I was fortunate enough to head up to beautiful Anderson, South Carolina a few weeks ago with my good friends
Chloe,
Kristen, Summer,
Ryan Oilar and of course the Rev3 crew. Although I'm an east coaster, I have never been fortunate enough to spend much time in this area. And let me tell you it is gorgeous! I've never seen more cotton fields and confederate flags in my life :)
Going into the weekend with a severe grade II calf strain, I changed my OLY distance race to an aqua bike half. Not worth taking a chance in my opinion. For awhile, I was contemplating on whether or not I should even do anything. I kept reminding myself it was ONLY a training weekend. In the back of my mind, I though the Miami 70.3 was still in my future. I had high hopes that it would still happen.
Anyway it was an amazing weekend with great friends. It definitely didn't feel much like a race weekend....more of a girly-triathlon weekend. In fact, there isn't really much to say about the race itself. My mantra was "take-it-easy... DO NOT race... don't let your ego hurt your calf". It worked for the most part.
Both my swim and bike were pretty slow. And as I ran barefoot through T1 I experienced a few sharp calf stabs that quickly reminded me that I was still hurt. Those few sharp pains successfully created enough fear going on to the bike to hold back the adrenaline. But wow was it humbling.... I have never done a race half-heartedly or hurt before. Luckily the beautiful, challenging, and somewhat technical course helped distract me..... and helped me focus on enjoying the training day and gorgeous creation around me. After the first half of the course, I was pain free and sick of getting passed and decided to kick it up a small notch. In the end, my time was still embarrassingly slow. On a larger scale, I stuck to my plan and didn't hurt my healing body. I would call it a "W" for the day.
If you are looking for a late season half I highly recommend this race. The swim, bike, and run course are all gorgeous this time of year :)
Although this definitely wasn't my race, I'm thankful for the quality time I was able to spend with these rockstar ladies ;)
How much fun was that? I grew up in Greenville and used to go to Freedom Weekend Aloft as a kid, the whole weekend is a really special time. Anderson does have plenty of cotton fields. it's a neat part of the state to visit, but you don't want to live there.
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