Nautica South Beach Race!

Whew! No crashing, but a solid race! I am thankful to have another race under my belt since Sarasota where I had a fall on the bike. Nautica was run very well. I really like this race venue! It was fun to have Kattie and AD around racing too.
Before heading down to Miami, Ross and I stayed up in Ft. Lauderdale for a couple of nights. We got to swim at the International Hall of Fame Pool again. It is fun to do some long course swimming there. I also rode up in Boca Raton-there was a great stretch of road along the beach that worked great for pre-race riding (Aron from Village Bike Shop gave us the recommendation to ride there--thanks Aron!). It felt SOOOO nice to be outdoors riding...and to be hot! We don't know that feeling yet up here in Michigan. 2 nights before the race we headed down to Miami and stayed a couple blocks away from Southbeach. Miami sure is a hoppin' place. I don't know if it is ever quiet around there! It is even tricky trying to find a place to run at 4:15 in the morning for race warm ups. I mean seriously, the sidewalks are not clear this early in the morning-we have to find streets that just have shops and are closed for the night to be out of the way of people. Kinda crazy! We get some funny looks walking around in running and biking gear at this time of morning...haha.
Anyway, I was glad to have an early morning race so I could try out my pre-race morning routine again. I added in my Generation UCAN for my pre-race meal and that worked GREAT. It was really easy to get down quickly (it can be hard to eat sometimes when I am nervous!). So I liked that.
It was definitely breezing race morning and this made me nervous for the swim! gulp. I wasn't sure how much to warm up in the waves, but I got a good feel and told those waves what was up and got ready to go! We didn't start with the men this time-last year we did. The count down happened and I ran into the water quickly and had a really odd dive into the water--oops--there was a quick drop off. I saw that I was right there with the other girls I lined up by, which was a good feeling. I made it straight out to the first buoy okay, but it was so hard to get a good breathing rhythm. I had a lot of quick inhalations at unexpected times from the timing of the waves. That was tough. I just had to try my best to find a groove and tell myself to relax over and over. I had a lot of shallow breaths too. My diaphragm felt really cramped after the swim. I had a double side ache for the 2nd half of the run and I am pretty sure the swim had a role in this. Anyway, I came out of the water in a good spot-about 6th, but I was close to the others. Cool! I was happy that my swim was solid in the waves! Good experience for me-it was a new challenge. I hopped on the bike and wasn't sure how this was going to feel since I haven't been able to train outside. I had a solid ride, nothing out of the park, but I stuck to my targets. It was great to riding amongst palm trees, a lot of water, and in the warm weather. I made sure to thank God just to be out there! After the bike, I wasn't sure how my legs would feel, but not too bad! I was able to find my legs ok and got in a groove. I just tried to stick to my targets again and surge to make sure I wasn't just settling at a "comfortable" pace. I knew I was pretty behind first 3 girls and I had gotten passed once on the bike. I could still see this person in front of me so I knew she was up there. I ended up finding her on the run turn around and just did my best to close the gap. I had to work for it-had to decide to go for it. My side aches were not helping though. I don't usually have that problem so it was a different pain to endure. I had some noisy breathing to try and get them to calm down. I am sure the people I ran by liked that. :) haha. So, I ended up passing the girl that was in 4th because she was having some issues with the heat. This put me in 5th at the time. Then the current 4th place girl was RIGHT there! I ran my best to get her (she didn't know I was coming!) and I almost, almost got her as we were rounding the finish line. I couldn't quite close the gap in time though. It was fun to try-nice to get some aggression out there! :) I took 5th and made the podium...yay! I definitely felt rusty on the bike and run yet, but that will come around. Nice to have a solid swim under my belt! Lifetime Fitness did a great job with the race. My next Lifetime Fitness race will be Lifetime Minneapolis. Great race too. If you ever want a fun, warm, well-run early season race---check out Nautica South Beach! Pictures to come soon!