My race began at 9:30, so I woke up around 6 and ate some oatmeal, a banana, a luna bar, and some coffee. The transport to the race came and picked me up from my hotel at around 745 to go to the race start and I drank a water bottle with a salt tab on the way. Once I was at the race site, I watched some of the boys race but was mainly concentrating on making sure I did everything I needed to do. Having never gone through these steps before, I was making sure I had my transition set up and got all my markings/photos/check ins done. With about 30 minutes to go until the race start, I did my swim warm up and had a GU and then waited for the start line call.
As I look back on the moments before the start, I realize that I wasn't in the race mind set. I didn't even feel the normal pre-race nerves that I usually feel, it was more a sort of shell-shocked feeling, where I was almost frozen. The horn went off and instead of being in attack mode I was in "lets see how this goes mode" and I didn't get into a great position for the swim. For the most part it was one big pack for the swim, but I was in the back of that pack. Going into my next race in a couple of weeks, I plan to be much more aggressive for the swim start so that I can get into better position coming out of the water. I got onto the bike with one other girl and there were two packs up ahead of us. I was trying to bridge the gap alone, rather thank work with the other girl, which tired me out and then I ended up riding alone for 3.5 of the 5 laps. Another learning lesson!-work with people around you. I finished the race with a strong run, and was able to catch a few of the girls ahead of me to put me in 10th at the finish. I'm overall very happy with this race and am glad for all of the things I learned. I think even this one experience gives me so much more confidence in myself going into this upcoming season. I know that Clermont is going to be very competitive and I'm really excited to go and race hard!!
Also- I must say that the atmosphere in Barbados surrounding the race was awesome. There is an overall laid back attitude there which I think definitely helped calm my pre-race nerves. The race organizers set up all of my transportation and did a really great job of promoting the event to the locals so that they would come out to the race.
