Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Yup, we had some of those, they were good- so was the whole weekend :)
We got into Oxnard around 2:30, in time to pick up packets and make a "fast" drive to the hotel to check in before Daniel's Jr. meeting at 4:15. Well, thanks to my mom and brother screaming at me to hurry up (as opposed to my mother's frantic yells when I'm on the freeway "we're going to die", "slow down damnit!"), I got pulled over for going 51 on a 30. The officer didn't care that my mom as passenger was ordering me to step on it, he said it's my fault no matter what and to ignore such requests from passengers in the future. Uhhm, okay, you try driving while my mom and brother scream to go faster, then we'll see who's good at shutting out random noise.
Needless to say, we got to the hotel but made it 10mins late to the meeting- ha, whatever, not my fault and not my meeting!

After the pre-race ordeal was over, we headed down the Harbor to Whale's Tail for a delicious dinner. Back in the hotel, I quickly passed out ready for a 4:30am wake up. I consider myself lucky in that I have very screwed up sleep (little hrs, random wake ups), but the night of a race you can bet on me being OUT until the alarm goes off. My mom dropped me off and then went back to organize Daniel as he had an 11am start which meant get to the site not until 9. I'm a big girl, I don't need race support ;)
I got help airing up the disc which I was stoked to use as I'd never done so before. After transition was set up, I got in a little warm up and headed to the start. The males all went in one first wave, then all the females. THANK GOD!!! Had it been just an "elite wave" I might have hidden and not raced, that water was scary- all dark and boeys way the hell out there.

Swim- I was in the front into the water with about 3 other girls, making our way to the big far yellow boey. Then suddenly about 1-2min into swimming I sight and the boey that had been straight ahead was suddenly not closer just more to the left. Great, a current. Needless to say, I wasn't one of the slow ones out of the water and still swam a 31!! hahaha That's my HIM swim!

Okay, whatever, I'm out and didn't get eaten by a shark, sweet. I get on the bike and immediately the little stickers Hank gave me to cover the disc/valve hole were flapping like crazy. So, unfortunately I had to stop my new found disc-speed and take them off. After that the bike was awesome and a blast.

Onto the run I felt great but really really really had to pee. I cannot do that while riding in an Oly, maybe a half and yes an IM but not while cycling pretty hard effort. My stupid decision was to run into the san dunes and pee there. Dumbass!! I got like 2lbs of sand in my shoes. Somehow it slowly came out as I continued running. I felt really good on the run, had one slight knee scare on the second loop- just a little sudden pain- but it was nothing so on I went to the finish.

I came in 4th female, not bad ;) It was a fun, flat course, but seriously doubt I'll race that event again because of the swim. I love the ocean, but I truly prefer ocean swim be kept to <1km, or be in Hawaii or Caribbean-like waters.

After my race was over, I found my mom and brother, wished my bro good luck and since he was in his bitchy-pre-race-mom-and-sister-please-get-away-from-me mood, my mom and I hit up the BEST EVERRRR Sunday brunch they had going on in the host hotel. I had 30min to get down to business before he started and I did just that!

It was the best post-race meal I've had: Smoked salmon w/ capers and all, salad, grilled vegetables, and one thousand rounds of crab legs and peel/eat shrimp with lots of Tabasco and lemmons :D!! Oh yes, and Champagne.

We made it just in time to see the whole race, it was incredible. Those kids are so intense and so freaking BEAST! Daniel came out of the water in the 3rd pack- the first was the 2 predicted winners- Kanute and McDowell- the second a big group that would hold chase on the bike. Daniel managed to get into the chase pack on the bike but got dropped the second loop of four. Coming into transition he ran one of the fastest times, and made up plenty of ground finishing in 12th.

I'm super proud of him in his first year racing Junior, he was one of the, if not the youngest of them and had an incredible finish. Next week he'll do AG Sprint Nat's in Newport and then he's out of SoCal heading to CO Springs for Jr. Elite Nats. It's really cool seeing him fight so hard and totally love the sport.

Anyway, after Daniel got his chance to bankrupt the Sunday Brunch, we drove back home, or shall I say I drove back and collapsed into bed.

Now a big week ahead as I officially being Kona training today. Time to pile in the volume, the specificity, and use some of the speed from these race efforts and a couple more to come to complement the longer stuff.

October is oh so close!!!!