well, here we are. The biggest Tri I’ve attempted is the day after tomorrow. The Nautica South Beach Triathlon. I’m attempting the “Classic” distance. This is apparently Nautica speak for “almost an International/Olympic, but not quite. But pretty dang close. Ha Ha. Sucks to be you, Sprinters”. Or something like that. It’s an 800 yard swim, a 19 mile bike and a 4 mile run. The longest one I’ve done is the Key West Tri which was an 800 yard swim, a 12 mile Bike and a 5K run. Oh boy. I, admittedly, didn’t look very closely at the race description when I signed up for it. Good thing, I didn’t. I’m ok with the swim. I’ve done it before in pretty gnarly conditions and survived. I feel like I can swim (slowly) forever. Not psyched about the 4mile run. If you know me, you know I’m a horrible runner. But, I have improved and I know at the very least, I can walk it. And then there’s the bike. Oh the bike. There are a couple of issues with it. First of all, it’s 19 miles. Not a lot to all you crazy bikers down here (and you, Davey Dave B), but to me, it’s a lot. Though I’ve done my Sugarloaf runs and my beach loops, it’s a lot for me to do especially after having just swum half a mile. Then there’s the fact that it’s 19 miles over hills! well, bridges really, but hills to this gal! I live in Key West, the epitome of flat. I have visions of me getting like a quarter of the way up the first bridge and just toppling over. Or, having such trouble that I miss the cut off. Yikes. This girl is scared that she won’t be able to do it. 

And then there’s the injury(s). Last week I did the Smokin’ Tuna 5k. Much to my chagrin, it was an off road course through the trails around Ft Zach. In fact it was 2 loops around Ft Zach. Well, this clumsy girl tripped over a rock while doing her patented run/shuffle on the first loop. I went down hard. Fell on my knees, ripped my running pants, scraped up my palms and my left knee. Luckily, and I’m sure to the surprise of the folks around me, I’m used to falling and was able to pop right back up rather quickly. Quite the skill I’ve honed over the years. As I started walking and tried not to cry like a baby over the disappointment, I noticed that my left hip was killing me. I ran a bit once I got to pavement again, but then walked for loop two. I most definitely thought about quitting. And in hindsight, I probably should’ve, but I just had to finish.

Over the next few days, the pain in my left hip was pretty bad. I also had a little pain in my right knee and a nasty bruise to pretty it all up. I didn’t do much working out. On Wednesday I woke up with, HOORAY, no pain in my left hip (really, it was my left glute. My ass, ok?! I hurt my ass!) I went for a swim, then met my trainer Bill for our usual Wednesday session. That’s when my old right hip injury re-emerged and I had a total meltdown. I was so busy trying not to hurt my left side that I overused my right and my hip pain flared up sending pain up and down my right side. We spent most of the session, trying to talk me out of hurling myself out the door into traffic. Wednesday night had me awake in tremendous pain. I didn’t workout yesterday and today was mainly stretching with Bill. Did I mention that I lost 3 days last week to a stomach bug? Yup, not really the buildup to Nautica I was hoping for. I know, I know. I’m supposed to be tapering and you can’t cram for a race, but still. Hasn’t done much for my confidence level in a race I already feel like is out of my league.

But into South Beach I’ll go. My goal is to just finish (as always). I’m hoping for 3 hours, but again, I’ll settle for finishing.  and I hope nothing else goes wrong!