The Race I Almost Did Not Finish

So coming into this weekend, my ultimate goals were to put up some final team qualifying times for world championships, in addition to [clicks tongue] I wanted to do another individual strong.

I left here last- or not last June, but in June, feeling like I had some unfinished business.

Like, I had a time that was slower than I'm, I'm used to.

Of course, it was still a great time.

Not upset about it, but I was like, "You know what? I could, I could do better than that." Like, I'd love to put up something a little bit faster, um, even though I know that I'm, I'm safe.

I'm probably qualified elite.

Like, there's nothing to really worry about.

I just, I wanted to do that for me.

So that was another goal that I had that was weighing on me coming into this weekend.

[clicks tongue] And so a lot of my training block prepared me for certain stations that I really wanted to intentionally focus on.

So overall, even, like, the week before, I felt springy.

I felt athletic.

I felt primed.

My engine was revving.

I was like, "This is, this is gonna be good." Like, I felt confident.

Didn't feel a ton of pressure coming into this weekend.

Get to Thursday, travel day.

We wake up at thir-third, or, sorry, we wake up at 3:30 AM in the morning to go catch our flight only to find out that our flight is delayed by an hour and that we're probably gonna miss our connection if we decide to stick with that flight.

So considering that I was [chuckles] running a workshop later that evening and they were expecting my presence, I was like, "You know what? We should probably see if there's other options so that we can for sure be there on time." So didn't really get great sleep coming into travel day.

Travel day was pretty darn long.

You try to do the best that you can to fuel while you're traveling and on the plane for several hours, but at the end of the day, when looking back on reflection, did not get enough calories in.

You know, did the best that I could, but even then, you know, once we got to Connecticut, [clicks tongue] it was get into the car, drive for an hour, get to the gym, run a workshop for two hours, get home, wait to make dinner, and then not eat until 9:00 PM.

So travel day, as far as, like, fueling and being the best rested, probably wasn't there.

So not ideal in terms of that.

Again, not an excuse, but definitely a factor.