these races thinking that if I didn't panic or drown on the swim, fall off the bike, or have an asthma attack on the run, it would be a good race. And fortunately, every race was a good race. This year is different. This year I think I can actually be competitive, especially at the shorter distances, and that has created a huge knot in my stomach. I also feel like I'll have a target on my back, since I'll be on my sweet new bike (whoo-hoo!) and wearing sponsor gear.

I know I have to race my own race. I've set time goals for myself, and if I meet those goals, I should do pretty well based on last year's results. Yeah, I know, you never know who is going to show up, and how fast they've gotten, but I'm hoping that my increases in speed from last year to this year prove to be pretty good. I've put the time in and done the training, and now I just have to trust my training and put my head down and go. Right?

4 comments:

seaducer said...

You are doing Hammonton right? I am also. It may not be a tri after all though, I stopped by the lake earlier this week to check the water temp (I don't have a wetsuit at this time...) and the lake was closed to swimming because of unsafe conditions. Apparently there was a fish kill? Anyway, don't be shocked if they cancel the swim.

However it works, you will be faster than me, but if you see me say hi, I will be wearing the Super Grover jersey...Drew

Bill said...

You hit the nail on the head in your last sentence.

Trust in your training, trust in your training, trust in your training. Oh, and trust in your coach.

Unknown said...

RIGHT!

(that's in response to your last sentence).

You are gonna kick butt. Go Team Stayput!!

Are you racing in your bike shorts? If so, let me know how that goes...

Organized Chaos said...

Thanks for the inspiration...I think I'm just about where you were at that memory...maybe in a few years I'll be training for an Ironman, too.