Tuesday, August 24, 2010

One In The Books

Finished,terminé,finito

After almost a full year of sporting a big fat ZERO in my racing log, I finally removed the velcro attaching my feet to the side of the ledge I was firmly secured to and......

jumped!


It felt WEIRD. I'm a spectator.
A picture taker. 
A volunteer.
A participant??.......did I say it felt weird? It did.

I had a stupid little smile on my face as I filled my jet stream bottle and
set up my neat and tidy square of a transition space. Good.. I haven't forgotten that.

Was I nervous? Strangely no.  Not in the least.  I have a good feeling of where my fitness is at this point and this was purely  "testing the water"  just getting out there and moving from the chronic injury sidelines to doing what I love and miss.

Granite Man up in Wofeboro NH was my testing ground this past Saturday.  I like to refer it to THE-WE DIDN'T GET INTO TIMBERMAN- BOO HOO -Race on the other side of Lake Winnipesaukee. The Fray. The old school,non-conformists, the anti M-Dot crowd.  Not me so much as Timberman is one of my favorite races but the rest of the racing field certainly felt that way.  I was HAPPY as a clam to blend in to 200 athletes who I've never met or raced with.  No whining was heard about the non-wetsuit swim, the sandy beach transition, the limited food selection or the non printed swim caps. None of that. Just the simplicity that comes with a non corporate small home town race venue. No wrist bands, no long porta potty lines, no USAT card/ID needed at check in.

Granite Man is in it's 29th year. Just a fun simple, chip timed, no frills  (wicked hilly..gasp)race


I  swam.
I biked.
I ran.


I finished.
I smiled.
I scored  some Granite.
I have much to work on but SO happy and thankful to be out there
again.

17 comments:

Sue said...

i was wondering what you did last weekend:) good for you!! luv a good stone:)

Jennifer Harrison said...

YES! I was wondering if you were going to race - nice work, E. Just happy you are out there and feeling good...it'll come!

Unknown said...

Congrats on getting back to the start & finish line!
Tracy

RunningWhit said...

Congrats on getting back to racing. Glad your recovery is going well.

Anonymous said...

I felt damn sure that that was't suitable attire for fishing! :)

Beautiful.

I returned to tri for the first time in three years a couple of weekends ago. I can relate! Weird but familiar, comforting almost were the feeling I had as I set myself up in T1 trying desperatly to remember the lessons I had learned through experience lost.

Sounds like such a cool race!

Great work on the smile!

Jamie said...

Woohoo! Welcome back to the racing world Elaine.

Rebecca DeWire said...

That must be an awesome feeling to be out there racing again! Congrats!

Alisa said...

Way to get out there!

GoBigGreen said...

I need to learn to write RR's from you. Mine are all.."blahblahblah, and then there was this crack in the sidewalk with ants, and blahblahblah"
AWESOME!!! so happy you are back with a smile.

GZ said...

Nice. Nothing like toe-ing the line and getting it done.

GetBackJoJo said...

Congrats! That is great! Yah!!

Anonymous said...

I am SOOO proud of you for jumping back in-and coming out with hardware. Great Job :)

goSonja said...

yea!!!! best post of the day. I'm so happy for you!

n8 said...

all you got for first place was that rinky dinky lil trophy?

Wess said...

Awesome TGP! Very happy for you!
And to come home with some hardware... always a nice icing on the cake! Congrats!

Anonymous said...

That's my girl!

Trigirlpink said...

Mom, I know that's you Ms... Anonymous. Just registers as Trigirlpink's mom. :-D