For those of you who have been following the Blog for a while, you know that Pleasant Prairie is where it all began for me in 2015. It’s always great to go back there for camps and races — even when things don’t go to plan…
After getting transition set up, we headed to the water for the group Para start. Although the time doesn’t reflect it, it was the best swim I’ve had at Pleasant Prairie. I will continue to work on figuring out how to resolve those issues.
After a normal T1, we headed out on the bike for what should have been a solid ride. However, less than a quarter mile in, something happened with the chain. So instead of having the normal 30 gears, we had 3 (from what Scott told me later). This made the bike an extremely challenging and draining one.
After a longer than usual bike, and a relatively normal T2, we headed out on the run. It was at this point the extra effort of the bike due to lack of gears caught up with me.
At about a quarter mile in, it became painful (mostly in my back) to run. So I tried going to a walk / run, which was still painful. So I then had to go to walking most of the course. It definitely wasn’t what I wanted or planned on, but it was the only safe way to finish. I did find a way to jog in through the finish as normal though (although I was in pain after that).
While it wasn’t the race I had planned, I’m grateful to Scott for guiding and all his help. I’m also grateful to Dare2Tri for all their help and support.
I will take some time to fully recover after this race to ensure that I’m at 100% heading into the second half of my season. All of my “A races” are still to come, which means recovery and then lots more training.
