Wednesday
7/11/12:
Tuesday night didn't result in the best sleep I'd ever
had. It could have been the nerves, the dreams, the
excitement…nonetheless at 4:30am, with only 6 hours of sleep under
my belt, it was time to head to the Marriott to be bussed to Camp
Pendleton. First though I knocked on Marcus' van door in the
parking lot to get my trail shoes. He drove himself and the
shoes down from Chico the night before and stayed in the van
because he didn't want to wake me up in the middle of the night
coming into the hotel room…what a guy! The bus ride was
pretty quiet as most of tried to catch a few more zzz's. I
had Head and the Heart, Band Of Horses, Amos Lee, Dave Matthews and
Jack Johnson in my ears trying to calm my nerves a bit.
Once we arrived, it was a relief to see that the ocean was in
good condition and it was going to be a go without danger of the
water. After some prep time it was 3,2,1…Go…all individual
athletes, men and women, running 500m through soft sand with fins
in hand toward the start of the swim. It was a bit of a
cluster getting the fins on and in the water, but once I was going,
I was way more comfortable than I remembered from last year.
About 200m in I figured out how to use the fins to my advantage and
actually passed some people (I didn't know I could everpassanyone
on a swim!). The transition from swim to bike took longer
than I would have liked, but I got on my bike and was in my comfort
zone. It was actually a VERY enjoyable…the scenery was great
and we could chat a bit on the bikes as we were making our way to
the dreaded 11K hill run. Riding a single speed bike was
definitely different from what I was used to…there was no gaining
speed on the downhills and once you hit a certain speed on the
flats, that was it…your legs were just spinning. The hills
are where I caught people.
(Pre Tri Registration...getting numbers, chips and
apparently I was taking a nap)
I saw the transition spot coming and prepped by unclipping my
helmet to toss off and thinking about how I was going to dismount
my bike to get up the last 150m hill for the end of Event 1 as
Jenny Davis was just in front of me and Christy Phillips was right
on my tail. Christy accidentally dropped her bike right where
I jumped off mine and I tripped over her bike, touching my hands
and knees to the asphalt. I jumped right up as she was kindly
apologizing as she rand up the hill and I did my best to catch
her. That 150m was honestly one of the hardest parts of the
entire event in my opinion! After that it became a hike with
intermittent runs up the first 2.5 miles. Then it was up and
down the rest of the run. On Tuesday, Dave Castro briefed us
that, from his experience, running the ups and walking the downs
was the best approach, but there was no way that I (or anyone else
I saw for that matter) was going to be running up the majority of
those hills. So it was a run down/hike up race with beautiful
views that distracted us from the burning quads, glutes and
calves. It almost didn't seem like a competition because we
were hiking/running with all the men competitors and everyone was
helping eachother get through it. I spent a good portion of
my 11K with Angie Pye and seriously we were laughing a lot of the
time...mainly with talk about how our butts better look good after
all this hiking. Ha!
(Finishing the swim...transitioning to bike)
Once crossing the finish line we had a little bit of time to hit
the ice baths, take in some fuel and change clothes before being
briefed on the O-Course. It was so much fun!! Hurdling
logs, scaling walls, balancing down logs, etc. After the
briefing the men heats went, followed by the women's. I was
pumped for this event because I consider myself a pretty athletic
person and with my background of being out in the woods and just
moving over odd obstacles, I thought this could be in my
wheelhouse. And it was…but not that day. My practice
run was WAY better than my attempt at the event. I missed my
first hip-over which set me back a bit but stayed composed and
caught up. Then I messed up again by missing my first attempt
at jumping over the high log. I got second in my heat, which
knocked me out of the bracket. I was so bummed out!
But, after having a quick minute to be mad at myself and have a
silent pity party, I realized it was so early in the competition
that no harm was done. I sat with Lindsey Smith and Rebecca
Voigt on the sidelines cheering the rest of the girls on.
Although it would have been way more fun to do, it was still an
exciting event to watch.
(Taking an ice bath with Cheryl Brost and Angie
Pye)
After the day was over and we were riding the bus home, I was
staring out the window in a daydream about what had just happened
that day. I did a triathlon! I've always wanted to do a
tri, but my fear of swimming has prevented me from following
through…no more! The most amazing part of the day though, was
the honor I felt to have had the opportunity to partake in a
CrossFit competition at Camp Pendleton with USMC cheering us on,
instructing us through the O-course and being a part of our
day. I can't thank each of these individuals enough for what
they do for our country and the time they took that day to make our
day forever memorable!
Absolutely exhausted, we took the 80mile bus ride back to the
Marriot, took of off our separate ways to call it a day. Day
1 of the 2012 Reebok CrossFit Games…check!