“When you fall off the horse, get back on.” – Unknown (but well know saying)
If you’ve read my last blog from Leon’s, you know that the horse threw me… hard. And to put it in perspective, of the less than 5 DNFs I’ve had to this point, Leon’s 2022 is the only one where I let something I could have controlled take me out. Please read the prior blog if you want to learn more.
After having time to swim with my guide (Danny) as part of the clinic, we did the bike fit / practice. It’s probably the only time that a goose has taken out a tire (we had a flat because of having swerve to miss geese. I’ll spare you all the 20+ page rant about how I feel about geese…) He was able to get all of that fixed before the race though.
During practice, I did not notice any issues with the wetsuit. Things seemed to work like it had in prior races. I think it had been about a year since I had swam in it last. And with the extremely bruised ribs at that point, I can’t make an exact comparison. However, during the swim on Sunday, I kept losing breath and having to stop. It was as if the wetsuit was constricting my breath, and tight just at the rib cage…
After finally making it out of the water, and through a normal T1, we headed out for the bike. After a decent, normal bike, we headed out for the run once T2 was complete.
While there wasn’t as much humidity (especially on the “steel bridge”) and the running bottle helped, it wasn’t as smooth of a run as I’d hoped. There were stretches of solid running. But then I’d hit the “red line” and have to walk to catch my breath.
While this wasn’t how I envisioned my return to Leon’s, we did make it through safely. I did also earn my third Podium of the Series at Leon’s.
One real disappointment of the day was that I did not see the photographer who had followed me through 2022. I still vividly remember her finding me as Lee and I was walking back after the DNF and saying that she had taken photos of us each year (and wanting one even though we had DNFed.)
Thanks to Dare2Tri for all of their support, and to Danny for guiding and all his support!
