Cedar Point: The After

You can catch up with the previous few posts if needed but summary.

almost did not make it to Ohio to race
did make it to Ohio to race and did not get sick
had a fantastic fun day and loved every minute of it
crossed the finish line with a smile

...My family had been chasing me around all day and I could tell they were tired. My body was feeling good and my spirits were high. I got a ton of congratulatory hugs from my amazing Rev3 team mates and enjoyed the energy of the finish line. My teammate, Kely, confirmed that I got second on my age group!

Best Team EVA! My girls Tonia and Brit post race

Memories of THIS spot forever

My teammate, Anne.
She was a total rockstar helping me out with special needs
on the run AND with a special message from Coach Shaprie.
 Love you Anne, thank you SO MUCH for your awesomeness!

The minute I sat down, I had to text Coach and tell her about the day! I called my parents but it was obvious that they were glad I was done and had been watching every move I made all day. I love that I have always had them in my corner for this journey!!

I made my way into the retail tent where Casey and Christine held up a sheet so I could change out of my tri kit and into some clean, dry clothes. My feet were pretty beat up and I could see how many pretty deep blisters I actually had developed over the course of the run. I also had a pretty knarly case of "undercarriage chafe" going on (which, thankfully the aid stations were very well stocked with TriSlide).

We hung out at the finish line for a bit and Lola started to get really tired, as was Casey (rightfully, so) and so gathered up my stuff, got my beautiful QR out of transition and I said goodnight to my team mates. As much as I wanted to stay and cheer everyone in, I also needed to let my family relax and chill. It was a long day for them too! The thought of lounging around and getting some food sounded really good to me! We stopped at Friendly's for burgers and ice cream and got back to the hotel. I took a much needed bath the minute we got in...I had a hard time calming down even though I was tired. Finally, sleep came and I woke up waaaay too early.

We were planning on heading back to Maine very early in the morning. I was not expecting to have an awards ceremony to attend so we changed our plans and packed up the car, had a bit of breakfast and headed back to the park for the awards.

It was a nice way to say farewell to the weekend of ups and downs (literally) and to walk along the shore of Lake Erie. I recalled being there last year and how I could not wait to race here and it was already over.

Before my race, I got a message from a local friend, Erika. She told me that she was passing along a bit of advice she received before her first 140.6 - that it was a long day that would go by too fast. She was right...absolutely right. The day flew by.

 We got back to Cedar Point and joined the Rev3 Peeps for the awards ceremony!

Such cool bling--my bumper car finishers medal fits into the AG award. And the medal lights up!

we were hungry!

with Michael from TEAM FIGHT. CP was his first full and he rocked it!

saying goodbye to Lake Erie! See you in 2014

RUN LOLA RUN

It was not until I was settled into the van for the long ride home that I did a little inventory.

That blister that was hurting during the run? yeah...it was REALLY BAD. So were the other 5 blisters that cooked up. I have no idea how I was so oblivious to these.

 Each pinky toe on the inside was completely blistered...there were others too but I did not take pics of those.  Seriously, it's three weeks out from the race and these suckers are still healing. That one blister must have annihilated 14 layers of skin...

I had some pretty epic chafing like I've never had before. I remembered asking for TriSlide at one of the aid stations on the run and lubing up the undercarriage again while running but by then the damage was really done.

I was in SHOCK to see the actual damage. Yes, I took pictures. I really, really want to put them up too!! So inappropriate... My husband was HORRIFIED that I was taking pics of this mess but I wanted to remember it forever. Ha ha ha ha. I did show some friends the pics and/or the actual damage and one comment was "what the hell did you do??"

Lola and I had as much fun as we could on the drive home and I took turns driving with Casey.

someone was STOKED to have ROOTBEER

Lola, a self portrait of her toes

Bobby and Casey

In upstate NY, we stopped to see a life long friend, Bobby. It was nice to catch up with him and of course, Lola was entertaining us as usual.

Finally...we were almost home! Here we are 26 miles from home

I told Casey to just drop me off and I could just run the rest of the way home...no big deal, right!?

__________________________________

Just before Cedar Point I was considering doing another full in December. I wanted to see how things went at CP before I decided. I consulted with Coach and the timing worked so it was thumbs up. Back to back fulls were planned.

In the weeks that have followed Cedar Point, I felt great physically and mentally. I was excited to tackle 140.6 again with new goals. Lola started school, all day Kindergarten. Worked picked up for me-more classes, more clients and a new Coaching position with the swim team. My days were jammed packed with busy. Lola was (and still is a bit) struggling with being away from me all day.

I started to feel selfish for taking time away from her when she needed me. I questioned my motivation for another race so soon when there were NEW challenges taking my time and attention. I called Coach and chatted with her.

So as much as I want to go to California and do another full, my daughter needs me and my attention right now. My family has been super supportive with the training time all summer and now is time I can give a little of my time back to them. I have my whole life to race and I will only have my 4 year old Lola right now.

And I am OK with it. I have a couple more trips with Rev3 planned for this season and I have not ruled out going to Cali to race a different distance. I love going long but maybe it's time to shift gears for a bit.

Shorter. Harder. Faster.

It's not the off season yet....