Boulder Sprint Race Report

Finally, the Boulder Sprint Race Report

Swim: 20:35
Bike: 53:18
Run: 28:08
Total: 1:52:33

So a few thoughts.  I obviously did end up doing the race; and I did better than I thought I would.  I've never been a strong swimmer, and since I wasn't really able to kick during this swim, my time was almost exactly what I predicted it would be
The thing that really killed me were the transitions (6:57 and 3:52).  The first one was absolutely horrible due to my struggles in getting on my ankle brace.  I'm not going to lie, it hurt to get it over my foot.  That should have been a sign that I shouldn't be doing the race, but if I listened to my body all the time I'd be sitting on my couch and eating cheetos 24/7 and 300 pounds.

But disregarding my initial protests, I loved being on my bike.  After the initial pain of getting out of transition and onto the bike, my ankles didn't really bother me at all.  So for 53:18 I felt like I had a complete and whole body.  Plenty of people passed me, but 19.4 mph made me happy anyway.  And everytime someone passed me, I thought, "Yeah, well you don't have gimpy ankles and have a functioning thyroid."  Illogical since my ankles were bothering me at that point, but I like pretending that if I didn't have these issues I'd be cycling at an entirely realistic 30mph average.

Finally,the run.  I put on my other ankle brace (for my less injured ankle) and started out walking as intended.  And then I watched people pass me.  And I did some calculations; if I continued with my limping walk, it would probably take an hour to finish the stupid course.  And then I reasoned, well, 30 minutes abusing my poor ankles was clearly worse than spending an hour abusing my poor ankles only slightly less.  So I broke into what I thought was a slow jog.  And finished with a 9:04 pace, although I suspect the course was short.

Of course, the next day I paid for my stubborness with barely being able to walk, but it seemed worth it at the time.  Dumb, I know.  But apparently I have a psycho competitive side inside me.  Unfortunately, I did "lose" to my friend by 3:00...but there's always next time!