I have never felt more welcome at a race. Period. This sentiment was echoed by all the other guys and girls I talked to. The Challenge staff treated us like rockstars. I mean, it was crazy how nice they were, how genuinely interested and happy everyone was that we were there racing. This became much more evident later in the day.
The days before the race found the majority of Pros scrambling to find swimskins, as there was the very real possibility race day water temperatures were going to make it a non-wetsuit swim for us. I would like to thank Deb from HUUB for her willingness to help me out, and for being so nice. Deb let me borrow a swimskin that would sit in my backpack all day, thankfully. Even though we were allowed to wear wetsuits, it was a very ROUGH swim. I do not ever remember Lake Okanagan being that mad, and it sure made for very slow swim times, and a good amount of lake water ingestion for some of us.
Once done with the swim, my plan was to keep low, constant watts throughout the ride. No matter what. And I stuck to my plan. I will confess my legs were tired, and I wondered how the run was going to go, but I had done what I set out to do: let the race go and give myself a chance to REALLY run. I started the run dead last, and 5th female.
And run I did (at least for a little bit). Once I found my run legs, I started ticking 6:30s per mile, and started picking off people, and was well on my way to getting into the top10 within the first 8miles. Somewhere, somehow, I bruised my right foot, and it became painful enough to stop me dead on my tracks. My run became a walk, and it was only thanks to Elmar Heger that I got shuffling along again.
So there we were Elmar and I, walking, jogging, talking, 20some kilometers away from the finish... let me tell you- shuffling through a marathon is more painful than actually running a good one, mainly because thoughts of disappointment and negativity abound. I just wanted to be done... When I did cross the finish, something unexpected happened- I was greeted with smiles, and a hug, and was thanked for not quitting by both Kelly, Challenge pro liaison, and Felix, Challenge CEO. I spent some time in the medical tent, due to nutrition and hydration mishaps. And then I was able to take in the fantastic atmosphere around me.
Thank you Challenge for the absolutely awesome experience. Thank you Robert @ First Endurance for your continued support despite the hard knocks these last seasons. Thank you Mike, Su and Anja for letting me crash at your house again. And of course, thank you Theresa and Donovan, for all your understanding and patience and love and support. We will get it right....
thank you all for reading
jc
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