After getting out the the water at the WCOC Oliver Olympic triathlon and stumbling to the transition area I stood by my bike and sobbed. What do I do next… I am freezing, confused, demoralized. I looked up and there was Mark looking over the fence at me, encouraging me to get going, come on, finish this thing. I slowly flung my wetsuit over the rack, donned my bike gear, all the while blubbering. When I thought I was ready I looked up at Mark with a pathetic tear stained face and cried DO I HAVE EVERYTHING ON??? “Yes now get going!”

Of I went in a bit of a crowd with the Sprint distance athletes that had started the swim a considerable time after the Olympic athletes. At least I wasn’t completely alone starting the ride. All was well for a while until we reach the turn around point for the Sprint and all the sudden I was alone…, and I remained alone for the most part of the ride. It is difficult to ride alone, with nobody to catch or stay ahead of, you are truly racing yourself.

I did find that during the first bit of the ride I was still pretty demoralized from the swim experience, and I found myself having odd morbid thoughts. Like if I fell off my bike nobody would look down on me for having to pull out of the race. Having survived the harrowing swim I wasn’t going to let a silly 40km bike ride take me down. Besides I knew my family would be waiting for me along Blacksage road to cheer me on a take my picture. Better practice my smile.

As the ride went on I felt a bit more fluid and I even used the aerobars quite a bit. I even managed to catch up to a couple of people and pass them. I was super happy to round the corner to the transition area once again, but a bit concerned about setting off on the run course. Hello Lead Legs.

Stay tuned for the Run portion.

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