Pre South Shore

Having had dinner, my attention turns to preparing for tomorrow's South Shore Triathlon. After deciding to focus on road races only, I was offered a chance to participate in the event on a relay team. I will do the road portions of the race so I will not have to concern myself with the swim. In the future, when my skills are stronger, I will take on the water again, but for now, the focus is the road. I am looking forward to crushing my portions tomorrow. My friend, Andrew Murray, has volunteered to guide me. He has previously done this race and was the one who insisted I give it a shot. This will be his first time guiding in a race. I am sure he is nervous. I know for a fact, he is also excited. He has been the one who has been telling me how we are going to crush it. I tend to be more conservative in my goal setting and in my confidence prior to a race. I do not like to be overly confident and do not want to be arrogant either. I am excited about tomorrow because the distances are short. the bike will be 20K and the run will be 5K. I can truly get out and just push. I am thrilled that I can let it all hang out on the course. My goals heading into the race are to maintain over 20MPH on the bike and stay around eight minutes per mile on the run. Of course, if the opportunity presents itself to push even harder in either discipline, I want to reach down and do just that. Andrew believes we can do better and so he has been encouraging me to trust how I feel on race day. If I am stronger than I thought, then push until I have nothing let. I think the distances are short enough that I can do that. If I do not feel at full strength then the plan will have to be revised, but I would rather not worry about that instead, I choose to trust that I will be ready to ride and run fast and faster if need be.

Thank you to Keri Schindler and Melissa Stockwell of Dare2Tri Chicago Paratriathlon Club for the chance to race on the team for this event. Thank you to Andrew is very ecstatic about guiding for the first time in a race. I am also looking forward to sporting a couple pins from my friend, Wanda's Cobar Collections. She is a talented beautiful designer who has entrusted me to represent her work. I hope I do so in fine fashion. Helmet, clothes, and tether are set. Now time to rest. Saturday will be a big day. A fun race plus it is the anniversary of the day I lost my sight. Plenty of emotions will be on display at the race.