Race Coverage

Sometimes Your Fears Are in Your Head...

Wednesday, 28 June 2017 09:10

By Julia Weisbecker (juia-gobiggreen.blogspot.com)

Liberty Race Report - Saturday June 10 was the Liberty OLY. I have done this race umpteen times. I have raced the half iron distance in rain, hail, sleet, and high 40 deg temps. Not fun. I Remember running 13.1 miles on calves that were so cold, that my legs were literally trashed for 2 weeks after. Not fun....

So when saturday's forecast was for heat ( which we had last year) plus high winds, you sorta go: Ok whatever. Adapt. Make it a training day. Whatever you need to do to get to the finish. My marching orders were to keep this race under control. I am not sandbagging when i tell you my running has been very slight the last few months. Its been all about keeping my body, my back especially happy. I came into this race with two runs of 50 minutes as my long runs. So to say i had low expectations is an understatement. The plan wasn't to kill it ( very challenging for me to say that) but to keep my lower back at a < 3/10 pain level.

After what i posted last week, I am shy to comment that this race went well. You know sometimes all your fears are 75% in your head, and sometimes your fears are just that. False Events Appearing Real. I love that. Rich used to tell me that all the time. Don't be scared. Fear is just a waste of energy. So onward.

Swim: I have no idea my time( not a garmin swimmer) , but it was slow. I had to often look up and do breast stroke bc even with bilateral breathing the water was coming every which way. I just plugged along till i got to the turn buoy. The Oly race had already been delayed as the Half started first and at least one gal was pulled bc she was hyperventilating. A canoe capsized. It wasn't a pleasant day on the lake but we had wetsuits on ( even thought it was 76 deg so it was toasty) and the likelihood of this race ever being non wetsuit is nil. I don't think in the history of this race this has ever happened. Never say never but I like non wetsuit
( Any wetsuit hurts my back) but i was happy to have it on today. Coming back i drifted ( The wind was a head cross and a tail cross) so likely I did a few extra meters. LOL. I wondered why there were people swimming at me. Oops.  Well I was in the first wave so yup, my bad, it was oncoming waves.   READ MORE

Photo (L-R) - Cheryl Zitur, Christel Kippenhan, Julia Wesibecker.