Setting the stage for my first race of the summer

The triathlon season has officially started and I jumped in with both feet. Before my race report I have to give you some background on the crazy week I had prior to the race.

Wednesday May 3 - I spend most of the day traveling to Dallas for a big meeting the following day. I had some delicious tamales and got to relax in the hot tub but I was still up late working on my presentation.

Thursday May 4 - Have a great morning of meetings, eat the most AWESOME and AUTHENTIC mexican food I've ever had for lunch, head into another meeting and then a quick stop at the grassy knoll for my co-worker who's a major Kennedy conspiracy theorist. I'd never been so it was interesting to see. Head back to the airport to catch up on emails, voicemails and the like before jumping on a plane to San Antonio. After finally checking into the hotel at close to 9pm, my co-worker Steve and I went to get dinner and were tired and hungry so we just went to Dennys where we had french toast and milkshakes - YUM! At 11pm we started fine-tuning our presentation and didn't finish until close to 1:30am at which point the cable tv had gone out and we were in the midst of a massive thunder storm complete with torrential rain, thunder and lightening.

Friday May 5 - My birthday!!!! So I'm up at 6am after about 4 hours of sleep, ugh! Packed and off to Dennys again for breakfast and a review with the rest of the team of the presentation Steve and I had done the night before. We head to the meeting which turned out not to be what we were expecting and rendered this part of trip pointless. We debriefed and celebrated my birthday at the San Antonio Riverwalk which was cool to see. We also saw the Alamo but it was like 95 out and we were all wearing business suits. Double ugh! So I'm burning up, out walking around when I should be resting prior to my race, and in San Antonio instead of at home on my birthday. Crazy. We head to the airport, do some more catching up on emails and calls then head for the plane.

Due to a plane change we were going home via LAX and had gotten upgraded to first class from LAX to PDX which was going to be sweet! Seeing as this is my lucky day, we land in LA at 5:15pm at Gate 83 and our plane to Portland is departing from Gate 73 at 5:21pm. I just wanted to get home so I made a run for it. I ran as hard and fast as I could (given I was in a suit and carrying like a 30lb computer bag on my back). I actually had to slip my sandals off and run barefoot because I was running so fast that they were slipping off. I literally was 2 gates away when they announced this was the final boarding call to Portland. I felt like I was in a movie, I'm running towards the gate like "Wait, hold the plane". I made it in the nick of time and then proceeded to stall searching for my boarding pass, putting my shoes on etc in the hopes that my manager and Steve would catch up. They did and we all settled in for the flight.

I would definitely not recommend running through an airport going totally anaerobic the night before a race. Oy, my feet were killing me and I was tired but I really just wanted to get home. As it turns out the baggage handlers weren't as quick between the gates as we were and my luggage didn't arrive. Thankfully I was resting while I was on this trip because usually I pack my running shoes in my suitcase. OMG that would have been a disaster. I arranged for them to deliver my bag the next day and headed home.

I was greeted with beautiful tulips (my favorite flower) and a very sappy birthday card from Preston who clearly missed getting to spend my birthday with me :( I felt the same way. After a snack, a quick check of all my racing gear we set the alarm for 5:30am and headed to bed.

Whew, what a week and I haven't even raced yet.