This was my next big challenge after completing my first marathon and first olympic triathlon. I was diagnosed with a tibia stress fracture after the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in April. This made my training difficult because I couldn't run or get on a bike for a month. My focus during this time concentrated on swimming, I was walking to the gym pool on crutches and spending a lot of time at the whirlpool. After a month, I started to get on the spinning bike but I could not push it as hard as I wanted to because I could feel some soreness in my leg. Around late May, I decided to give my leg a test drive. After a few miles, I knew my leg wasn't right yet, I was still experiencing pain. It was really a game time decision on whether I would be able to even get to the starting line.
The week of the race my leg felt a lot better but not 100% yet. I decided to head to Cambridge on Saturday afternoon after the world cup game. I got there and it seemed that most people had been to the package pick up area already. I still had one hour to rack my bike before the area closed. I got the bike out of the car and started checking the tires and decided to put some more air to the back tire. As soon as I did that the tire just exploded. No reason to worry since I had brought two extra tubes. However, I didn't the clip to get the tube out. Fortunately, I got help from some guys in the parking lot doing their last minute tune ups. The guys noticed that something was wrong with my back tire like there was something stopping the normal flow. I went back to package pick up area because they had race mechanics there. I was told they had all the equipment in the van and it was impossible for them to help out. They sent me to a bike shop in town but I never found the place. I decided to head over to my hotel in Easton, MD but before that I decided to head over to a diner and have some spagetti dinner.
I drove to the parking lot where we were instructed to take the shuttle busses to the race. As I walked to the bus someone starting saying that wetsuits were not allowed because the water was too warm. I felt sick at that moment because I knew swimming was not my strongest area, specially since I had not trained in open water without a wetsuit. Once I got to the race, the nature of this challenge hit me. How am I gonna do this with a leg that's not 100 percent, no wetsuit, and a bad tire. I met up with some DC tri people and that encourage me a little bit, at least I wasn't gonna be alone out there. Well, I checked my tires on race day and they were fine, yes, the back tire had some issues but who cares I didn't have time to fix it.
The swim start got delayed because of some issues. My wave was called and I was as nervous as I have ever been in my entire life. The water was choppy, the day was a little cloudy, and some self doubt started to creep in. The fist half I muscle through it even though I knew that was a bad idea. I was a little disoriented at midway but I kept going even after being kicked and slapped a few times here and there. I looked at my watch and the 70 minute limit was approaching, I started to muscle through again and again. I got to the swim finish with 5 minutes before the cutoff time.
At least before getting on the bike, I didn't have to take off my swimsuit.
